Title: Detour
Series: Transportation: Book One
Authors: Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Length: 339 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: There are tons of things to love about this book, guys. Detour is a hopeful, feel-good, emotional but ultimately very happy and sweet book.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Ethan Domani had planned the perfect graduation trip before tragedy put his life on hold. Smothered by survivor’s guilt and his close-knit family, he makes a break for the open road. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but he’s got the whole summer to figure out who he misses more: his boyfriend, or the person he thought he was. It’s just him and his memories . . . until he almost runs over a hitchhiker.
Nick Hamilton made some mistakes after his younger brother died. His violent ex-boyfriend was the most dangerous, and the one that got him shipped off to Camp Cornerstone’s pray-the-gay-away boot camp. His eighteenth birthday brings escape, and a close call with an idiot in a station wagon. Stranger danger aside, Nick’s homeless, broke, and alone. A ride with Ethan is the best option he’s got.
The creepy corners of roadside America have nothing on the darkness haunting Ethan and Nick. Every interstate brings them closer to uncharted emotional territory. When Nick’s past shows up in their rearview mirror, the detour might take them off the map altogether.
Review: I’m just gonna lay my cards right out on the table…I completely adored this book. I’ve not read these authors before, but it seems that Detour was a labor of love for the writing duo of Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore that’s been a long time in the making. If you missed their tour stop on The Novel Approach, you can read it HERE. I got a good chuckle at all the different incarnations Ethan and Nick have gone through over the years! I’m so glad the story ended up as it did, though, because I loved it. The Ethan and Nick we meet in Detour are so fantastic, I have to believe that these are the characters they were always meant to be and the way they were meant to meet and fall for each other.
Sometimes, oftentimes I guess, I have a clear favorite character in a book. That wasn’t the case here. If I had to choose, I think Ethan would jusssst barely edge out Nick, but I adored them pretty much equally. Ethan is the middle child of seven kids. With three older and three younger siblings, he’s probably never had a moment to himself in his entire life. So, I didn’t blame his family one bit for being worried about him as he set off alone on the road trip he was supposed to take with his boyfriend, Scott, who died a little over a year ago. He wasn’t alone for long, however. On his first day on the road, he ends up with an unexpected companion when he nearly runs over Nick, who is hitchhiking on a stormy backroad.
Nick is clearly going through something heavy, but Ethan doesn’t want to push him too hard to find out what it is right away. Ethan is no stranger to dealing with shit that you don’t want to talk about, and he recognizes that Nick is more than a little skittish at first, so he gives him some time to open up, and even offers him the ‘out’ of lying to him if a question or conversation hits a little too close to home. Ethan eventually finds out that Nick is running away from an abusive boot camp that his parents sent him to—though, technically he was allowed to leave, since he left on his eighteenth birthday, the day Ethan picked him up. Ethan also learns that Nick is dealing with his own grief, having lost his younger brother to cancer less than two years prior, and that he’s being stalked and possibly followed by his crazy ex-boyfriend, who was SO creepy and horrible.
One of the really surprising and refreshing things about this story was that even though it was dealing with these very heavy subjects—grief and loss, abuse, and PTSD among them—the authors kept the overall tone of the book very light. And, they did it through humor and the warmth and charm of these two characters. Ethan and Nick were fantastic together. I loved how they both handled their situations with grace and humor and honesty, even when they were vulnerable. Herberth and Moore nail the dialogue and situations the guys get into on the trip. The banter is witty, and fun, and feels true to the characters. It was so easy to get caught up in them, and to find myself full-on rooting for them over the course of the book. There are definitely some moments that are hard, some conversations that were gut-punchers, but the lightness always overcame the dark.
There are tons of things to love about this book, guys. And, I also JUST noticed that it’s titled as the first in a series, Transportation, on Goodreads, which makes me so happy! I can’t wait to see what else Herberth and Moore have in the works; I would love to read more from these authors. Maybe a book for Stefan?? A girl can hope! Check this one out for sure. Detour is a hopeful, feel-good, emotional but ultimately very happy and sweet book. It’s one I could absolutely see revisiting when I need something funny and happy-making to read. 😊
You can buy Detour here:
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