Title: Four Years On
Author: NicoleWilkerson
Length: 5,600 words (22 pdf pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m contemporary
Rating: C+
Blurb:
Jason thought he’d left it all behind when he went to college: the family who couldn’t accept him, the boyfriend he might have outgrown, the small town with even smaller minds. The past, however, catches up to him on the day of his graduation, when Jason is set to give the valedictory speech. Thanks to his new boyfriend Kale’s meddling, this might just be the closure Jason needs, for better or worse.
Review:
The blurb is a little misleading in this story, however the gist is there. Jason is preparing for his graduation and has the support of his boyfriend Kale as he is a bit nervous about giving the valedictorian speech. He’s a bit sad his family won’t be there, but since they walked in on him and Kale, his mother refuses to speak to him and he’s not had any contact in some time. However as he’s preparing for the commencement of the program, he sees his first love there, a boy he basically ran away from with nary a word, and has always felt guilty about. You discover he felt that he forced Thomas to be “gay” as they were best friends, but he’s finally able to see that it was mutual. Even further to his shock, his father and teen sister are there to see him, however his mother and brother are still not “over it”.
There’s not much to the story, just Jason and Kale interacting and then finding out the background of Jason’s life. You get enough from his thoughts to understand how things came to an end with Thomas and you even get a little bit about Kale and his past, I didn’t feel any great need to know more than the information I was given. The reason I say the blurb is misleading, is that Kale is two years younger than Jason, and his family never flipped until they caught him and Kale doing the deed, oops, so it’s only in the year perhaps that he’s been estranged.
It was sweet and showing how some maturity can make all the difference. I liked both guys, but it was very much just a little slice of a few hours in the life of a couple of young men who are really just growing up and starting out. A nice little read.
