Review: Breaking Faith by M King

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novel
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Blurb: Brett Derwent thinks he has life all planned out. With the freedom of college life just months away, Brett’s eagerly awaiting some fun and independence… until he meets Tommy Hawks. Over the course of one northern Montana summer, an intense romance blooms between the young men, but Tommy has a painful secret—one that even first love can’t mitigate. Continually brutalized by his violent father, Tommy is pushed to the edge, torn between the desire to protect his mother and four siblings, and his fear of losing the love he never expected to find.

When the unthinkable happens and Tommy’s father is found dead, Brett is afraid to learn the truth. Appalled to think that his lover may be responsible, Brett must face impossible questions: how much of his life—of his youth—is he willing to sacrifice for Tommy, and will having faith in him be enough?

Second edition
First edition published by Freya’s Bower in 2008 under the same title.

Reviewed by Stacey: This book was gripping, engaging, heart-breaking, yet uplifting by the end. It makes you wonder just how much you would give up for someone you love. And I'm not talking about someone you've known forever or with whom you have a deeply established bond. Brett Derwent met Tommy Hawks in the ski shop that Tommy worked in where Brett was a ski instructor in Northern Montana. Brett has plans to go to med school at the end of the summer but over the summer, the two find an incredible love for each other. It's very sweet how they fall in love. There is immediate attraction, but this isn't one of those fall into bed together right away stories. While they dance around each other, it becomes obvious to Brett that Tommy's home life is less than stellar and that his father is the source of the problems, and Tommy's bruises, but Tommy refuses to talk about any of it. Tommy is a rock for his little brothers and sisters though, helping is mother with their care. Tommy loves Brett, but knowing that he's leaving for college, he doesn't want to drag him into his problems. 

When Tommy can't take any more of his father's brutality, he reaches the breaking point, and events change both of their lives. Brett does some pretty amazing and crazy things for the man he loves. His decisions also bring about the questions, how long would you put your life on hold for someone that, although you loved desperately at the moment, you only knew for a few months? Can you really know the impact of your choices when you are 18? How willing would you be to change your entire life for the love another person? How much faith can you have in someone or in yourself when you start doubting?

Brett is one of the strongest and most awe inspiring characters I've ever read. I felt very badly for he had Tommy, for what they had to go through, because Tommy was also a really sweet guy who was dealt a really crappy hand in life. This does have a bit of angst, in what Brett and Tommy have to go through in being apart. This one doesn't so much end on a happily ever after as it does on a happily for now, but even so, it's a great ending that leads you to believe that they are set for a happily ever after. It would be interesting to read more on their life together, even if it is just a short story, because they are such a loving and inspiring couple, as is the story. This is definitely one for my favorites shelf and will be one that I will read again, and recommend to others over and over again.

A+