“You cannot change your journey if you are unwilling to move at all.” ― Ally Condie
BLURB: Routine makes Eliot Taylor happy. He thinks. He goes to work, goes to school, and lives with his two best friends. Except lately, something’s missing. While he’s hungover from New Year’s Eve, Eliot’s friend Jen coerces him into a New Year’s resolution. They agree to try one new activity per month for an entire year.
Each new experience checked off his list, like singing karaoke and bungee jumping, destroys more of Eliot’s comfortable routine. He meets new people. He falls in love. And despite how much it scares him, he learns to love life a little out of order.
REVIEW: So, what is the craziest thing you have ever done for a New Year’s resolution? Well, Eliot Taylor has agreed to step WAY outside of his comfort zone at the urging of his best friend Jen. Basically, Eliot has been living a very static life. He goes to school, he goes to work and he watches TV sci-fi marathons with his roommate Pete. That’s it, really. He doesn’t go out on dates, and he doesn’t do anything outside the house for fun. Having suffered a one-two punch of loss three years before, he has closed himself off from feeling anything that might cause him pain.
Jen convinces Eliot to agree to trying one new experience every month for the next year. They started January with a brand new gym membership. The best part of this new experience is that Eliot is the clumsiest person to ever walk into a gym. On their first visit to the gym, he literally runs into Matt. His temper gets the best of him when he hears Matt talking about his clumsiness. The part that bothers him the most is the attraction he feels for the infuriating man.
February turns out to be karaoke month. While watching Eliot bumble his way through his workouts, Matt overhears Jen and Eliot talking about going out for karaoke, and he makes sure he and his friends, Joel and Carlos, end up there to see the show. Matt tells himself that is only so he can see the mess Eliot will make out of the night, but after he experiences Eliot in all his glory, he realizes that there may be more to watching the man than just waiting for him to screw up.
Over the next few months, Matt finds a way to end up participating in each of Eliot and Jen’s new experiences. Whether it is just dinner at a fancy restaurant or riding motorcycles, he just can’t seem to get enough of the dynamic duo. Eventually he admits to himself that he wants more from Eliot, but for some reason Eliot is hesitant. When their monthly task turns out to be camping, Matt ends up going along again and he decides to test the waters. A night that Matt sees as a step in the right direction ends up being the one thing Eliot cannot handle.
When Eliot gets scared and runs for the hills, he ends up hurting more than one person in the process. All of the hard work he did to come out of his shell has been wasted when he ends up right back in his stagnant life of work, school and home. Matt’s feelings are hurt, and he doesn’t want to reach out. Eliot won’t because he doesn’t want to be hurt again; his heart won’t take it.
It will take the help of both his roommates, a movie star, and a TALL bridge to get him back in Matt’s good graces. The journey to a HEA is hard fought in this book, but the healing that Eliot accomplishes is in no way easy. He has to risk his heart, and that is something he never thought he would do again.
The characters in this story are well written, and they are truly more family to one another than regular roommates or friends. I don’t believe you can read this book and not love it. I highly recommend this one.
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Reblogged this on therese writes things and commented:
A very nice review of my novel Twelve Tasks! Still floored with all the great things people have had to say. :)