Secrets They KeepRating: 2 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Sam has been openly gay since he was in high school. After a gay bashing attempt by the jocks at school was thwarted by Ty, the two became the best of friends, despite Ty being straight. Later, as adults, after Ty tells Sam of his problem with maintaining an erection when he’s with a woman, they engage in a night of drinking that ends with the two of them waking up in bed together. As they say, the rest is history… or is it?

Ty is a former soldier turned surgeon. Offered a fellowship, he will spend the next twelve months traveling around the country studying under the best surgeons. The only hitch is that he has to leave his boyfriend behind. Oh, and did he fail to mention that his ex-girlfriend is also being given the same fellowship opportunity?

While Ty is off on his fellowship, Sam remains behind to work on getting his new gym up and running. He will have to content himself to a few days a month that he gets to spend with Ty, except jealousy rears its ugly head when he finds out Ty’s ex is back in the picture. Can these two survive a year of a long-distance relationship?

This is one of those stories that I dread reviewing. I know the author poured his heart and soul into this book, and there is very little that I can say that is positive – which is hard for me because I love reading self-published books. Unfortunately, this book is in need of some serious editing.

This story is written in a style that reads like a movie script. There is a lot of dialogue and not a whole lot of setting. Then when there is a setting, it doesn’t quite make a lot of sense. For instance, they head off skiing and it is the middle of summer – which would be fine if we were talking somewhere in Australia or maybe the Swiss Alps, but the story was set somewhere in the United States…I think. Which leads to a whole other set of problems with the whole fellowship/Mister versus Doctor thing going on, which alerts readers to the fact that the writer isn’t familiar with the whole difference between the USA and other countries when it comes to the medical field.

The main characters are Ty and Sam. Ty is a former soldier turned surgeon and has been given the opportunity to train with the best surgeons in the United States. Unfortunately, it means that Ty and Sam will be apart most of the year. While Sam is happy that Ty is being given this opportunity, he is insecure knowing that Ty’s old girlfriend will be partaking in the same experience. Meanwhile, Sam is keeping the home fires burning while he stays home and works towards opening a second gym with a new manager who reminds him a lot of Ty.

The sex scenes in this book are plentiful and border on BDSM at times. Unfortunately, for me as a reader, these scenes were more erotic in nature than romantic. In fact, I wasn’t seeing a whole lot of “romance” between these two guys, just a lot of sex in positions that didn’t always make a whole lot of sense.

As for the storyline itself, it takes a bunch of twists and turns to the point where as a reader, I had no idea where this story was going. For instance, the author added in this whole bit about Ty and his dad’s depression, and while readers will recognize some of the same traits in Ty, we aren’t sure as to why we are being told this information. Then the ending itself made absolutely no sense to me as it focuses on an old letter between Ty’s dad and a woman he used to date, leaving readers without any real closure between Sam and Ty.

Overall, as written, I cannot recommend this book. I think that the author had a great storyline premise, I just think that it needs some work on the delivery.

Wendy sig