Elias is the second book I’ve read recently by Amy Aislin that I’ve had on my e-reader for quite a while. I fell in love with her books when she had only a few published. At the time, I didn’t make time to read her backlist even though I purchased a few of them. I’m glad this promotional opportunity came up because it meant that I would now make the time to read Elias (originally published as Picture Winter).

This isn’t a really long story at only 172 pages but Amy knows how to write a story with a lot of depth without adding a lot of unnecessary filler. Elias grabbed me right from the start and didn’t let go. It really got to me in places and which resulted in tears more than once. This is always a good sign that I love the book I’m reading.

Elias has never had a relationship but something about this guy who hassled him about recycling one morning on his way to work got to him. He wasn’t very nice in response to Ty’s chastising him for throwing his paper into the wrong trash bin and he later regretted it. To apologize he buys coffee for Ty and that is the start of what eventually becomes a relationship.

Elias is a pretty low angst story. There has to be a certain amount of conflict to keep things interesting but it was mild compared to some stories and I like that from time-to-time. Elias and Ty start out as opposites – Ty works for the city in garbage collection and Elias works as a manager for a company that assists other companies going through reorganization. As the story goes along, we eventually learn that they aren’t really opposites as much as it seemed at first.

The blurb kind of makes you think that the book is about horoscopes, and that Elias is driven by his, but I didn’t really get that vibe very much. To me this was a sweet and spicy story about a man (Elias) who has lost a lot in his life and the boyfriend who helps him learn to stop and smell the coffee. I really enjoyed this one.

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Elias went silent again, so Ty went with one of his favourite getting-to-know-you questions.

“Do you have any pets?”

“No.”

Huh. That question usually elicited a longer response.

“I had a hamster when I was a kid,” Elias finally elaborated after taking a sip of his coffee. “Does that count?”

Ty couldn’t stop his charmed smile. “Sure. What was his name?”

“Booger.”

Ty snorted his drink. Fuck, it hurt! Holy mother, who knew getting hot chocolate up the nose would burn so badly? His eyes watered on top of everything, and it probably looked like he was either crying or laughing himself to death.

He needed to blow his nose, and the tiny one-ply café napkins would never do and—

“Here.” Elias thrust a travel pack of tissues in his face. Oh, thank Christ. Ty had left his own travel pack in the console of his waste-removal truck—which was in the parking lot around the corner.

Once he’d blown his nose, he glanced at Elias—who looked like he was biting his cheek to hide his smile—crumpled up the tissue in his hand, and said, “Speaking of booger…”

Elias’s laugh was soft, like he was having trouble believing the conservation was actually happening.

To celebrate the re-release of Elias, Amy is giving away 2 signed copies of Elias!
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Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group, Amy Aislin’s Readers, to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram and Twitter, or sign up for her newsletter.

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