Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel
What would you do if all your life, you had one dream? Heath has just one plan: work on the rigs, get enough money, and purchase his boats so that one day he can run his own charter business free and clear. All he has to do is keep his head down and “keep swimming.” But that means he has no time or interest for entanglements, either female or male. That’s right, Heath is bisexual and very much in the closet—at least he was until he met Cary and then all bets were off and Heath’s neat little dream began to unravel.
Not only does Cary make him feel things he has never felt before, but Cary does not come unattached. Instead, he has Gus, a precocious bundle of three-year old joy that Heath finds himself caring for more and more. But this was never his plan, he was a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy and so he continues to hold Cary at arm’s length for way too long. So long that there is the real risk that Heath may lose everything and drown for the first time in his life.
Keep Swimming was so many things, a love story, a strangely older version of a coming of age novel, and friends to lovers saga—so much with so many sweet emotional nuances. Heath must finally come into his own. He must cast an unvarnished eye at his own life and his dreams and see how utterly selfish they have been, and figure out how he will change that and himself. It’s as if he grows up for the very first time and can understand what real love is and how much he wants and needs it—needs Cary and Gus.
Along that journey, Cary too must let go of certain expectations. First he struggles with the idea that Heath is attracted to women but will never act upon those feelings. For Cary, who was burned badly by a former partner, the idea of fully trusting anyone is difficult but if he does not, he will most assuredly ruin any chances of a happy ever after with Heath. Theirs is a delicate dance where neither partner is confident enough to lead and where both are sure things are doomed to fail.
Keep Swimming by Kade Boehme is a tender love story that explains how we must sometimes give up a dream to pursue what really makes us happy. In other words, dreams do come true, but sometimes they are dreams we barely even knew we had and the joy of that discovery is what can make life so incredibly wonderful.
