Book Recommendation: "Seasons of Love" by Carol Lynne

I came across this series recently when I was chatting with my friend "Susan 65" in one of the Goodreads groups. She said she thought I might enjoy the four books in this series, and boy was she right.

 This series would make great summer reading. Something you'd take to the beach or on vacation. If you're looking for intense angst that keeps you on the edge of your seat, you won't find it here. There are periods of angst, but you're not going to have a mental breakdown waiting to see how (or if) things get resolved.

From the blurb: On the day of his mother’s funeral, ten-year old Sidney Wilks is silently comforted by the presence of one man, ranch hand Grady Nash. Little did Sidney know that Nash would become the only stable figure in his life for the next forty years.

We quickly get through Sidney's early childhood with enough important information that will be critical to the rest of the series. Each book gives us a look at how these two men create a relationship as they deal with situations and events that define who they are individually and who they are as a couple.

There are a number of episodes of angst as they deal with various challenges, and some of these challenges make you start wondering how (or if) they're going to get resolved. I will say this about the angst. You're not going to find the kind of intense and unrelenting anxiety that makes you worry about having a mental breakdown.

 One of the reasons I loved this series is because it's about these two characters who begin their first relationship with another man, and we get to see them through forty years of their life together. Even though the specific plot circumstances are very different from my own life, it was interesting to see how these two men dealt with various challenges as they were creating a life together. Their world together is very small in the beginning, and as the series continues we get to see how they end up creating a much larger world, a world that is all about the meaning of "family."

In the last book, we begin with Sidney and Nash having been together for eighteen years. Of course since this is the last book, we're getting ready to see how they to deal with some issues neither of them ever realized they'd have to deal with. The book ends with their forty-year relationship, and you'd think by this time they would have worked out everything that could possibly come up, right? At least that was how I was feeling. But, as we all know (and I'm quickly learning), issues emerge when you're in your fifties and sixties that you never thought you'd have to face when you're a young adult.

Brad and I have talked about how the beginning of our relationship (which we still think we're in) has involved some pretty big challenges. Well, one of the reasons I like this series is the chance to see how a couple who've been married long-term now discover how this period of their life might involve some of the hardest work they've ever done.

As a side note, the sex scenes are some of the best written I've come across. Nothing is to excess and it doesn't go on for pages and pages with silly, worn out, and over used cliché language. When they have sex, you always get to see what it means to both of them and, equally important, how they are subtly changed by the intimacy.

I ended up feeling like I had been on the journey with them and got a preview of some things Brad and I might might be dealing with as we continue our own journey.