Sole Support

*I am putting an asterisk next to any reviews written during the COVID-19 emergency, since my emotions are all over the place and my rational mind seems to have taken a hike.

This book deeply engaged me at a time when I needed to be thinking about something other than current reality, so I'm giving it 4 stars. I can't say it was very romantic; it felt more like the male equivalent of Women's Fiction, with the romance being only one part of a larger plot. Also Kellen was emotionally closed off for 95% of the book (with good reason, but still it pained me to see him continue to refer to his relationship with Mike as friends-with-benefits when it was obvious that Mike was in love with him). And Mike was a sweetheart (who doesn't love a socially awkward virgin MC in his late 30s?) but perhaps it wasn't the best idea to describe him as looking like Woody Allen (although the book may have been written before Allen became such a controversial figure).

Kellen's struggles with his mother's rapidly worsening dementia are gut-wrenching and realistic, made more acute because he has no other family members to help him. It certainly makes for sometimes grim reading, but at least he is able to get to a more stable, manageable situation that allows him room to open his heart to Mike.

Definitely not a fluffy love story, but well-written and obviously a topic that was very close to the author's personal life at the time.