4.5/5 STARS
Intentionally (or at least I felt it was intentional), it takes a while to get your bearings in this book.
Michael disappeared 5 years ago and suddenly shows back up now going by the name Sean. We get bits and pieces of Sean’s story of what happened slowly. It takes a bit to piece together what happened. Everyone thinks Michael was kidnapped, but really he ran away to escape his addicted mother. He wanted to find somewhere he felt he was noticed and mattered.
He convinced an older couple a town over to keep him hidden. He changed his hair color and barely left their property. He grew to love this couple as his family. What he wasn’t expecting was Trip, the boy next door. Trip’s parents died and now he is living with his abusive uncle. Trip visits Sean’s new house to escape his uncle. The boys become close quickly, a very strong bond between them.
Then Trip sets a plan for Sean to go home in motion earlier than expected. Sean has a trust fun from his grandparents that they plan to use to get away from Trip’s uncle. Problem is, Sean wasn’t aware of the stipulations of the trust, which very clearly state that the money is only to be used to go to a specific college or it gets donated to a charity.
While trying to figure out a loophole to gain access to his trust Sean must deal with what he left behind years ago. His mother seems to have gotten her life back together. She’s been sober for a while, is in AA, and has a steady job. His old best friend, Jenny, has been holding on to 12 year old Michael and is in love with him. He meets a new girl who was at a party shortly before he came back who knows some of his secrets. He is feeling pressure from the cops to press charges against the couple who “kidnapped” him even though he has told them several times he wasn’t kidnapped.
One of the things I really liked about this book was that Sean’s sexuality wasn’t a major plot point. Yes, he struggles with what he had with Trip and some feelings he has for another girl. But his sexuality isn’t ever really a problem. He knows he likes Trip (just not to what extent) and he knows he likes the girl. I feel like more of his problem with who he wanted to end up with was if he should take the easy route and be with the girl or the more complicated route with baggage and be with Trip. I don’t really ever think he was worried about the fact that he was choosing between a girl and a boy. The only indication that he even thought about it was when he says he’s not really surprised his mom isn’t disappointed when he tells her he loves a boy.
This book had me on edge the entire time. For a long while I was unsure we were going to get a clear cut ending. I was worried it was going to leave a lot of things unsettled. But everything was tied up nicely for the most part and I was very happy with the ending and the way things with Trip and his uncle were handled.
There is a lot of stuff in this book I didn’t touch on in this review. There is just so much good stuff packed in it’s almost hard to cover it all. But, go read this book!!
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