Ami's Hoard

3.25 stars

I decided to read this short novella because Maggie Kavanagh had an upcoming novel released at the end of January. I wanted to 'sample' her writing before deciding to pre-order it since she was a new-to-me author.

For a novella, I thought Taking Flight had a good conflict. Here are two men who have been in a relationship for awhile but one is not yet ready to settle down and keep 'running back' to the battlefield. The story is written from Hunter's perspective, the one who stays behind, the one who wants to have more from the relationship. I thought Ms. Kavanaugh wrote his pain very well. The break-up sex in particular was heartbreaking

Unfortunately, this was also the story that relied on the "men-don't-talk" trope. Jake seems to step back to his shell and refuses to discuss things with Hunter when it comes to his 'issues'. I didn't really understand his reasoning that much ... I mean, "Life’s not too great for people who love me" was pretty lame of an excuse.

Since this was only a novella length, I thought it was lacking a deeper insight on to why Jake refused to settle down as well as the conflict resolution. To me, the resolution was as lame as the excuse because I didn't understand the sudden change of heart (especially since the story doesn't have Jake's perspective!). For a complicated conflict, the resolution was not really believable.

Having said that, I think I like Ms. Kavanaugh's writing (except for her choice of endearment. Baby! URGH! BLEH!). I pre-ordered her upcoming novel afterwards. Hopefully it will be a good gamble :)