Wow, I’m not sure how to describe how I felt about this book. Slide is the first book in the Roads series and it ends with an HEA. The next two books are also about Ash and Pete, and I think you’ll want to read them after reading Slide, but Slide has a very satisfying HEA and it’s not a cliffhanger.

Slide is one of the most intense stories I’ve read and yet, for reasons I don’t quite understand, it didn’t bring me to tears. This maybe crazy but I usually judge how much a like a book if it makes me cry but Slide just kind of threw that out the window for me.

The story begins with a Prologue set in 2009 told from Pete’s point of view then Part One goes back to 2007 when Ash and Pete first meet and is told from Ash’s POV. Part Two switches back to 2009 told by Pete with the epilogue switching to Ash again. I probably made that sound much more confusing than it is, because it’s not at all confusing while reading the book.

Ash had a pretty horrible childhood and was in the foster care system for much of it and then he was homeless on the streets of Philadelphia until a woman befriended him and convinced him to come to Chicago.

Pete rents a room to Ash and slowly their relationship changes from roommates to lovers. Their relationship is good but demons from Ash’s past and Pete’s intense work schedule as a paramedic cause things to go awry.

Garrett Leigh doesn’t gloss over the flaws that both Pete and Ash have and their relationship isn’t one that’s all hearts and flowers. The story seems so real and intense that, as painful as it is in places, I felt like Ash and Pete could be real people I might encounter in real life.

♥ Amazon US/KU ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

The timeline for Rare isn’t as defined at it was in Slide but I’m certain that the very beginning overlaps a bit with the events that happened towards the end of Slide. I really think you need to read them in order so that you can have the full picture of Ash and Pete’s relationship. You might be able to read Rare without reading Slide first but I don’t recommend it.

Like Slide, Rare is broken into two parts. All but the first chapter of Part One is told by Pete. When I was reading this book, I got to the end of Part One just minutes before I needed to leave my house to go to a meeting and, OMG, it about killed me to leave. It stopped at such a huge moment in the story and I hated that I’d have to wait a few hours before I could pick it back up again. Once I did, I read straight through to the end without stopping for anything!

Pete’s job is really wearing him out and he’s been looking into other things he might do when the decision is suddenly taken out of his hands. What happens puts such a huge strain on his relationship with Ash that it was hard to read it at times.

Ash also has to deal with a big change in his life and his relationships with several people who love him. It’s so hard to write this without giving anything away. The blurb lets you know the main points but there is so much more. This story has so much depth to it. I was completely immersed in it right from the beginning.

As when I read Slide, I was a bit puzzled that this book didn’t make me cry. I think the story was possibly so overwhelming that I was somewhat in shock, or maybe stunned is a better word. In any case, my usual measurement of how I know a book is good just didn’t work with Slide or Rare. These two stories are fantastic.

The epilogue for Rare lets us know how things are going with Pete and Ash a year down the road. Like Slide, Rare has a very satisfying HEA but now I must read Circle to learn what the next chapter in their lives brings for Ash and Pete. These characters feel like family to me now and I don’t want to let them go. My book hangover is a very real thing!

♥ Amazon US/KU ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

Roads Series

♥ Amazon US/KU ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