Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Release Day Review: Where There's A Will Deanes by Sean Kennedy #Review #Giveaway




Title: Where There's A Will Deanes
Series: Get Out book 4
Author: Sean Kennedy
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publication Date: April 16, 2019
Length: 196 pages

Reviewed by Sammy

Synopsis


Micah Johnson is coming back to Melbourne, and the story of him and his friends is coming to an end.

Or will it be a new beginning?

Will Deanes and Micah Johnson have a past, one that ranges from bitter enemies to best friends. There might be an undercurrent of something else, but Micah remains oblivious, and all Will can do is try to move on.

Except now Micah’s returning to Melbourne full-time, and that means they can’t avoid each other or the tensions that arise. Will is still dealing with an injury that ended his football career, while Micah’s continues to thrive. As they face highs, lows, and family tragedies, they’ll have to get to know each other all over again. Will Micah see that Will means much more to him than a friend?




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Review

What if you were secretly in love with your best friend? The same friend who you once bullied because you couldn’t accept that you also were gay and scared to be out like they were? So much baggage—so much guilt. Poor Will Deanes is in love with his best friend Micah Johnson—the same rising star in the footy world who’s now  moving back home to play with a professional team. Not only has Will been forced to leave the sport he loves due to a freak accident which has left him permanently scarred and in pain but now he will also have to deal with the man he loves being so close and still unattainable. Micah may be moving home but he’s still got a boyfriend and is seemingly oblivious to the fact that Will is in love with him.

Author Sean Kennedy has released his fourth novel in the Get Out series entitled, Where There’s a Will Deanes and it is just as brilliant as the others. With the irrepressible and sometimes stupidly unaware Micah Johnson as the love interest to the quieter, caring Will Deanes there is bound to be some heartache and Kennedy does not let you down. He allows his characters to grapple with the very realistic idea that two best friends can and do fall in love; he also brings to light the idea that they may very well avoid that love because of a fear that it will ruin their friendship. As someone who fell in love with her best friend and never acted on it, I can tell you this theme really does ring true. The way in which Mr. Kennedy allows for Will to grapple with the idea that not only could he lose Micah should he admit how much he likes him but that Will still struggles with how he bullied Micah many years previous due to his own fear of being gay and found out was so spot on and heart wrenching to read.

With the familiar gang of side characters which include Declan, Simon and Emma and a host of others this novel really felt like coming home for me. I so enjoy the world this author has created and the people he chose to inhabit it. Sean Kennedy has created a family that will call each other out, when necessary, but always have each other’s backs. Poor Will is partly a case of raging hormones—I’m thinking of his crush on his Uncle’s partner here and part martyr—never really letting go of what he did to Micah even though everyone else, including Micah, has moved on. But rather than make his guilt something he merely holds onto, Kennedy uses it in order to reveal some startling and poignant truths about how closeted youth can sometimes hide their fear of being outed behind anger and destructive behavior. Will’s speech near the end of the novel was both heartbreaking and cleansing and everything his character and other teens need to hear and understand if they are ever to be free of the closet that threatens to consume them.

Where There’s a Will Deanes was a powerfully funny and emotionally charged novel that nails the idea that we can so often be our own worst enemy when we hide behind our fear and self-recriminations. This story give hope to those who worry that things may never get better and reminds us all that sometimes taking a chance brings us everything we desire.







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