Reviewer: Jon Michaelsen
Publisher: Ryan Field Press
Pages: 152
Collage graduate, Jim Darling, has returned home to Texas from Princeton, confused and conflicted, the weight of the world on his shoulders as he grapples with not only the fact he has to tell his father that he didn’t’ want to follow in the man’s footsteps, go to law school and join the family firm, but also that he’s a gay.
Jim has never been with a man, but he knows he’s gay. On his first night home,he spots his best friend’s father, the strikingly handsome, youthful and rugged, Len Mayfield. His heart flutters and something inside him comes alive, to the point it scares the hell out of Jim and he leaves his own graduation party.
Turns out, Len Mayfield has a huge secret of his own--living a concocted lie that only he and his wife know. Len has come to feel trapped in his marriage of convenience, a partnership both spouses agreed to long ago and now which circumstances stand to hurt those Len loves the most, his son—whose rebellious antics have caused more than their fair share of family drama--and his son’s best friend, the adorable and cautious, Jim Darling.
Sparks fly when Len meets Jim Darling at the graduation party his parents planned. Jim feels something he’s never experienced before and his longing for Len soon becomes overshadowed by his fear of discovery after he and Len begin along, seductive and eventual torrid love affair, sneaking around town, in hotels, indiscriminate and risky locations.
Drama flares again with Cain and Len takes off to address the trouble, leaving Jim to ponder of his relationship with an older, married man. Jim grown impatient and makes demands Len is not yet willing to see through. Their relationship goes from hot and heavy, to slow and heart retching. Growing stronger, Jim comes out to his mother, and later to his father right before Cain returns home for the summer.
Chase of a Lifetime by Ryan Field had me from the beginning pages, with naive and closeted college graduate Jim, running into his best friend's closeted cowboy father. The instant attraction between Jim and Len, awesome sex, hot romance and serious pull of the heart-strings helps make this gay romance between older man, younger man convincing possibility. The final third of the novel will have the reader rushing through the pages to discover if these two--with everything working against them—will survive together. A truly great gay romance!
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