Title: Surfacing
Author Name & Publisher: Daniel Stephens (Wild Rose Press)
Publication Date & Length: April 27, 2016 – 226 pgs
Used to luxurious, high-profile city life, Chris’s world is shattered when tragedy takes his husband and young son. Seeking a life free from pain, Chris returns to his grandfather’s cabin on the shores of Wolf Thorn Lake, Maine.
When Chris meets Jake, the earthy young man who resides across the lake, Chris faces his most challenging decision yet. Does he continue his life alone, or does he risk his heart and the potential of love he sees illuminated in Jake’s warm eyes?
A young man running from pain, a rural free spirit with the ability to heal, and a wolf who haunts the shore-line of Wolf Thorn Lake illustrate the endurance of the human heart, the capacity to learn how to love again, and the heart’s ability to restore even the most wounded of men.
This is a book about coming home again. A book about finding your way into the light after being in the dark for too long. It’s a book about letting go of the past and looking to the future. It is a book about letting go of fear and learning to love again.
It is an amazing book and has so much depth too it.
Jake has been to H€LL and back. He lost his husband and son at the same time to a drunk driver. When he lost them he quit living. He just remained in the time and space but he did not really participate in life any longer. Jake decides to go back home to his grandfathers cabin and try to get on with his life. He never expects to meet Chris. He never expects that the past will follow him and that in order to move in with his life he has to walk out of the darkness and I to the light again.
Chris sees that Jake is struggling and that he is not over the grief of losing his husband and son and he also sees that Jake is drowning in it. Chris tries to be there for Jake but Jake pushed him away each time he lets him get close. It is a constant tug of rope where Jake is concerned.
This was a very emotional read. I enjoyed it so much. Watching these two characters come together even though it was not easy was truly amazing.
Tosha
This is my first book by this author and it was very different them what I’m used to. I really didn’t understand the wolf thing but overall it was a really a great story. This book starts a year and a half after Chris lost his husband and his son in a tragic car accident. This was a story about hope and strength and finding new love. As I read I found myself feeling the loss that Chris was feeling. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see what Chris was going through. I really love an author that can put show much feeling into written word. It really makes for a really good book. This was also a story about hope and finding new love. I had an immediate connection with Chris and immediately fell in love with Jake. I highly recommend this story.
Lynn
This is a story of grief and new hope. Chris’ grief is wrenching and overwhelming at the start of the story and there are times where honesty of his grief makes this a difficult book to read.
The grief in this book is tempered by a hope of new beginnings and the beauty of the New England setting.
I really loved the lyrical quality of the writing in this story. Some passages are really beautiful to read and some of the descriptions are incredibly moving. But while the prose was moving, there were times I found that I lost the story to the description.
I remain ambivalent about the Native American mysticism in this story but I did love the quirky characters in Chris’ new rural community and I enjoyed the contrast of New England with his New York life.
The central romance didn’t always work for me. Jake felt saint-like at times, putting up with Chris’ self-pity and inner turmoil, but again, grief is ugly and the author works hard to make Chris’ journey honest, even if that doesn’t quite make the leading man heroic or even likeable.
This is a difficult book. Honest grief is difficult to read and I’m sure it is difficult to write. However, there are some beautiful moments that make this story worth reading.
The blurb for this book made me want to read the book right off the bat. The first few chapters were good, I really got into the book and then it took a strange turn. The whole wolf legend threw me off and the way the author tried to write as if they were writing poetry or something. I can’t put my finger on it but it just took a nose dive for me. I wanted more Chris and Jake and less of all the other stuff. I found myself skimming the book at times because some of it was just going on and on about mother nature, the wolf lore, etc.
Angie
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