Get Your Copy Snakes Among Sweet Flowers Produced By Jason Huffman-Black Distributed As Bound Copy
really enjoyed this quirky romance by newtome author Jason HuffmanBlack, Both MCs were interesting and welldrawn and I loved the excongetsredemption hurt/comfort plotline, I thought the bit of angst involving the dangerous exassociates was just enough to give a nice tension to the book.
I'll look for more by this author, Received from the author for an honest review,
This was one of the best books I've read this year, It's a story of redemption set in small town Hog Mountain, Written with a southern style and charm, it just invites you to set spell, kick your shoes off and grab a glass of iced tea.
Camden Sanders has been a con man and a thief
all of his adult life in Atlanta, Spent two terms in prison, he is looking to avoid a third stay by breaking from the gang he ran with.
Hog Mountain seems just like the perfect place to set up shop and start running small auto repair scams on the local rubes.
What Cam doesn't count on is the small town friendliness missing in the city, deputy Jackson Rhodes sharp eye and three wonderful kids.
Jackson came on strong which put me off him at first with his tough cop attitude, He was the town's golden boy but I came to like him once I got past the facade.
I grew up in a community like Hog Mountain and reading this beautifully written story was a bit of going back home.
I laughed, shed a few tears and just felt a little sad when it ended, Mr. HuffmanBlack created two fun main characters in Camden and Jackson and used his magic to bring them from enemies to lovers.
The secondary characters are well developed and fleshed out, The story is well paced and definitely character driven, It's a story to get lost in and one I'll definitely read again, I am anxiously waiting for Mr, HuffmanBlack's next novel. .stars
What I liked most about this was watching how the town, Jackson and the kids all helped Cam transform.
I love stories where people can actually change for the good, I also adored Cam and Jackson together, I especially liked how their relationship developed slowly and that they had all of that quiet time together just listening to the crickets at night.
There were a few things I didn't like as much, I thought Grant was a little OTT and almost unbelievable like the football scene and I wasn't sure what he added to the story.
I also had some questions about the action and suspense part,
Overall, though, a very enjoyable read.
Id read the authors short stories previously and was really anxious to get my hooves on his debut novel.
His writing is incredibly smooth and easy to read the kind where you dont even realize youre reading because youre so engrossed in the story and then you look up and two hours have passed and his style transitioned from short story to novel easily.
I couldnt believe how quickly thepages went by and I wasnt even close to ready to let the characters go.
And oh my, the characters, . . Cam is so flawed yet so amazing I was rooting for him from the beginning, Even when he disappointed me, I still rooted for him, And I think thats what made him so memorable, the author didnt try to sugarcoat his shortcomings or excuse them in any way.
Cam knew what he was about and he wanted to change, but didnt really know how, and was a little lost in the town of Hog Mountain.
Some of my favorite moments were when he would get angry when people were being nice to him.
His confusion was just so darn cute yet completely understandable, He didnt exactly grow up in a friendly environment and being that he actually had a conscience a tough thing to have for a con it made me believe his evolution from predator to neighbor throughout the book.
“Cam left the restaurant with a grumble at the unexpected customer service, Sean called out a sincere Have a great day! as the door was swinging closed behind him, What was wrong with these people Not that it wasnt great to have an entire town full of suckers who thought being neighbors meant being neighborly.
But did they have to be so nice about it”
Jackson is the golden boy cop who grew up in Hog Mountain and is very protective of the townfolk.
He doesnt trust Cam from the getgo and with good reason, The banter back and forth between the two of them was fun to read, There was an obvious attraction, but there was nothing forced to move the story along, The relationship evolved as Cams enlightenment did making the hard earned ground the two made that much more satisfying to read.
Jackson is deep, deep, deep in the closet and my heart broke for the guy and the life he couldnt live because of it.
Cams past comes back to him and the dude is hella scary with no compunctions about taking out his frustrations with Cam on the small town that Cam has begun to think of as home.
Before Harold wreaks havoc on Hog Mountain though, Cam has been ingrained into the fabric of everyday life, really by accident and honestly, this was my favorite theme throughout the book.
I really appreciated how the author handled small town life,
So often the small town becomes a caricature of a place that the reader expects instead of another character in the book that adds to the depth of the story.
Yes, Hog Mountain is a small town, but the people who live there are not just small town yokels with backwards sensibilities and a permeating homophobic bent throughout.
Not that Cam, and Jackson for that matter, knew otherwise, Hog Mountain is no different than any other place in that there are a myriad of personalities and beliefs, just like in the city, but because there are fewer bodies, gossip travels faster and some attitudes are magnified just from the sheer lack of human traffic.
But, the author didnt rely on that trope to build the setting, he let the citizens have their voices and let them share their experiences with Cam and Jackson, giving the whole town dimension and personality.
The towns older generation was brilliant, Sure, maybe just a smidge too good, but they embodied what we should all strive to be like in our golden years.
