Full Circle
By Amy Lane
So Winter Ball, the first book in the Rec League Soccer series, was originally my Christmas story for 2015. It covered the time span from Halloween through Christmas Eve, and I sort of loved it. Skip and Richie were working class guys—not too educated, bright enough to survive, and so much happier after they fell in love with each other. This story introduced Clay Carpenter, Skip’s best friend, and Mason Hayes, his awkward yet well-meaning boss, and Dane, Mason’s little brother.
Summer Lessons, Mason’s story with Terry, a member of Skipper’s soccer team, takes place from Christmas to October, and lets us see more of Mason’s younger brother, Dane, who is snarky, sarcastic, and staunchly loyal to his awkward brother. Dane and Carpenter are seen, in the background, being snarky, funny, loyal to their friends and brothers, and falling desperately in love.
Fall Through Spring, the final book in the series, brings that relationship to the forefront—and it was rather like weaving a basket.
If you weave the withy one way, the basket has the pattern of Mason and Terry. If you weave it another, we see Dane and Clay, and Richie and Skip are the foundation that hold the group of men together.
It’s a delicate dance, but in the end, we see the year progress for all three couples, from October to October. We see Thanksgiving, Christmas, the building year, and for Clay and Dane, we see a spring they’d rather forget.
Clay has a toxic relationship with his parents—and pizza. Dane has bipolar disorder, and he resents it for making him dependent on medication—and on family.
Together they can talk about the things in their lives that hurt the most while stepping back to laugh at how they can be both blessed and miserable.
While Skip and Richie come from broken families and broken dreams, and Terry was practically raised by wolves, Mason and Dane come from a supportive family—and Clay’s family tried.
The series takes us through three kinds of romance, three kinds of struggles, and the one leveling force is the rec league sports team that Skipper forged out of sweat and good will.
What brings two people together is as different as each person—and what keeps them apart as they’re falling in love has just as much variety. That three such disparate couples can have one unifying thread—soccer (and Skip!)—sort of goes to show that people who can find their similarities and hang on with both hands are the ones who will build a relationship that can last.
It’s more than just the year that takes these books full circle.
Come read them and see what a difference a year can make in the lives of three couples with one thing in common.
Title: Fall Through Spring by Amy Lane
Winter Ball Series Book Three
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, Romance
Length: 225 pages/Word Count: 81,404
Summary:
A Winter Ball Novel
As far as Clay Carpenter is concerned, his abusive relationship with food is the best thing he’s got going. When a good friend starts kicking his ass into gear, Clay is forced to reexamine everything he learned about food and love—and that’s right when he meets troubled graduate student, Dane Hayes.
Dane Hayes doesn’t do the whole monogamy thing, but the minute he meets Clay Carpenter, he’s doing the friend thing in spades. The snarky, scruffy bastard not only gets Dane’s wacky sense of humor, he also accepts the things Dane can’t control—like the bipolar disorder Dane has been trying to manage for the past six years.
Dane is hoping for more than friendship, and Clay is looking at him with longing that isn’t platonic. They’re both positive they’re bad at relationships, but with the help of forbidden desserts and new medication regimens, they prove outstanding at being with each other. But can they turn their friendship into the love neither of them has dared to hope for?
Add to Goodreads.
Add series to Goodreads
Purchase Links: Dreamspinner Press * Amazon * B&N * Apple * Kobo
Author Bio
Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been nominated for a RITA, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.
Author Links: Website * Blog * Facebook Group * Twitter * Newsletter * Goodreads
I enjoyed Winter Ball. There’s an excuse to reread it, in preparation for reading the rest of the series.
Thank you Kathy for hosting and Amy for telling us about the three different couples and different ways of relationship.