“Fall in love… that is fine, but just make sure you fall deep enough to stay there forever.” ― Ram Mohan
I’ve read so many books by Andrew Grey and enjoyed each of his stories, so I was really excited to read this one.
Kendall Monroe is a Broadway star. Kendall’s partner of ten years is best selling author Johnny Harker. When we first meet these two characters, they seem so detached from each other. Johnny is distant, too involved in writing his next novel he doesn’t really seem to care about about Kendall. Kendall on the other hand, is wondering how it has come to this point. As the story in written in Kendall’s POV, we’re only hearing his interpretation of their relationship. We don’t really know what’s going on inside of Johnny’s head, I like this because we got to see them fall in love all over again and we wouldn’t have gotten that if we knew what he was thinking.
When Kendall gets a chance to make a movie out in California, he’s a little worried about going. He’s never been away from Johnny for any length of time before, and now he may be gone as long as three months. Something happens in the story to make his mind up for him; he’s going. I felt as though Kendall was very brave in going out to California by himself. He really didn’t know what was expected of him on a big time movie set. And even though he was feeling insecure about his relationship with Johnny, he was still the professional actor and kept on task.
I loved the flashbacks in this story. Throughout, Kendall reflects back on his relationship with Johnny. We get some backstory on how Kendall and Johnny first met, their first date, how they both fell in love with each other. It was very sweet and adorable. It makes me wonder what happened to that loving couple. How did they become so out of sync with each other in present day? Could it be they both became too comfortable with each other and just took the other for granted? A lot of established couples in stories have a history that the reader doesn’t get a chance see. In this story we don’t see everything Kendall and Johnny go through, but I like that during the flashbacks we do get to see the love and affection they had for each other and what they could have again. The storytelling flowed very easily and I wasn’t distracted going from present day to the past.
There is a little mystery involved with this story and I loved how Mr. Grey kept us guessing about what was going to happen next. Kendall gets himself in a situation that had me sweating with anticipation! I can’t say much about it without giving away spoilers, but a very enjoyable side story.
This book is a little edgier than Andrew Grey’s normal style. Kendall has a lot going on in his world. He’s dealing with his relationship with Johnny in present day, while rehashing the past; trying to figure out what went wrong and can they possibly get back what they had with each other. He’s also dealing with an issue that could be a matter of life or death. But all in all, this is a love story. It’s a story about not really knowing what you have until it’s not there anymore, and could quite possibly be gone forever.
Highly recommended.
Reviewed by: Lynn
You can buy Stranded here:
Thank you for the wonderful review