Series: Links in the Chain #2
Author: Parker Williams
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Publication Date: April 16, 2019
Length: 250 pages
Reviewed by Sammy
Synopsis
A Links In the Chain Story
A rich man is about to set foot into an unknown world, while a Good Samaritan fears he’ll have to close the charity he’s spent his life building. Poised to lose it all, they might find what they need most in each other.
Son of a wealthy importer, Galen Merriweather lives to broker deals, and he’s damn good at it. But it’s getting harder to ignore the kind of man his father is—a man who would pay Galen’s brother’s lover to leave… a man who’d demand Galen retrieve a quarter-million-dollar check from a struggling homeless shelter.
Robert Kotke knows the money is too good to be true, but it’s a godsend that could help so many people. Still, he hands it over when Galen shows up. But he isn’t done with Galen yet, and he’s going to challenge everything Galen ever believed.
Galen will face an impossible decision: the redemption he’s come to realize he wants, or the life he’d always dreamed of.
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Review
Galen has spent his life pursuing his father’s approval. He
has become a person that deep down revolts him nearly as much as his father’s
behavior. But after years of having his brother being held up as the ideal and
perfect son despite his being gay, Galen is not prepared for the day his father
crosses a line he cannot stomach and his threat of resignation is met with
nasty glee by the father he cannot please. Now with all he owns tied up by his
father’s lawyers and his estranged brother rightfully hating him for the things
he has done in the past, Galen finds himself unable to get a job and constantly
tormented by the last deed he did at his father’s request—retrieve a check that
could have meant the world to one man and the faltering homeless shelter he
runs. But how does one make amends for so much wrongdoing? Galen sets out to discover
the answer and, in doing so, opens up the closet he had been tied to and finds
that he is not only a good man but one that can be loved if he will only give
himself a chance.
Galen’s Redemption
by Parker Williams is a very tender and sweet finding of self novel. I say
finding of self primarily because that is what Galen actually does—he finds the
man inside himself who has been begging to be free from the nastiness his
father has immersed him in over the years. Dealing with a viciously callous
parent is never easy but doing so while hiding your true self and always having
to be better than the sibling who somehow managed to break free is a huge job.
My heart just bled for Galen, who wore his guilt and anger like a second skin.
When he felt someone--namely Robert, the owner of the shelter, really see him
for who he was it frightened Galen even though it was something he yearned for
secretly.
To be seen—to have someone recognize there was goodness
inside him made Galen feel even more worthless while also giving him hope—and
that terrified him. It’s easier to live
with the notion that you are worthless so that the pain of someone you’ve come
to love figuring it out and leaving you doesn’t have the ability to tear you
apart. The problem is Galen is really a good guy, he’s just never been shown he
can be compassionate in business and still succeed. Instead he has been raised
by callous and cruel parents who use others like disposable chattel—is it any
wonder Galen has anger issues?
This novel has some incredibly tender and moving moments,
such as when Robert’s family embraces Galen and shows him what family really
can be like. The time spent in the shelter with the various clients also rings
with such sincerity that it will make you want to go and volunteer in one as
soon as possible. There were times when things felt a little unrealistic in
terms of how quickly and easily many seemingly insurmountable problems got
solved like the shelter’s nearly going under financially and the rather swift
way Galen’s father got his due. However, that can’t take away from the fact that
if you are looking for a romance that is hopeful and sweet then Galen’s Redemption will be the one to
read.
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I've already read Lincoln's Park and I can't wait to read Galen's story,too
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