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The Family We Make (Kaje Harper)

The Family We Make - Kaje Harper

When I first saw the length of this book, I must admit that I was a bit worried. I mean, I am too used to novels in M/M genre for being around 50k - 75k. So a novel of 150k is like a "monster book" in my opinion. Even if I read some of lengthier novels in mainstream category (I pretty much inhaled those Rick Riordan's books) but I'm not sure if this one will be offering quite enough balance between story and drama.

Well, I guess that taught me a lesson to believe in Kaje Harper.

Because guess what, - that was perfect for ME. Just MY kind of book. My first reaction when I reached "The End" ... "What do you mean there are no more chapters??! I want more updates on these people!!". To think that it was lengthier side of a novel to begin with should show you how much I LOVED this.

My biggest admiration from this story was how Kaje Harper treated her characters. While she wrote about some of the familiar issues when it came to contemporary romance: fear of coming out, family that don't accept their son sexuality, a young man who resort to being on the road and trade sexual favors to survive ... but it never became a cliché for me. And I've read thousands M/M stories already.

Kaje was thoughtful and careful, she wrote nuances of her characters. It was never simply black and white. And when she added another issue for her character, she didn't write it just for the sake of angst or drama. She also brought her characters to a journey of finding strength from within and from others. It was such joy to read. I felt like I was reading about PEOPLE, not just two-dimensional characters.

I loved everything about this... Rick, Travis, Sam, Jeff, Dora (though I cringed every time I read her name, I mean really, doesn't "Dora The Explorer" come to your mind? LOL). They have their stories to share with me and I was gladly sit there and embraced them. Almost 500 pages of them.

So it was perfect. It was a story about love and family we make and everything in between.... and I wish Kaje adds 50k words more.

So yes, I got another 5-stars read. First one since April 2014. Kaje Harper. You. Are. Awesome