Book Title: Favorite Son
Author: Will Freshwater
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Book Length: 204 pages
Genre: Gay, Romance
Book Blurb:
Born into a blue-collar family, John Wells beat the odds and came out a winner. As chief of staff to Patrick Donovan, a US senator and aspiring presidential candidate, he enjoys all the power and privilege of a DC insider. But while riding high on a wave of success, he’s blindsided by a series of betrayals from the people he trusts the most. In the space of a single day, John’s perfect life unexpectedly unravels when his career falters and his marriage implodes. Following a final, devastating blow, John assumes a new identity as “Peter” and flees to Provincetown, where a tight-knit community of eclectic characters slowly transforms him.
Peter finds himself drawn to Danny Cavanaugh, an enigmatic carpenter who is struggling to come to terms with his own troubled past. As they work together to renovate a local landmark, the two men forge an unlikely friendship that blossoms into love and becomes the foundation for a new life they hope to build together. But when a reversal of fortune pulls John back to DC, the treacherous world of politics he thought he’d left behind threatens to destroy his chance at true happiness.
Christina’s Review (sorry, I was a bit verbose):
Favorite Son by Will Freshwater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
holy crap! so as i was reading this book i was veraciously taking notes for my review. i was shocked by some of what i was reading – my mind was literally blown at times. i had so many questions and so many points to make and so many opinions on what was happening i filled up a page of notes. but most of them are no longer relevant now that i’ve finish the book and i’m left going ‘huh’.
i absolutely do not want to give anything away that would ruin any part of this book so i’m going to leave as much of a review as i can but it will probably be missing some detail.
the first thing i want to say is that i would probably give this book 5 stars if there hadn’t been times of some boredom while reading. there were several parts of the book that i just thought were too slow and boring and i skipped over them. there were also a couple of times that i was confused about what i read and didn’t understand what was happening until the next paragraph. those things almost caused me to abandon the book a couple of times but i’m so glad i didn’t.
the john we get to know at the beginning of the book is a bit confusing. while there isn’t any mention of the category of psychological thriller for this book, i really thought that’s what i was reading for a bit. the few times in DC that he slips into his ‘peter persona’ i really thought he was suffering from schizophrenia. the thoughts running through his head led me to believe he really was 2 people inside his one body…
‘Peter reached into his pocket, but John was wearing a different jacket.’ (this is before he flees to provincetown)
‘John always made it a point to eat healthy, but Peter wanted something he could sink his teeth into.’ (this is actually in provincetown when the full peter transformation has occurred)
i was also confused by his relationship with the senator. as the senator’s chief of staff, i thought he would be treated better than he was by senator donovan. i questioned whether the senator really didn’t respect or care for john or if john’s self esteem was so low that he just felt unwanted and not needed (his inner dialogue really makes me think it was the later). until things unravel and john flees, he seems to be a shallow, self-absorbed (and possibly schizophrenic) jerk. even his relationship with melody – his supposed best friend – isn’t what it should be. (both sides are probably to blame for that mess)
when john finally escapes to provincetown, we get a glimpse of what a truly great man he is deep down. it’s a pretty big statement about what the political rat race can do to a person. i don’t want to go into too much detail and give anything away but as he finds himself (with the help of several human friends and one canine friend) the story becomes a thing of beauty. let me warn you that the author has you debating whether or not he really finds what’s important in life until the very end of the book.
i didn’t like danny very much when we met him or really until about 3/4 the way into the book. he’s not friendly at all and almost mean at times. as we find out, he’s really hurting and projecting that hurt. he’s dealing with some pretty heavy issues himself. he actually turns out to be a pretty likeable guy with a subtle sense of humor that i loved.
there were several very important secondary (although you could probably argue that they could be additional main characters because they are critical to the story), all of which were surprisingly well developed. the writing was really good at times and (as i’ve stated) a bit slow at times.
overall i really liked the meat of the story (and the ending) and am glad i read it. and now that i’ve read the book, the cover is brilliant!
Author Bio:
Will Freshwater was born and raised in a small steel town outside Pittsburgh. He graduated, cum laude, from Boston College and was awarded a Juris Doctorate from the
University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Will has lived and worked in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Tampa. Although he has spent the better part of the
last twenty years working as a successful corporate attorney, Will can happily confirm that his true vocation is writing. He currently resides in Morristown, New Jersey with his
husband, Stephen, and their golden retriever, Rory. Favorite Son is Will’s debut novel, and he is hard at work on his second novel.
Author Contact Links:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/will.freshwater.9?fref=ts
Twitter: @WillFreshwater https://twitter.com/WillFreshwater
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Guest Post by Will:
Incidents and Accidents
I’m one of those people who believe there are no accidents. I probably feel that way because most of the really big things that have happened in my life have been the result of a series of random, seemingly trivial choices I made without thinking.
As an incoming freshman at Boston College, I was determined to knock out my core academic requirements as quickly as possible. I’d been lucky enough to get into one of the best liberal arts schools in the country, but at the tender age of eighteen, I’d already decided to pursue law and become an attorney. Without considering whether an elective could actually be interesting or enlightening, I opened the course catalogue and randomly selected “Pre-Renaissance Art.” Having just been paroled from a six-year sentence in parochial school, I can honestly say I had no interest in studying slides with endless variations of crucifixes and Madonna with Child. However, taking an art elective also satisfied my math requirement, and I was prepared to do whatever was necessary to avoid a semester of advanced calculus. On the first day of class, I grabbed an empty chair that just happened to be across from a cute guy. OK, maybe the class wouldn’t be so bad after all. After a few weeks of lingering glances and tentative smiles, we braved a conversation and started hanging out together. A casual friendship eventually led to romance and a long-term relationship. What would have happened if I’d chosen numbers and formulas over grottos and frescoes?
More than a decade later, I found myself single again. With a failed relationship under my belt and a career faltering on the brink, I decided to start making choices with my head, not my heart. Although I’d rented an apartment in DuPont Circle, I spent most of my time wandering the streets, thinking about all my mistakes and wishing there was some way to escape my past. Finding a boyfriend, getting emotionally entangled again, was the last thing on my mind until the moment a handsome stranger smiled at me on the DC Metro. Fast and hard, I fell in love without ever stopping to consider the consequences. The romance was short lived, but it inspired a short story that eventually became the first chapter of my novel, Favorite Son.
Given my history, it stands to reason I’d subject John Wells, my protagonist, to a series of incidents and accidents. What starts out as just an ordinary morning, ends in heartbreak after a chance meeting in the Metro changes the direction of John’s perfect life (see above). Although much of the story takes place in DC, I needed to devise a believable arc that would carry the story forward and deliver John to the distant shores of Provincetown. Since he didn’t really seem like the kind of guy who would take an unplanned vacation — especially in April — I decided to have the infallible John Wells just screw up and get on the wrong boat. Once in Ptown, John randomly picks a place for lunch and ends up making a new friend who convinces him to extend his stay. What happens next is what transforms a political drama into a true romance novel.
While I’m a meticulous planner, I’d be the first one to confess my profound gratitude for the unscripted moments that have changed my life. Sometimes, when we least expect it, the universe ignores what we say we want and gives us what we need instead. Back in 2002, I went out for a casual stroll and inadvertently noticed a man who was eating dinner at a sidewalk cafe. That man turned out to be my soul mate, and we’ve been together ever since. What would have happened if I’d turned right instead of left onto 17th Street? Lucky for me, I’ll never know.
Giveaway:
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Buy Links:
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Dreamspinner Press:
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5110
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