Jason McCarthy is gay. He’s also a police officer living in a small-minded northern New Brunswick town where being gay could spell the end of his career. When an impending snowstorm threatens to strand his best friend and policing partner, David, Jason offers up his spare room for the night–a move that reveals Jason’s secret, and changes their friendship and lives forever.
David Richard isn’t gay–at least he doesn’t think he is. He knows he loves his best friend, and he admits to feelings that had started after a tragic accident almost a year before. When David acts on these feelings, it doesn’t go well, leaving both men alone and hurt. Jason, however, doesn’t think twice about stepping in and rescuing David’s children when their mother abandons them. The move brings David and Jason back together, but Jason’s past rears its ugly head and they both have to make difficult decisions that are sometimes best left up to fate.
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Sometimes It's Fate really sets itself apart from many of the m/m books on the market today through it's extremely realistic progression of friends to lovers within the gay for you subgenre along with the emotional affects of a possible HIV diagnosis on a committed relationship. Each emotion tugged the reader further into the story and you soon became fully enmeshed in the lives of new couple Jason and David.
Jason's always known he was gay and while he doesn't flaunt it he doesn't make it public knowledge for fear of having to deal with homophobia in a small town. He and David have been extremely close for years with David helping him through a particularly emotional time. David's divorced with kids though and is greatly confused about the increasingly intense romantic feelings he's having when around Jason. Their progression of friends to lovers felt realistic with its slow transition that allowed for a lot of steamy sexual tension that ultimately resulted in an extremely satisfying first time scene that was both sweet and sexy. David's hesitation was gone quite quickly and their transition to outright couple seemed to happen before you could blink. The sexual interludes started out slowly building in intensity and were nicely spaced throughout the story with Jason definitely being the more dominant for obvious reasons. Jason was also the more emotional of the two and therefore I felt a deeper understanding of his character as opposed to the more subdued David.
Important issues like homophobia and the HIV virus were brought to the forefront of this story and handled in a mature, not overly preachy way. While I felt the HIV issue was handled in a sensitive and nicely incorporated manner, the fears of homophobia which were mentioned often early on, seemed to be quickly swept under the rug with everyone seeming to easily accept this new relationship. Another issue casually mentioned was postpartum depression, which was the catalyst for Jason and David getting together, but was resolved before it really even started. It's purpose was solely as a plot device which is a shame since the author dealt with the other serious issues rather well.
As this is the first book in a series, we're introduced to many secondary characters with one leaving a particularly strong impression. The former hard partying, recently diagnosed with HIV character of Craig changed dramatically from first meeting to last and I'd be intrigued to see how a relationship would progress for him considering his HIV status. With how well Ms. Stone handled things here, I have no doubt that a full-length story for Craig would be as sensitively written. No matter whose story is told next I look forward to revisiting the Great White North and am eagerly anticipating this author's next release.
My rating for this is a B+
*I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.
Very thorough and helpful review! Thanks! I like the progress of the relationship you mentioned. The story sounds good.
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