Henry's End

This is an odd duck. Not sorry I listened to it but I'm also pretty sure it's not a romance. Not in any traditional way. It's more like one man's journey and education, if you will, from young and hopeful to a HEA???

Okay so I picked this up because I liked the sample and It's in the romance package, which somehow translates as free to me; also I've seen some high ratings for it. I'm on the fence. I don't know that traditional MM readers will be happy with this or really anyone who expects a romance between a couple's first meeting to their HEA. I'll give a brief synopsis trying not to be too spoilerish but I'll hide as a spoiler nonetheless.

Some of the story The book starts with Henry Clark flying back to his home in California from a wedding in NYC. He's annoyed because he met someone who, by his conversation, brought to the fore dreams he thought abandoned and forgotten. From there, and at first not too clearly, it's a big flashback to young Henry making his way in the world as a successful pharmaceutical rep and finding his swimming in the deep pool of the San Diego gay scene of the 90's. The place is nirvana for Henry who loves men in uniform and men who take charge. It's not BDSM, he just likes forceful guys and he's an eager bottom. At a local gay bar he meets Edwin, an older gay man who will become a friend and almost father figure, as his family is basically non existent. He also meets Cody, which is the personification of his wet dreams, until something bad happens, and then something worse. But life goes on, and Henry, with the help of his friend Scooner, he finds love and hope again in the person of Quinn, a hot Irish SD Police officer. (Scooner is from [b:Searching For Moore|18071924|Searching For Moore (Needing Moore, #1)|Julie A. Richman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1371131191s/18071924.jpg|24239569], which is a related series, but you don't need to read those books, which are M/F, to follow this.) All this is fine, and some of it is romantic, hopeful, and fun. The believable experiences of a young gay man in 90's America. However .... ANOTHER shitty thing happens, such is life, but it felt almost gratuitous. I figured, by the prologue that sh*t was going to hit the fan, and this was awful, but my complaint is that we jump from a devastated Henry to present day when we're dropped into the head of a new narrator, Seth, who will become Henry's new +1. What we don't get is Henry's P.O.V. again, when the story has been all about him and has been for the last 75% of the book. We don't get to find out how Henry crawled out of the last bad thing that happened and suddenly this Seth person is his person, after a few half hearted similarities to Quinn. Umm ... NO. It's okay to move on, but show us how, why etc.

As for the rest I can say that I liked the first 3/4, though I'm pretty adamant that it's not a romance. There is no main couple or love affair, there's one in the middle, but it's seems just to be part of Henry's story. Technically there's a HEA, but if you believe that I've also got sand in the dessert for sale. The writing reminded me of one of those progressive, yet absolutely PSA movies of the 90's, which isn't horrible. Overall this was a case of diminishing enjoyment both in AB and story as the book progressed. Really a missed opportunity. I really liked Henry, the character, but it seems that he's just one of those characters who loomed large in separate series, and either readers or the author were curious about him, but in the end he wasn't done right by the author. Too bad. This is worse than an outright bad book.