Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Universal Link
Exclusive to Amazon and Available to Borrow with Kindle Unlimited
Cover Design: Black Jazz Design
Blurb
MicahTrouble is, even if Sam likes me back, I ain’t fit to be no one’s boyfriend. I don’t know how. All I do is wade through every precious moment and hope that he doesn’t regret the day he ever met me.
I’m a broke ex-football player with a bum leg and PTSD. Last summer, I had two choices: the streets, or find a cheap room to rent in the city. I chose the second option, which landed me with a brand-new problem, cos I hadn’t banked on my roommate becoming my best friend. Or that before long I’d find myself head over heels in love with him.
Sam
I’m a gay book nerd with no business falling in love with hunky athletes. Micah is the dictionary definition of beautiful, inside and out, he just doesn’t know it. And he definitely doesn’t know I’m ridiculously in love with him. The embarrassing kind of love.
He’s all I can think about.
But it’s not as simple as loving someone who doesn’t love me back. Micah is damaged goods—at least, that’s how he’d put it. The world has chewed him up and spat him out, and he thinks he deserved it. That he’s still the battered mess he was a year ago.
I want to shake him, and shout in his face that he’s not. To force the truth on him and make him believe in himself the way I do. But I can’t save Micah. One day, perhaps he’ll realise that he already saved himself.
Karen's review:
About the author:
When it comes to writing stories about people that have been battered and left broken by life Garrett Leigh is one of the best.
I loved ‘Kiss Me Again’ it was one of the most endearing books that I’ve read/listened to and reviewed in a very long time and while ‘Falling For My Roommate’ didn’t engender quite the feels that ‘Kiss Me Again’ did from me, it still proved to be a story that was not only worth reading but has me once again looking forward to an audio version.
Micah is an ex-football player whose career and life tanked in a blaze of paparazzi glory and now he’s trying to put himself back together. But it’s not an easy thing to do and having a roommate that’s got him wanting more than the friendship that’s so readily happening between them when he’s sure that he doesn’t even deserve that is making things even harder but damned if he’s going to find somewhere else to live and give up a friendship that he’s come to treasure.
Micah’s story is one that we see all too often in today’s headlines…a well known athlete who looses his focus on his sport to the glitter and gloss of the fame and all that it brings and not of the good variety… drugs, booze, parties, faceless and meaningless sex and all of it ending in career ending tragedy.
Micah’s struggles were heartbreaking and then if you add in the pressure of the public scrutiny that he was forced to endure during some of the most challenging times of his life and it’s not hard to imagine that even the most well adjusted and mentally stable of people would feel overwhelmed by everything.
Sam’s a gay book-nerd that’s nicely packaged in the sexy body of a bartender/English lit student and he’s determined to be the friend that Micah so obviously needs. He’ll just keep the fact that he’s head-over-heels in love with his new roommate his little secret. No matter how much he wants to shake Micah until he sees himself the way that Sam does, because Sam’s not convinced that Micah is the undeserving person that he claims to be.
While this one doesn’t belong to Ms Leigh’s ‘Lucky Series’ it didn’t escape my notice that we got a peek at Dom and yes, I might have squeed a bit about this. It’s just one of those things that’s a perk of the story for me.
‘Falling For My Roommate’ is a story about finding love it’s also a stark and realistic look at what being with someone who deals with a mental health issue means. It’s not a sunshine, lollipops and all things sparkly and bright life. It’s good days and bad days, it’s having faith and hope when it doesn’t seem like you should. It’s about loving that person when even they don’t think they’re loveable and that’s just for the average person…add in the fame and notoriety of being someone who’s famous and things become even more complicated especially in today’s society.
The fact that Garrett Leigh creates stories that share not just in the telling, but in that they allow the reader to connect with things on an emotional level is one of the things that I appreciate the most about her stories.
‘Falling For My Roommate’ isn’t a sweet and fluffy story but it is a story that has what for me is the best kind of HEA…one that could really happen. Micah has to slay his own dragons and for as much as I came to appreciate Sam it wasn’t because he was anyone’s white knight it was because he was someone who was strong enough to be there for the person he cared about…not just the person he loved but someone who he considered to be a friend. But even Sam knew he couldn’t be Micah’s salvation just his support when he needed it. For me this was a story that felt real, it’s out there and one has only to look for it…who knows maybe it’s a story some have already lived.
************************
An ARC of ‘Falling For My Roommate’ was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
About the author:
Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.Garrett's debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.
Giveaway:
Promotional materials provided by Signal Boost Promotions.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hey, thanks for reading this post. We hope you liked it. Please share your thoughts - we always enjoy hearing from readers.