Book 274: Love Comes In Darkness (Senses #2) – Andrew Grey

The second novel in Andrew Grey’s Senses series with Dreamspinner Press didn’t disappoint, but paled in comparison to the first (and third). It wasn’t as great as Love Comes Silently, but is definitely better than 95% of the M/M romance novels out there. I received a copy of this via his publicist and received no compensation for my honest response. Love Comes in Darkness definitely mad me cry, but not in the way that Love Comes Silently did.

Whereas in the first book of the series where Grey bashes your emotions until you’re so low you wonder why you’re still reading the book and then does something so over the top that you wonder how you were ever that sad, in this novel it just felt as if sadness drove the story. I don’t think this is something he actively chose to do, but that came from this story’s set-up.

This one also starts with a break up, which is HORRIBLE and I honestly hope Grey pulled it from his imagination and never read about it anywhere and that definitely set the tone for the entire novel. I’m all one for self-reflection and working on lessening our own self-doubt, but for some reason Howard, the main character, really felt like a bit of a whiny prat up until the middle of the novel after a tragic accident.

After the accident (I won’t say what it is), Howard has to make tough decisions and stop hesitating and take full responsibility for a lot of things. This made the last part of the story and the ending specifically a lot better, it didn’t hurt that Patrick and Ken (and Hannah) were back from Love Comes Silently so it was like visiting with old friends.

Where this series really shines, and I’m not quite sure how to say it politically correctly, but how Grey writes the disabled (differently abled?) characters. I was concerned, as I was with Never a Hero, there would be some fetishization of the disabilities in both of these novels, but Grey steered clear of this and even at one point does an incredibly touching thing during one of the sex scenes that even though it removes you from the scene for a minute, it’s completely worth it.

Recommendation: It’s short enough everyone could read it. The romance scenes are definitely worth it, if that’s your thing, and the story isn’t the worst, but it’s not the best either.

Opening Line: “‘You’re going too fast,’ Howard Justinian said. He sat with his arms planted on the armrest.”

Closing Line: “Howard located the portrait Ken had given him. ‘I have everything I could ever want, right here.’ Howard ran his fingertips over the portrait. His family—Gordy and Sophia. the best Christmas present ever.” (Whited out.)