Foxglove Copse
After a massive anxiety attack, Sam Atkins left his high-powered job in the City and committed himself to life on the road in a small van. Six months in, he’s running out of savings and coming to the conclusion that he might have to go home to his emotionally abusive family. Needing time to think, he takes a walk through a copse by the Cornish roadside, only to stumble upon the body of a ritualistically killed sheep. As he’s trying to work out what the symbols around the animal mean, the sheep’s owner, Jennifer, and her nephew, Ruan Gwynn, come upon him. Ruan is a kind-hearted young man with a large supportive clan, and since he and Sam feel almost instant attraction, he doesn’t want to believe Sam is a sheep-killing cultist. In fact, the moment he lays eyes on Sam’s miserable solitary life, he wants to rescue the man. But as the killings escalate, he and Sam need to stop whoever is actually to blame before they can concentrate on saving each other. **See this title's page on RiptidePublishing.com for content warnings.**
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3.5 stars. Alex Beecroft is a beautiful writer, with interesting plots and well-developed characters. But all of her books that I have read left me somewhat dissatisfied with the love story, and unfortunately Foxglove Copse didn't do anything to change my opinion.There are some serious problems in the small seaside town of Porthkennack, including animal sacrifice, bullying, suicide and smuggling. In the midst of this mess Sam Atkins arrives in his small van and finds himself both accused and potential hero. Fleeing from a stressful job and his emotionally abusive family, his self-esteem is low and he can't quite understand why handsome, easygoing Ruan Gwynn takes an interest in him, nor how Ruan's family can accept him so readily (once the cloud of suspicion is quickly lifted). I love the way Beecroft describes Sam's tentative foray into happiness: Sam had been running away from pain so long he'd forgotten there was something on the other side of it. He'd forgotten that joy was a thing, and it edged back into his life as though scared it was going to be turned away.She also understands what it's like to be in the middle of a panic attack:Trying to force his mind to work was like trying to contain a cloud of panicking bats between both hands. Everything was scrabbling, biting, trying to burst apart and fly out. Ruan, a natural caretaker, is immediately drawn to Sam, and it's rewarding when Sam realizes he has something to offer the relationship as well. But with everything going on in a short 250 pages, it just didn't work for me for Ruan to start talking about “forever” after one night together. The couple just didn't seem like they were there yet. This was one case where a HFN would have made more sense than a HEA. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this rating, but given the fact that Ms. Beecroft is on the list of authors I will occasionally try if the plot sounds interesting but not an auto-read, I'm sticking with 3. A glimpse of one of the MCs from book #4 in the series [b:House of Cards 34093924 House of Cards (Porthkennack, #4) Garrett Leigh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487206401s/34093924.jpg 55111015] at the end of this story did pique my interest, so good job series authors. Also I like the fact that although this is an MM romance, there are several strong female characters who arguably save the day. Warning: some very creepy and explicit descriptions of cruelty and violence to animals.I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
