leaving homeRating: 3.5 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


“Leaving home was an integral part of growing up. It was an important step to discovering who a man was to become.”

Bringing drunk, strung out men home is not Peter Skinner’s regular practice, but something about Chaz leads Peter to do just that. Peter leads a quiet life on a ranch owned by his best friends who have become his family in the past several years. And now Chaz, the beautiful broken bullfighter, has rushed into his life and Peter doesn’t know what to think of it.

Charles “Chaz” O’Brien loves his job as a bullfighter for the PBR. It’s all he’s ever wanted. He’s used to living his life in pain due to several back injuries sustained in his line of work. And he can manage as long as he has enough pain medication. Meeting Peter took Chaz by surprise. As much as he intended to only have a fling with the sweet, innocent accountant, it doesn’t take long to develop feelings for Peter.

Chaz tries to hide his drug use from Peter, but Peter is not as blind to it as he would like. Chaz refuses to see his drug use as a problem. But if he wants to keep Peter, Chaz will have to decide what is most important to him before he risks losing everything.

Finally! Finally there is new addition to this series of sexy cowboys and heart-stopping rodeos and angst-filled relationships. Fans of T.A. Chase’s Home series have been waiting a while for Peter’s story. And while I’m not at all disappointed with the way Peter’s story turned out, I do have a few issues with this book.

I like Peter – of course I do. I’ve liked Peter since his introduction in No Going Home. He’s so sweet and innocent, and maybe a little naïve and too trusting. But none of that makes him weak. In fact, he’s a very mentally and emotionally strong, relatively confident character. Chaz is the more complicated of the two. He’s happy with his life no matter what anyone thinks. He’s strong, determined, and stubborn. He’s in denial and doesn’t see his addiction taking over his life. And it takes rock bottom for him to realize he has a problem. He’s a perfectly flawed, beautiful character. And really, Peter and Chaz are great together and fit together so well. I am delighted with this relationship and how it turned out.

I enjoyed this story – the happenstance of their meeting, the angst, the focus on addiction. It’s a wonderful plot that I could see playing out in real life. It’s decently paced, but there is a lot of time skipped. Over half of the book is the first few days after meeting, when Peter and Chaz are getting to know one another, then the story skips to about two weeks later where they admit that they could fall in love with each other and then it skips again to a month or so later. I would have liked to actually see how the relationship grew throughout all of that time that was left out.

It seems that I’ve read a lot of stories lately that have focused on some sort of addiction, and this one it the first in a long time that I’ve found likable and believable. The actual addiction and reason behind it, as well as the denial and trying to hide it, the effect it has on the people around the addict, and rehabilitation and healing – it was all added and well defined in this story. And I love that. This author put a horrible situation into the light and created a beautiful story of healing and love.

So, I do have some other issues with this book. First, there are several details that don’t match up and aren’t consistent throughout the story, mostly timing issues, but they were still noticeable. And I don’t get the point of the role of Pete’s Uncle Roscoe in the story. That part of the story served no purpose, nor did it add anything to the plot. It’s frustrating and confusing.

Okay, so don’t get me wrong. Even with the noticeable issues I had with this book, I still enjoyed the story. It is sweet and angsty, and I certainly love a broken cowboy. And as always, I’m looking forward to more from this series. Hopefully, Matthew, Chaz’s brother, will get a story, and maybe Cody. Next up Yancey and Jaun. I can’t wait to finally read their story.

Note: The Home series by T.A. Chase is best if read in sequential order.

  • No Going Home
  • Home of His Own
  • Wishing for a Home
  • Leaving Home

crissy sig