Review: Too Like the Lightning by Travis Beaudoin

Title: Too Like the Lightning

Author: Travis Beaudoin

Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited

Length: 301 Pages

Category: Contemporary Romance

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Too Like the Lightning is a gorgeous book and most certainly one of the loveliest contemporary romances I’ve read so far this year. It’s literary fiction wrapped up in a love story, written in lush and evocative prose that outpaces the dense and sweltering atmosphere of a Florida summer.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Andrew Madigan had everything he ever wanted.

He’d worked hard to build this perfect little life. A stable relationship with a successful man. A beautiful home in a quiet suburb. And best of all, a job where he spent his days talking about literature. Then his tenure was denied and, too quickly for him to stop it, everything crumbled. Now, with his dreams in the dust and his confidence shattered, Andrew has one summer to figure out his next move.

Bulbs, Florida, is like no place Andrew’s ever known. It’s small and provincial. It’s hot as hell. Storms roll through every single day. But Andrew just has to keep his head down. Finish his book, find a new job, put things back on track. Easy-peasy.

He didn’t plan on making a friend.

Coley Brandt has a green thumb and an easy smile. He’s much younger than Andrew, but he puts Andrew at ease, makes him feel at home. Their time together reminds Andrew what having a purpose feels like. Suddenly, this long, lonely summer feels too short. But Coley has dreams of his own, and they’re a million miles away from the life Andrew’s trying to get back.

Maybe this is just a summer fling. Maybe, like the lightning, it’s only meant to be glorious for a moment before it disappears.

Or maybe it’s something more.

Review: When Andrew Madigan arrived in the backwater town of Bulbs, Florida, he thought he’d be using the few months of summer to finish the book he’s writing, find a new job, and regain his equilibrium after his partner unexpectedly ended their relationship. What he found at his best friend’s rundown little house in the middle of nowhere was the absolute last thing he was looking for.

Travis Beaudoin avails himself of the setting of this story to heighten the mood and tone while matching the intensity of the heat, humidity, and storms that roll through every afternoon with the building tension and attraction between Andrew and the much younger Coley Brandt, the son of the property manager. Coley comes into Andrew’s life like a ray of sunshine at an otherwise gray and turbulent and unsettled time, sharing his wisdom, his dreams, his kindness, and reminding Andrew of what passion is and how it feels. Coley matches Andrew in every way, evaporating the years of experience that exist between them, and he even, in some ways, surpasses Andrew with a confidence that Andrew can’t match. Coley teaches Andrew what it means to find joy in the simplest of things, and he does so in some of the most romantic of ways.

I couldn’t hold him forever, but for now he shared his dreams with me. He made me laugh. He kissed me like I was gorgeous. These actions were streaks of lightning. They could be marveled at but not owned.

What was supposed to be nothing more than a summer fling blossoms and grows into something untamed and passionate, something more than Andrew could ever have imagined it could be. Through idyllic days and steamy nights, Coley teaches Andrew what it means to want and to be wanted. But Andrew won’t allow himself to dream of a future with Coley in it. Not until he comes close to losing everything that was his for the taking.

Too Like the Lightning is a gorgeous book and most certainly one of the loveliest contemporary romances I’ve read so far this year. It’s literary fiction wrapped up in a love story, written in lush and evocative prose that outpaces the dense and sweltering atmosphere of a Florida summer. I loved the contrast between Andrew and Coley and the ways in which Coley encouraged Andrew and made him want to change for the better. What began as lust grew into something much richer and more profound, something intense and electrifying, and when the past called and Andrew answered, he learned a life lesson about prioritizing what was priceless, perhaps a little fragile, certainly beautiful and irreplaceable.

You can buy Too Like the Lightning here:
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