Review: Beyond the Sea by Keira Andrews

Author: Keira Andrews

Pages/Word Count: 264 Pages

At a Glance: This novel has one clear message: love is love, and for these two characters nothing more need be said.

Reviewed By: Sammy

Blurb: Two straight guys. One desert island.

Even if it means quitting their boy band mid-tour, Troy Tanner isn’t going to watch his little brother snort his future away after addiction destroyed their father. On a private jet taking him home from Australia, he and pilot Brian Sinclair soar above the vast South Pacific. Brian lost his passion for flying—and joy in life—after a traumatic crash, but now he and Troy must fight to survive when a cyclone strikes without warning.

Marooned a thousand miles from civilization, the turquoise water and white sand beach look like paradise. But although they can fish and make fire, the smallest infection or bacteria could be deadly. When the days turn into weeks with no sign of rescue, Troy and Brian grow closer, and friendship deepens into desire.

As they learn sexuality is about more than straight or gay and discover their true selves, the world they’ve built together is thrown into chaos. If Troy and Brian make it off the island, can their love endure?

Review: Keira Andrews delivers yet another beautiful love story in her latest release, Beyond The Sea. In this story, the characters themselves grapple with exactly what happens to them over the course of several weeks stranded on a remote island, unsure as to whether or not they will ever be rescued. Throughout this novel, both men try to define their bond and often hit a roadblock when trying to put a label on what it is that attracts them to each other. Suffice it to say, this story had one message–love is sometimes impossible to define.

Troy has lived under the controlling hand of his father, and now his record label, for years. He is tired of watching his younger brother and fellow band mate go down the same destructive path that took their dad’s life. When he confronts Ty about his drug use, their angry exchange leads to Troy finally standing up to his brother and leaving the band. His intent is to fly home and bring their mother back with him so that they can get Tyler the help he needs to kick his habit before it destroys him. After hiring a private plan to fly him home from Australia, Troy hopes that his leaving will not push his brother over the edge.

Brian Sinclair used to love flying. Nothing gave him more joy than to captain a plane. When tragedy struck, leaving Brian a mere shell of the man he used to be, he knew that getting back into the air was critical for both his sanity and his healing process. But he could not bring himself to captain again, so he took the lesser role of first mate and tried his best to rediscover his joy.

Two men, trapped inside a life neither wanted, take to the air only to be hit by a devastating storm that would cause their plane to crash, killing their pilot and leaving them to survive on a deserted island. As days turn into weeks, and no sign of rescue is in sight, attraction flares between the two, causing confusion, then timid trust, and, finally, something akin to love. Refusing to look too closely at their developing relationship, Troy and Brian live in the moment—taking it one day at a time and refusing to analyze what this new-found lust means for two previously straight guys. As lust turns to something more, their eventual rescue will leave both Brian and Troy questioning whether they can return to their separate lives and leave their feelings for each other behind.

There has been considerable speculation about this novel–whether it’s a “gay for you” trope and/or an “out for you.” I think the author makes it rather clear that this is neither. Instead, both Troy and Brian find themselves wondering if they are indeed bisexual and grapple with labeling themselves as such. With over fifty percent of this story spent slowly developing the mutual feelings each man is experiencing for the other, one can see how their confusion has a truthful ring about it. Day after day we watch Troy and Brian eke out an existence with limited supplies and next to no shelter from the elements. With painstaking detail we experience their panic at trying to avoid whatever life threatening wildlife surrounds them, and their daily attempts at finding food and saving water in order to just survive. I was captivated by this story, grateful that their sexual attraction was so gradual that even they were uncertain if it was real or just a byproduct of being in a stressful situation.

However, this was not what made this story so amazing. It was the way in which these two men found someone with whom they could finally let their guard down, someone to whom the could finally reveal the vast amount of pain they each carried inside–the guilt and the keen sense of loss over losing the happiness their careers once held for them. This was the heart of the story, finally finding someone who they could be real with, be transparent with, someone who would not judge them or attempt to remake them into someone they were no longer able to be. This is why the novel was so remarkable. We watched these men transform and take back their lives, and it was breathtaking.

Beyond the Sea is a beautiful story of two men who found love in a place where they had never thought to look before, who discovered a part of their sexuality that they never thought existed inside them. This novel has one clear message: love is love, and for these two characters nothing more need be said.

TNA_Signature_Sammy