Farewell from the Bookshelf!



Please note that GLBT Bookshelf -- the community wiki which was the parent to this fiction blog -- went offline on May 31, 2016, after seven years' service to members.

All Gay Romance will remain online till the end of 2016 in order to give contributors every opportunity to recover materials uploaded here.

Many thanks to all who contributed over the years, and good luck to everyone in your future works!

10.11.14

WELLSPRING by Barry Brennessel

WELLSPRING 

Barry Brennessel

Buy On Amazon.com

  • Amazon Digital Services, Inc. March 27, 2014
  • ASIN: B00JBNOIPU

This is one haunting novel.

Aidan Royce visits  a old, decaying and abandoned spa in Northern New Hampshire.  He is found under a ledge by Sebastian, one of the members of the family that owns the property.  The mysteries start immediately when the two men are shot at and confront the shooter, Essen.  From this point we follow a circuitous but constantly intriguing set of mysteries around Aidan’s search to discover whatever happened to his brother Thad.  It is the early Great Depression and the events in history are the structure for what proves to be a painfully drawn out romance.

I hardly know where to start to praise this novel.  It is remarkably suspenseful with the crumbling spa, guest cabins, a forgotten book with Aidan’s mother’s handwriting in it, the backdrop of German spies during the Kaiser’s reign, a mute boy, and a threatening presence in the person of a tall, strange man.  There is not a moment that you are not on the edge of your seat waiting for just one more explanation.

I had a stroke last April and this book reproduced for me the sense of slight unreality  that I have since felt.  Just enough clues are offered but cut short to leave one still puzzling.  Slowly throughout the novel the author, Barry Brennessel, adds just a bit more from the past and present, revealing information from Aidan’s life to fill in the cracks.

If you don’t read this book you will miss out on one helluva great read with puzzles galore  and a sweet slow romance in a picturesque New England setting.  If I did stars, this book would get 6 out of 5.

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