#BookReview- When You Come Back to Me by @EmmaS_Writes #MMRomance #amreading

Blurb from Amazon.com

When You Come Back To Me is a standalone contemporary m/m romance in the Lost Boys series of interconnected standalones from USA Today bestselling author Emma Scott that will shatter your heart before putting it back together.

At Santa Cruz Central High School, they called them the misfits, the outcasts, the weirdos. But most of us knew them as the Lost Boys…

Holden Parish survived his parents’ horrific attempts to make him “the perfect son.” After a year’s stint in a Swiss sanitarium to recover, he has vowed to never let anything–or anyone–trap him again. Brilliant but broken, he seeks refuge behind alcohol, meaningless sex, and uses his wicked sense of humor to keep people away. He only has to ride out one year in the coastal town of Santa Cruz with his aunt and uncle before he inherits his billions and can make his escape. Disappear.

Falling in love is not in the plans.

River Whitmore. Star quarterback of the Central High football team, Prom King, Mr. Popular, ladies’ man. He leads the perfect life…except it’s all a lie. His father has River’s future in the NFL all planned out, while River’s dream is to run the family business in the town that he loves. But his mother’s illness is tearing the family apart and River is becoming the glue that holds them together. How can he break his father’s heart when it’s already shattering?

River’s carefully-crafted façade explodes when he meets Holden Parish. A guy who dresses in coats and scarves year-round, drinks expensive vodka, and spends his free time breaking into houses for the fun of it. They’re complete opposites. River seeks a quiet life, away from the spotlight. Holden would rather have dental surgery than settle down.

Holden’s demons and River’s responsibilities threaten to keep them apart, while their undeniable attraction crashes them together again and again, growing into something deep and real no matter how they resist.

Until one terrible night changes everything.

Biography

Emma Scott is a USA Today and Wall St. Journal bestselling author whose books have been translated in five languages and featured in Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, New York Daily News and USA Today’s Happy Ever After. She writes emotional, character-driven romances in which art and love intertwine to heal, and in which love always wins. If you enjoy emotionally-charged stories that rip your heart out and put it back together again, with diverse characters and kind-hearted heroes, you will enjoy her novels. Visit http://www.emmascottwrites.com

My Review

Gut-wrenchingly perfect!

Holden Parish has already been through hell thanks to his loving parents brutal solution to his gayness. Shipped off to his aunt and uncle’s, he’s determined to bide his time until he’s eighteen, receive his inheritance, and disappear. Meanwhile, he may as well piss his family off with his drinking and meaningless sex- and maybe drown his demons if he’s lucky.

River Whitmore loves his family and will do whatever it takes to make them proud. Even though he wants nothing more than to restore cars and help his dad at their garage, he puts that on hold to go after his father’s dream for him, the NFL. With his mother suffering a critical illness, River doesn’t want to rock the boat.

Which makes it doubly hard when he meets and is instantly attracted to Holden Parish, the damaged teen new to their school. River fights against his feelings even as his heart urges him to take a chance while Holden does everything he can to sabotage his standing in the high school.

Can two men with so much emotional baggage find a way to go after the happiness they deserve?

This story broke my heart in so many ways. I can’t imagine any parent knowingly sending their child to what is basically a torture camp because he might have different values than theirs.

And River, trying so hard to be strong for his family even though he was being torn in two by falling for the wrong person.

Emm Scott has done a lot to open her readers’ eyes to serious injustice in our world. What gives any of us the right to weigh judgement on another person’s beliefs, whether politics, religion, or sexuality?

What happened to freedom of choice?

This is a must-read series ❤