Raining Men

Title: Raining Men

Author: Rick R. Reed

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press June 2013

Rating: A List: Marilyn   

Blurb:  The character you loved to hate in Chaser            becomes the character you will simply love in Raining Men.

It’s been raining men for most of Bobby Nelson’s adult life. Normally, he wouldn’t have it any other way, but lately something’s missing. Now, he wants the deluge to slow to a single special drop. But is it even possible for Bobby to find “the one” after endless years of hooking up?

When Bobby’s father passes away, Bobby finally examines his rocky relationship with the man and how it might have contributed to his inability to find the love he yearns for. Guided by a sexy therapist, a Sex Addicts Anonymous group, a well-endowed Chihuahua named Johnny Wadd, and Bobby’s own cache of memories, Bobby takes a spiritual, sexual, and emotional journey to discover that life’s most satisfactory love connections lie in quality, not quantity. And when he’s ready to love not only himself but someone else, sex and love fit, at last, into one perfect package.

Review:  There are books out there that break the mold. They shatter your beliefs in what a genre looks like, feels like, should be. They show you that it’s bigger, more complex, out of the box. Raining Men is one of those books. This book pushes the boundaries of romance.

Mr. Reed answered a question that quite a few standard romances leave neglected. What does it look like to love the unlovely? I don’t mean exterior, because Bobby time and again was shown as an incredibly beautiful man on the outside. His looks had become his identity. The emphasis on them were part a of the slippery slope into desperation, depression, and addiction.

Can someone be truly unlovable? Someone not worthy of the happily ever after, romance addicts crave? This story says no. Not because mean attracts mean, but because to find love, real love, you must learn to love yourself, first.

I wept for most of this book. Cried myself sick. Bobby broke my heart. His pain was incredibly real. The author shows a brokenness so complete you see Bobby’s life self-destruct.

But then something amazing happens.

You are given the opportunity to see healing.

It’s a rare gift to look inside someone and see despair, pain, life-destroying addiction, and then see the wounds heal, scars form, lessons learned, joy found, life renewed. The author did an amazing job. And although this was an extremely difficult book to read, because of the level of pain, it was also brilliant.

This book, this amazing story, will change your view on romance. You will stop thinking of the HEA and look at the people behind the romance. What makes them know how to love? Who loved them well? Or didn’t. You will ask yourself, like Bobby had to ask of himself. Is this addiction, that is tearing him apart, all there is to him? Or is there more? Is he more? And is that more worthy of love?

Yes, my friends, do not fear, Bobby gets his HEA. I won’t tell you who. I didn’t know until the end and you will have to read the book and journey with Bobby through all the ups and downs. You will cry. You will sob. You will grieve with him, be angry for him, and at him. You will fall so desperately in love with this man and his story.

I have a hard time finding the right words for books that change a genre. All I can say is amazing. Marvelous. Enduring. Gut wrenching. Unforgettable. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reed, for writing this. For taking us on this journey and giving us time with Bobby. And for teaching us to love the unlovely. To look behind the actions and into the heart.

Reviewed by Beans