Better Than Safe

“Find the meaning of the act
Remember how it goes
Every time you take to water
You swim against the flow
And the world is all around us
And the days are flying past
And fear is so contagious
But I'm not afraid to laugh

I could go at anytime
There's nothing safe about this life
I could go at anytime”

The lyrics to this Neil Finn song became a refrain as I was reading this book, the last entry in the BETTER THAN series, because it's what Paul learns in the course of his stumbling kicking and screaming into love with Seth.

I'm so happy I read this series and so happy that this last book brought us full circle to where we began: people taking dives off the deep end of the pool, taking chances, shifting from and established course and finding everything they never thought they needed on the other shore.

Lane Hayes does a brilliant job writing about a lifestyle and group of people she evidently knows well and it shows. It seems that many writers in MM or other genres think that they need to write about abuse or drug addiction or something else equally dramatic to have a good story and somehow epically fail because it comes off as insincere or shallow. Some of the characters in this series have had less than stellar coming out stories and pasts that have been painful but at the point where these stories pick up they are all, even if unknowingly, ready to be happy even if that requires taking terrifying chances.

Paul whom we met as Curt's sometime date in Better Than Friends is the only child of a selfish artist and his muse and the ex of a current enfant terrible of the British Art Scene so it isn't a wonder that he is more than wary of starting a relationship with Seth, a beautiful sometimes model, sometimes rock musician, full time aspiring artist who as an extra bonus is 11 years his junior.

The journey Paul and Seth take is beautiful and warmed my heart and I loved how the voice of sanity was more often than not Seth and I loved that Paul was able to do the very hardest thing we all have to do to be truly happy: let the past live in the past, embrace our present with both hands because it is the most precious thing we have.

Once again BRAVO to Tyler Stevens for the brilliant narration.

Spending time with the core friends that comprise the Better Than series is like the embrace of your favorite terry cloth robe on a chilly afternoon. Perfect. ;-)

p.s. I HATE SIMON WITH A PASSION.