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Holistic Guidance - Willow Bend
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List Price: $11.50
Our Price: $9.20
Your Save: $ 2.30 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Samhain Publishing
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781599982151
ISBN: 1599982153
Label: Samhain Publishing
Manufacturer: Samhain Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 216
Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Studio: Samhain Publishing
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Editorial Reviews:
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Can two men from different worlds cut the ties binding them to heartaches past and present, and make a life together? For Paul Gordon, the little town of Willow Bend, South Carolina is the perfect place to start over. A place where he can move on after his lover's death, alone and anonymous. Cory Saunders is just trying to survive. Between working two jobs and caring for his ailing mother, it's all he can do to keep his head above water. When Paul and Cory meet, their mutual attraction is undeniable. When the intense physical attraction starts to blossom into something deeper, neither wants to admit to what's happening. Cory doesn't have time for a relationship, and Paul isn't sure he's ready for one. But sometimes, what you thought you couldn't have turns out to be exactly what you need. Warning: this title contains explicit male/male sex and graphic language.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story
Comment: I am a huge fan of this book and have read it through several times. The angst and longing in the story are a wonderful combination in the story Ally has created.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Willow Bend
Comment: Paul Gordon makes a sudden and unexpected move from the Pacific Northwest to the tiny town of Willow Bend, South Carolina; to a house he's bought sight unseen. Paul is still recuperating from a terrible auto accident, which happened fourteen months earlier that left him with a number of broken bones and took the life of his lover. Paul is determined to convert the barn loft into an artist's studio, using his plans to focus away from the memories of his accident and the pain he still experiences from his injuries.
Paul is astonished to find that, instead of the small, back-in-time village he's been expecting, Willow Bend proves to be a lively, up-to-date, gay-friendly community. At the restaurant, Paul's server Cory is an appealing young man whose signals Paul interprets as possible interest; but for Paul, dating and relationships are on ice forever. In the accident that damaged him, Paul lost his life partner, Jay. Even his libido has shriveled to nothing, but seeing Cory changes that immediately.
Cory works two jobs, waiting tables at Uncle Charley's Place, and leading kayak tours to Otter Island, to keep up a home for his invalid mother. Despite the fact that he has no personal time, for in addition, he must keep up repairs on his mother's run-down home, but he can't keep his mind or his eyes from straying to Paul.
I really enjoyed Willow Bend. I live in a really small town in which some of the stereotyping is straight out of Reconstruction Days, so it was pleasure to read of a community with the same feel to it as mine. Ally Blue delves deeply into her characters from the first page, making the reader feel as the characters do, and touching our hearts along with them. Willow Bend was a really exciting book for me, as it promises that hope can rise from the cold dry ashes of despair, and that life is not over until death takes you. Willow Bend's premise of course does include m/m intimacy, but I found it tasteful and should not offend most readers, I highly recommend this book.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic story
Comment: "Willow Bend" by Ally Blue is competently written in that there is a "course of true love doesn't run true" kind of story line that is coherent, but there is very little originality otherwise. You have to conclude that the thin plot is basically a structure for the sex scenes, which are very explicit and, again, competently rendered. Little more to say about this one. There are certainly better gay genre books out there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Willow Bent
Comment: Are there not enough good men writers? I found the sex scenes to be completely contrived and sanitized. Boring!
Customer Rating:
Summary: WILLOW BEND
Comment: This is a story about two men facing the challenges of life, together and apart. One young man works two jobs and acts as the primary caregiver for his invalid mother. The other has moved to a new place to start a new life a little over a year after losing his partner in a tragic accident.
The two men meet and are instantly attracted. That is the moment most romances lose credibility for me, but not this one. Despite the instant attraction, however, there's not an immediate HEA. Things don't work out right away. This is the most realistic romance I've read in a long time. We actually get to watch the relationship progress and grow, and we get to experience the bumps and bruises along the way.
The sex is hot, but it's also tender and beautiful and full of emotion. The men are real, with real feelings and real fears. Ally Blue is known for angst, but "angst-filled" seems like such a crude and simple description for such a deeply touching novel. The men in this book experience things any of us could experience. These aren't dramatic situations made up just for the sake of selling a book. I am as hard-hearted as they get when it comes to books, but even I became a little misty-eyed a few times while reading WILLOW BEND.
I read WILLOW BEND as an e-book, but I loved it so much that I plan to buy the book in print as soon as I can. That's rare for me, and I consider it a testament to Ally Blue's talent for writing beautiful M/M romance.
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