Church was a big part of their lives not that the story had a lot of religious undertones, but just enough to make the small town aspect believable and the attitudes relevant and for the most part they heeded the adage, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”.
The characters that became part of Cams life remembered their own past mistakes and regrets, shared them with Cam and really showed him that change and redemption was attainable.
I could feel the hope radiating off of Cam in those moments, There was no “telling” Cam what to do, there were meaningful anecdotes, kindness and respect, and then letting Cam do with them what he would.
And, because Cam really was a good guy with a conscience, he did the right thing, It wasnt easy, but it was important and it was meaningful, The author really did an amazing job with those secondary characters and their interaction with Cam and Jackson.
I would be remiss if I didnt mention how much I LOVED Cam in full snark mode.
He loved stirring up shit when said shit needed stirring, and it was hilarious, It drove Jackson nutters, but that was part of the fun, Hog Mountain needed a little stirring and Cams brand of forthright dialog was perfectly shocking while still being respectful enough to throw his target off their game.
Also, the kids the author wrote were well done for their ages and experiences, They werent precocious miniadult attention whores, they were regular kids and the story was better for their presence.
Sure they were a vehicle for Cams change and his journey towards becoming a responsible citizen, but they were by no means an afterthought.
The family was fully fleshed out and just as important to the story overall as they were to Cam.
I would love to read more about Jackson and his experiences with the town and his family.
Thats not what this story was mainly about and too much detail would have been overall too much given all the shit that got real in the end.
But, I loved his heart and the scene towards the end in the Church and the sermon killed me to death in the best way.
I cant wait to see what the author comes up with next, It will be an autobuy for me,
Buddy read and full review with fellow Uni Sheziss!
sitelink
a copy of this story was provided for an honest review I enjoyed this book not for the romance or chemistry as that really wasn't a feature at all.
This was a second chance story, moving from the dark to the light, Cam forgiving himself slowly and allowing some goodness surround him after a previous life of scamming and lying.
I liked the old town support amp care in some of the oldies, . . especially the fact that they looked past Cams history and accepted him, Jackson was an interestingly closeted cop who really needed to get out from under other people's opinion of him.
He was the golden boy who simply aimed to please, These two were almost yin amp yang,
An epilogue may have helped cement the relationship as it would have been nice to get some more intimate moments with these two.
As I'm seeing dozens ofstar reviews for this book, I can't help but wondering what I'm missing.
I mean, I enjoyed this story, but I'm not raving over it like some of the other reviewers.
I love a book that features an antihero, and that is certainly what we have here.
Cam is a smalltime crook who moved his con to a rural town in the hopes of escaping his enemies and starting over.
He isn't looking to reform his bad boy ways, and at the start of the story, I promise you that you will want to smack him.
He begins the book as a callous man, and I really enjoyed watching him slowly transform into something.
. . maybe not softer, but more caring, I liked the overall story arc a great deal, even if I had some issues with how the ending went down melodrama, alert!.
However, I think my main sticking point was the writing style, While other people seem to enjoy the straightforward way that sitelinkJason HuffmanBlack writes, I found his style to be blunt and too simplistic.
He writes very direct prose, and while that may appeal to some readers, I found myself wanting something more evocative.
It isn't that sitelinkJason HuffmanBlack's style is bad, it's just that I didn't find it to be a good fit for my reading tastes.
The romance was there, but I wasn't blown away by it, This book is pretty far from a mushy romance, with most of the feelings between the two MCs going unsaid during the story.
While I appreciated that the romance was different from a lot of romance novels that I've read, I found myself wanting a deeper connection there.
I think part of the reason that I wasn't feeling the connection as much was because Cam doesn't reveal a lot of his emotions to the readers, even though we have his POV.
I totally understand why people love this book, It was a good story about a man who finds acceptance and love in a small town side note: the supporting characters are all fabulous in this story.
However, it wasn't a story that I'll be thinking about days from now,
Copy provided in exchange for an honest review
THEN: A scammer mechanic excon and small town police Must read.
NOW: I don't know how to rate this book because the story of Cam and Jackson and their scenes together are beautiful although I would love a bit more romance.
. .
BUT! Yes, is a big BUT,
these are my personal preferences I don't like the very explicit sex of one MC with a secondary character in the middle if the book!!!!! Err, no :
And must add that this secondary character is hideous!!! He only thought about sex when sees a man and when he see a woman, a useless thing.
I hated when I read his pov, Horrible man. I really still don't understand the reason of his part because it has NOTHING in the story!
The main characters: I liked them!
The main plot, the approach to the idea of the second opportunity: I liked
The idealization of the small towns “nice” people to show them their real IGNORANCE, I liked.
although I think this can be very stereotypical
The mystical help of the church to the cause.
. . mmm nope. That scene was very forced!
Note: I LOVED the cat part!
Note: I really didnt know what Sausage biscuits are! :D
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