Dear TJ,
As I read the last words of The Long and Winding Road, I tried to think of how best to review
the book. Of course, I gave it five stars on Goodreads. I think I’ve given
every book in the BOATK series five
stars. But how to put into words what the book and the series meant to me? That
was the tough part. So I thought I would just write a letter to you.
I discovered Bear,
Otter, and the Kid accidently. I was just discovering the “wide” world of
gay literature, and had developed an affinity for stories where one of the main
characters is raising a kid. Usually they were a kid from a one night affair
with a woman or they were a nephew/niece or what have you, but yours was
different. And the story was different. I immediately fell in love with Bear,
his little brother Ty, and the love of Bear’s life, Otter. I also fell in love
with their family. I think the fact that it was set in a town based on my home
town of Seaside, OR also immediately connected me to the story and the
characters.
Your characters aren’t ripped muscle gods who can do no
wrong, though Otter comes close, and they aren’t werewolves and vampires who
struggle with alphas and betas and what have you, which is fine for others, and
those stories have their places. But your characters in the BOATK series, and also the Tell Me It’s Real series, are real
people. I can see these people existing in the world. I want to be friends with
these people. Hell, I want to marry Otter and have his babies. That realism is what
makes readers invest in your books as much as we do. It is what makes you a
great author.
When I read The Art of
Breathing, it was during the start of a really bad period of my life. My
anxiety issues had never been as bad as they had, and I felt like no one
understood. Reading how you wrote Ty’s anxiety issues and how he dealt with
them was so realistic. I had never read or seen anything in fiction come close
to touching on how anxiety makes you feel like that. I felt like anxiety
finally had a voice. That’s something you did. It is another thing that makes
you a great author.
I can’t lie. When I read that the fourth book would be the
last, I was devastated. As a fan of soap operas, I like my stories to go on and
on and on. But, realistically I know that sometimes the stories have to come to
an end. And so when The Long and Winding
Road came out, I steeled myself. I knew it was going to wreck me. I knew I
wasn’t going to be ok saying goodbye to these characters who had become like family
to me. These characters whose stories I had read and reread over and over. But
I knew I had to read those last words of their stories.
Thank you. Thank you for ending it the way it should have
ended. Thank you for not wrapping things up in a nice little bow. Thank you for
not just sending them off into the sunset. Even though their fictional, it’s
nice to think that they’ll continue on with their lives even without us readers
peeking in on them. I’ll still reread the series from time to time. I don’t
know how often I’ll reread the last book though. Because the last book did
wreck me. It did have me pulling some Wookie crying face. Some loud sobbing in
my bed in the middle of the night like most of the other books. But I’ll reread
it. Because these characters mean that much to me. And that’s what makes you a
great author.
Your works, besides these two series, mean the world to me
TJ. Thank you for being the guy you are. Thank you for being willing to be
interviewed for my Bachelor’s Degree paper on gay literature five years ago. Thank
you for continuing to be there for your fans while also establishing that you
are a real person that is allowed to have a life. Thank you for knowing how
much these characters mean to us all. Thank you.
Goodreads: The Long and Winding Road
