"Twelve Days"

Review - "Twelve Days" by Isabelle Rowan

Great follow up, and fine Christmas story

Very Highly Recommended

Featuring characters and situations from "A Note in the Margin", so there may be slight spoilers.  Be forewarned...

As Christmas approaches, John and David prepare for their first holiday together.  John still owns Margins, the bookstore in which he first met David, and as the two, along with Jamie, his employee and the son of the previous owner, prepare for Christmas, they all have wishes for Christmas.  Challenges.  Wants and needs.

John wants David to be happy and content.  Ever since the two have been together, and David moved in off the streets, it has been a challenge.  Because David still has his good days and his bad days.  Being homeless will do that to a man, and John is patient and loving with this delicate, fragile but tough man.

David is wary.  He remembers how the holidays used to be.  Back when he had a family, and he spent it with his son Adam.  Took him to see the lights, the storefronts, and bought and made him presents.  This year will be...different.  Even though they are slowly building the bridge back to each other, there is a lot of history to overcome.

And Jamie wants a man of his own.  Seeing the love between John and David makes his heart hungry.  And there is a cute young man at the shelter.  Could this be the one for him?

As Christmas Day approaches, David starts an advent calendar for the kids.  For Jamie.  For John.  And for himself.  But will the memories overwhelm him?  Will John and his relationship be enough to9 guide him through this minefield?  And will Jamie get his Christmas wish?

The beautifully crafted work of love reminds me why I love these characters so much.  And how truly gifted a writer is Isabelle Rowan.  Her gentle, understated treatment of these men is so sure, so pure.  And the way she understands David - explains him to us, shows us the broken parts and the healing and the parts that still press inside him with jagged edges and sharp points.   Just perfect.

I can't wait to see where she takes us next.  The relationship between John and David is so beautiful, Jamie so fun and lonely, and Adam...I want to see Adam and David reunited and whole.

If you haven't read "A Note in the Margin", go get it today.  Treat yourself.

Wonderful.

Tom