Title: Austin
Series: Learning to Love: Book Four
Author: Con Riley
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 303 Pages
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: Austin is nothing less than emotionally lavish and fully encompasses the word romantic. It is a story that is lyrical and opulent and generous in its portrayal of friendship, community, and family. And, of course, in the deepening relationship between Austin and Dom as they work toward a common goal.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Austin Russell doesn’t belong at a small school like Glynn Harber. He’s meant to be a high flyer in finance not a book-keeping bursar. Now there’s only one renovation project left to budget, it’s time he toughened his soft heart and got back to climbing the corporate ladder.
The truth is he’d rather climb Maisie Dymond’s father.
That urge doesn’t add up—Dom Dymond is his polar opposite—but when a near-miss brings them together, Austin discovers there’s more below his laid-back surface, especially as Dom’s determined to win the bid for the school’s last rebuilding project.
Working in proximity means Austin can’t deny that they’re opposites who don’t only attract, they combust whenever they’re close. Telling himself it’s only a fling doesn’t ring true when Dom opens up about what keeps him in Cornwall. He’s there to heal his fractured family, and he wants Austin as part of it.
That openness makes Austin want to share too, but will Dom still feel the same attraction once he knows what drives Austin to keep climbing his ladder?
Review: I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book, let alone a series of books, in which the quote “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” is more evidently or eloquently engrained in its composition. The Learning to Love series is composed of gentleness, grace, forgiveness, compassion, and perseverance, distinct in every detail revealed by its characters as they make themselves vulnerable to each other and then, finally, give themselves permission to be happy together, their burdens eased in the sharing.
Austin Russell and Dom Dymond are both grappling with guilt, the sort that, for Austin, means penance, punishing himself, drowning in grief and a misery that makes him prickly and brittle—he has a tendency to snipe at Dom for being late to pick up his daughter Maisie from school. Austin has specific career targets, none of which include being the bursar at Glynn Harber, let alone becoming emotionally attached to the students, that push him in an aggressive pursuit of more, always more, all in the effort to atone for a tragedy that was not his fault. For Dom it meant waking up to the reality that he needed to be more present for his developmentally delayed daughter, while being emotionally supportive of his ex-wife. The way in which Con Riley brings these two men together, allows them to jump, to go all-in on their attraction to each other until, ultimately, they prioritize the love that has grown between them, is breathtakingly beautiful.
Austin is nothing less than emotionally lavish and fully encompasses the word romantic. It is a story that is lyrical and opulent and generous in its portrayal of friendship, community, and family. And, of course, in the deepening relationship between Austin and Dom as they work toward a common goal and commit to Maisie’s safety and security and happiness. There is a welcome warmth to these books in a world that isn’t always so patient and kind. What a lovely addition to Con Riley’s body of work.
You can buy Austin here:
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