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A review by stang_gt3
Beyond Complicated by Mercy Celeste
4.0
I was soooo ready to hate this book. In fact I was almost positive that I would. I know a lot of people rave about it, but the premise has made me kinda squicky for months and I’ve put off and put off and put off again reading this book. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to pull my head around to accepting the situation and be rooting for our boyos to get their HEA. Yeah, I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong. Stupid Shelby…*headdesk* Thank you so much for my 2 ½ hours of sleep last night as I had to read the whole thing in one sitting. :-p
Liam McGuire is stable, which for his past history is saying something. He’s a weekend father to the son he was forced into conceiving and they have a good relationship. He has a decent job at an insurance company and if he doesn’t love it it does pay the bills. Liam’s life is great…as long as he doesn’t think to long and hard about his past. That is until he meets his son’s new boyfriend.
Seth walks in the door to meet his new boyfriends father and has the shock of his life. The love of his life is sitting across the table from the man he’s now in love with. When Liam walked out on him it destroyed Seth. The life of a porn star was only made bearable because he was in it with Liam. Somehow he managed to pull himself out of it all and become a high powered lawyer and gotten to get his life back on track. Meeting Kel was just the icing on the cake.
Kel is almost finished with his college degree and while he’s never called Liam dad he couldn’t live without him in his life. His life at home was never very good with his mother and his stepfather and his coming out certainly didn’t help matters. But Liam is his best friend and the one person he wants to share everything with. The shocked looks on both his boyfriend and his father’s faces though were the last thing he expected. Kel never knew much about his dad’s past, but he might just be about to find out more than he bargained for.
Oh man the torment and mental anguish tearing poor Liam apart! The poor man has never had a chance to be happy and the amount of damage other people’s selfishness has done to him is heart breaking. It’s all just such a twisty mess. Now I can’t say I’m totally one hundred percent ok with everything, I still get a little squicky over it all. Not to mention the fact that I’ve never been a big fan of ginormous age gaps in the first place. Still I did feel like there were true feelings developing between these guys.
I think my biggest problem with this book, and the reason why despite sucking me in and devouring it whole, I can’t give it 5 stars is the fact that I never felt like it was a truly balanced relationship. For me the only way a triad works is if everyone is an equal partner in the situation and the love shared feels equal as well. No matter who was involved first and who came in later if all three people don’t love each other on an equal basis I feel like there are going to be potential pit falls down the road. Fights are bound to break out and feelings get hurt over “well you love him more than me” feelings. The number of times we were told that Liam’s feelings for one guy or the other were more intense or that he was “in love” with Kel though Seth was the “love of his life.” I never felt like despite them all saying the loved each other, that that love was equal. Course there were a lot of twisty emotions involved.
Which brings me to a sore point in the story…I never really felt like Seth lived up to his “love of your life” status. We aren’t privy to the true nature of the relationship Seth and Liam shared four years previous, we’re only told about it. But the horrific nature of what ended that relationship would have taken a whole hell of a lot more making up and honest discussing for me to get over than it seemed to take Liam. I definitely felt like there was a lot more raw emotion rebounding between Kel and Liam. Certainly Kel’s desperation poured off him in spades.
This story is exceedingly well written…it’d have to be to get me over the seeming incestuous nature as described in the opening blurb. But it falls a little short for me because I’m not entirely happy where everything ends up for these three. Throwing over promising careers and law and the potential of a career in medicine to go model (especially in your early to late 30’s) doesn’t seem particularly plausible in the end. I wanted more maturity and a greater degree of understanding between these men before we left them. I’m not convinced that some huge misunderstandings and problems aren’t going to creep up in their future. I still felt like they had a lot of things to work out to make their relationship really truly solid. Still Liam’s heart and soul pulled me in and I felt for the dear man and wanted him to get what he wanted in the end. I feel awful for the destruction his life has become because of idiotic people who should never have been allowed to procreate in the first place. There were a number of people in this story who should seriously consider castration as a viable life choice. Please, remove your stupid self from the gene pool. You ARE the problem. Kill yourself and I guarantee you’ll be up for a Darwin Award. Grrrrrrr!
While I do wish there was a sequel here, even just a short to check back in with these guys and see where they end up and how things balance out, I was happy I finally read the story. I’m glad that the squick wasn’t nearly as shudder worthy of a squick as I was expecting and I am reminded again why I enjoy Ms. Celeste’s writing. There is a lovely narrative flow and my heart does go out to her characters. That’s one crazy fucked up life and I understand the want to get out of dodge. Hang on to anything that can make you happy when you’ve been that miserable. You deserve it.
