No SacrificeRating: 4.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


Patrick Tearney is an actor on a popular TV show.  He’s married to a woman, Emily, who is also an actor, and has a son.  But his character on the show is gay, and when he starts to have a physical reaction to kissing his male costar, Patrick begins to question everything about his sexuality.  One night, he goes to a bar where he meets Chance Dillon.  Chance helps him see that he is actually bisexual.  It doesn’t take very long for Patrick to accept that about himself.

It turns out that Chance is a sound tech for the TV show that Patrick is on.  They begin a friendship that means a great deal to both men.  But they are also developing feelings for each other, though neither man is willing to admit it.  When Patrick travels to Vancouver to visit his wife and son, Patrick and Emily realize their spark is gone and that they were never in love the way they thought.   They end things amicably, and begin to dissolve their marriage. Patrick takes his son Avery back to LA to live with him, while Emily concentrates on shooting her own TV show.

Patrick knows that he wants to be with Chance, and finally gets the courage to ask Chance out.  Together, they fall into a fairly easy relationship.  Chance adores Avery, and takes to co-parenting really well.  It isn’t long before they realize that they are in love with each other.  Despite some issues on the set and in their lives, their love is strong and the support one another.  But when Patrick is outed by the media and his family takes the news horribly, he thinks the best thing would be to break up with Chance.  Patrick thinks he can’t be the man that Chance deserves, so he walks away, and so does Chance.  Only they are miserable without each other.  And it is only with the intervention of some well-meaning friends that they are able to see that they may just deserve each other after all.

I enjoyed a great deal about this story.  It was long, and I think it needed to be to tell the story that needed to be told.  It takes us on the entire ride, from the beginning of Patrick questioning his sexuality all the way until his well-deserved happily ever after.

I loved Patrick because he felt real.  When we first meet him he’s married to a woman, though because they are both filming separate TV shows they don’t see each other much, and it’s easy to see things aren’t working between them.  I really appreciated that the reasoning behind it was just that Patrick and Emily didn’t work, and that they parted on good terms.  Patrick questions his sexuality and comes to terms with being bi rather quickly.  I really liked that as soon as it made sense to him, he accepted it without much trouble.  He then set about pursuing who he wanted.  Though he remained in the closet, mostly to avoid scorn from his conservative Catholic family, he still knew in his heart who he was.

Chance was a big reason why Patrick was able to accept himself.  In the beginning, their relationship was easy.  They settled into a routine fairly quickly, and it really worked here. These two guys just fit.  They faced some hurdles, but they had honest discussions about their feelings.  They both understood where the other way coming from and nothing they faced was insurmountable.  Chance is incredibly supportive and has a caring nature.  He understands what Patrick is going through, and is really there for Patrick as he deals with some tough issues.  I really loved these guys together, and especially loved the way they really talked to each other about everything.

That is until Patrick’s family found out about the true nature of their relationship.  Patrick was devastated by his family’s reaction, particularly his mother.  The harsh words that were spoken were hard to hear, and my heart just broke for Patrick.  When Patrick ends things with Chance, I could understand his motivation and why he did it.  It was a little frustrating though that these two men made assumptions about what the other was thinking.  They had been so good at communication before that I had a hard time with the few weeks they were apart and not talking.  Though I could see why, it did seem a little extreme to me.

One of the things I really loved about this book were the secondary characters.  Each were so distinct and well-drawn that they could have been real people.  I always appreciate good supporting characters and Duncan gave that to us in spades.  From Patrick’s costars, to his ex-wife, not to mention both men’s family members, each one played an important role and really helped to flesh the story out.

A small problem I had was with the pacing of the story.  There were times that, for me, the story lagged.  There were several situations that seemed to repeat themselves and I found myself wondering if they were all necessary.  I also had an issue with some of the on set sex that Patrick had with two of his costars.  I didn’t see it as cheating, because they were shooting scenes for the TV show.  My issue was how far the sexual encounters went.  While the blame was placed on the director for pushing the actors for more, I still felt it had an unrealistic feel to it and that pulled me out of the story.  I couldn’t quite see that sort really happening, but that’s just my opinion.

No Sacrifice was ultimately an in depth tale of two men becoming friends, becoming lovers, and facing the obstacles that life put in their way.  I really enjoyed the characters, and loved watching them on their journey.  Duncan does a great job of giving us a really detailed story, and taking us on a great ride as two men find their happily ever after.

kris signature