Liam McGuire is stable, which for his past history is saying something. He’s a weekend father to the son he was forced into conceiving and they have a good relationship. He has a decent job at an insurance company and if he doesn’t love it it does pay the bills. Liam’s life is great…as long as he doesn’t think to long and hard about his past. That is until he meets his son’s new boyfriend.
Seth walks in the door to meet his new boyfriends father and has the shock of his life. The love of his life is sitting across the table from the man he’s now in love with. When Liam walked out on him it destroyed Seth. The life of a porn star was only made bearable because he was in it with Liam. Somehow he managed to pull himself out of it all and become a high powered lawyer and gotten to get his life back on track. Meeting Kel was just the icing on the cake.
Kel is almost finished with his college degree and while he’s never called Liam dad he couldn’t live without him in his life. His life at home was never very good with his mother and his stepfather and his coming out certainly didn’t help matters. But Liam is his best friend and the one person he wants to share everything with. The shocked looks on both his boyfriend and his father’s faces though were the last thing he expected. Kel never knew much about his dad’s past, but he might just be about to find out more than he bargained for.
Oh man the torment and mental anguish tearing poor Liam apart! The poor man has never had a chance to be happy and the amount of damage other people’s selfishness has done to him is heart breaking. It’s all just such a twisty mess. Now I can’t say I’m totally one hundred percent ok with everything, I still get a little squicky over it all.
Spoiler
(In spite of knowing there’s not an ounce of blood relation involved, there’s still something a bit weird and uncomfortable about getting it on with someone you’ve raised thinking of them as your son. It’s still trips my mental ick factor a little bit.I think my biggest problem with this book, and the reason why despite sucking me in and devouring it whole, I can’t give it 5 stars is the fact that I never felt like it was a truly balanced relationship. For me the only way a triad works is if everyone is an equal partner in the situation and the love shared feels equal as well. No matter who was involved first and who came in later if all three people don’t love each other on an equal basis I feel like there are going to be potential pit falls down the road. Fights are bound to break out and feelings get hurt over “well you love him more than me” feelings. The number of times we were told that Liam’s feelings for one guy or the other were more intense or that he was “in love” with Kel though Seth was the “love of his life.” I never felt like despite them all saying the loved each other, that that love was equal. Course there were a lot of twisty emotions involved.
Which brings me to a sore point in the story…I never really felt like Seth lived up to his “love of your life” status. We aren’t privy to the true nature of the relationship Seth and Liam shared four years previous, we’re only told about it. But the horrific nature of what ended that relationship would have taken a whole hell of a lot more making up and honest discussing for me to get over than it seemed to take Liam.
Spoiler
Knowing that Seth stood by and watched the man he professed to be in love with be raped, no matter how consensual he thought it might be, that kind of abuse goes above and beyond a porn scene. It makes me question the depth of Seth’s ability to love. While he apologized and agonized over it when he found out I never felt like I got the desperation for how atrocious his actions were knowing that Liam almost succeeded in killing himself over it all.This story is exceedingly well written…it’d have to be to get me over the seeming incestuous nature as described in the opening blurb. But it falls a little short for me because I’m not entirely happy where everything ends up for these three. Throwing over promising careers and law and the potential of a career in medicine to go model (especially in your early to late 30’s) doesn’t seem particularly plausible in the end. I wanted more maturity and a greater degree of understanding between these men before we left them. I’m not convinced that some huge misunderstandings and problems aren’t going to creep up in their future. I still felt like they had a lot of things to work out to make their relationship really truly solid. Still Liam’s heart and soul pulled me in and I felt for the dear man and wanted him to get what he wanted in the end. I feel awful for the destruction his life has become because of idiotic people who should never have been allowed to procreate in the first place. There were a number of people in this story who should seriously consider castration as a viable life choice. Please, remove your stupid self from the gene pool. You ARE the problem. Kill yourself and I guarantee you’ll be up for a Darwin Award. Grrrrrrr!
While I do wish there was a sequel here, even just a short to check back in with these guys and see where they end up and how things balance out, I was happy I finally read the story. I’m glad that the squick wasn’t nearly as shudder worthy of a squick as I was expecting and I am reminded again why I enjoy Ms. Celeste’s writing. There is a lovely narrative flow and my heart does go out to her characters. That’s one crazy fucked up life and I understand the want to get out of dodge. Hang on to anything that can make you happy when you’ve been that miserable. You deserve it.