Lighting the Way Home by EM Lynley and Shira Anthony

Title: Lighting the Way Home
Author: E.M. Lynley and Shira Anthony
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publisher Buy Link: Lighting the Way Home

Genre: Contemporary
Length: 206 pages


World-class chef Joshua Golden is homesick for Paris before he even arrives in New York, but he’ll endure it—his parents need him to help run the family restaurant while his mother recovers from surgery. Running a place so far beneath his talents is bad enough, but bad turns to worse when Josh discovers his former best friend and lover, Micah Solomon, is living at his parents’ house with his ten-year-old son, Ethan.

For ten years, Josh has done his best to forget how Micah shattered his heart into tiny pieces. Now Micah’s back, fresh out of prison, and helping out at the restaurant. Micah may not be the kind of sous chef Josh is used to, but he is more helpful and supportive than any of the other employees. But Josh finds it hard to keep his distance when, time after time, Micah proves himself a better man than Josh thought. Reluctantly, Josh realizes there is more to Micah than his lousy life choices… but that doesn’t mean Josh is ready to forgive him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This was a peek into a fully realized society for me—part of our American life but unique and with deep flavor. It’s not my background, but I wasn’t lost, and I was definitely intrigued. This is life in a New York Jewish community that’s accessible for those of us who aren’t of that background. The community was palpable but not overwhelming; Josh and Micah fit in but not in any predictable pattern.


There’s pain and longing that go way back, mixed with huge dollops of family expectation and broken hopes. And out of this potent mix, the authors bring the two protagonists through the mess into a place where they might be happy at last. Micah  couldn't possibly have hurt Josh so badly had Josh not loved Micah so deeply, and the authors make us watch how tattered love can become whole again.

Individually, each author has written books that I have sunk into and enjoyed, and together EM Lynley and Shira Anthony have created something seamless and vivid. However these two manage their collaboration, it works. The style is smooth and readable, and carries the story forward.

Josh grew up in the restaurant business, but has left kosher food and all it implies far, far behind. French food, luscious enough to tempt chefs with Michelin stars, is worlds away from the homey Eastern European kosher cooking he grew up on, and it’s his life now. An ocean between him and Micah, who broke his heart a hundred times over, is just barely enough. Now Josh is home to mind the store a while for his ailing parents. And Micah seems to have taken his place as dutiful son.

Watching Josh go from curled up in an emotional fetal position to open and loving is the great character arc of this book—he’s arranged his life to avoid dealing with pain that’s entirely in his face now. From his parents to his former lover, to the life he has and the life that he could have, Josh has to reevaluate everything. His mother and father have gone frail, Micah has a ten year old son, an ex-wife, and a prison record, and Josh is frothing at the mouth to get back to a kitchen that serves not-kosher food. It’s all as far from what he once had and hoped for as he can get. All driven by pain.

Micah doesn’t get any POV scenes, but that’s fine because he is unrolled in small doses as Josh can cope with him. Josh sees details as he can, and Micah is who he is, but slowly unveiled in all his complexity. Micah’s hurt everyone he loves, and is working through his amends. He’s a wonderful character, and in ways he’s deeper than Josh is, because he’s had to come to an ultimate understanding of who he is and what drives him. Fatherhood and the responsibility for another person adds to that. Ethan, his son, doesn’t steal any scenes or spout pages of adorable regurgitated wisdom; he’s just a ten year old who loves his father, wants to play basketball with his buddies, and accepts that his home is where his father is, not a house or apartment. He’s so normal I wanted to feed him pizza and check his homework.

There are a few plot issues that one can see coming, mostly because it has to work out that way else one character or another would be a selfish sub-human (It’s a roller coaster ride, sometimes I wondered—and that’s a good thing!), but the “how it works out” doesn’t disappoint in any way. Other issues make perfect sense after you read the passages and think a little, which adds a delightful complexity to the story. One or two instances I definitely didn’t see coming but given one of the authors’ legal background, I am prepared to believe entirely once it’s explained.

A few plot points are left open ended rather than extend this timeline as far out as total resolution would need. I anticipate a follow-up story more than wish every loose end had been tied here. There’s hope, and for where it’s needed, it’s enough. The rest, we’re left happy.

I enjoyed this story from top to bottom, and I can only imagine how someone more steeped in Jewish culture will see plot points in greater nuance than I can. There are the familiar trappings of Chanukah, but the latkes and candles aren't the plot here: they are the sense of family and continuity.  Beshert, judging from dreamy looks and secret smiles from those I asked who ought to know, has to mean more than “meant to be”, but for Joshua and Micah, it’s good. It’s a foundation for a lifetime.  4.5 stars.

Aria by Shira Anthony

Title: Aria (a Blue Notes novel)
Author: Shira Anthony
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 236 pages



Five years after a prestigious scholarship jumpstarted his opera career, Aiden Lind has it all: fame, choice roles, and Lord Cameron Sherrington to share his life with. Maintaining his façade takes effort, but under his poised, sophisticated mask, Aiden is still the insecure kid from rural Mississippi. Then he walks in on Cam with another man, and the illusion of perfection shatters.

Philadelphia attorney Sam Ryan never moved on after his partner died, though he tried. Instead of dating, he keeps himself busy with work—but when he unexpectedly runs into ex-lover Aiden while on a rare vacation in Paris, he’s inspired to give their love a second chance. First, though, he’ll have to get Aiden to forgive him. Because when Sam was still grieving five years ago, he broke Aiden’s heart.

When rekindled lust blossoms into a true romance, it seems like the start of something wonderful. But Aiden’s career has him on the road much of the time, and the physical distance between him and Sam starts translating into an emotional disconnect. If Aiden and Sam can’t learn to communicate, their separation may prove more than their love can bear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To paraphrase Chekhov: If the gun has been presented in Act 1, it must be fired by Act III. Aria has an uncomfortable number of undischarged firearms lying about.


The author went to considerable effort to create the backdrop of professional opera and law, and set up a confluence that never materialized. Over and over I waited for a promised payoff, and over and over I was left wanting. If this was a deliberate attempt to avoid the obvious, then why go to all the effort of the set-up?

The set-up is delicious—Sam the employment law attorney is having a lot of trouble continuing with his life after losing his partner of several years. Nick, the deceased lover, is still very much with him, and a tentative attempt at dating a year after his death is only enough to bring Sam together with Aiden for a few heady weeks before opportunities in his world of professional opera take him away.

Five years later, they have the chance to pick up again and find out if they could be good together.

Both men have had their lives devastated by loss—Aiden’s is more recent and accompanied by betrayal. The first third of the book sets all this up, and lets our hearts break with Aiden’s when he finds his aristocratic lover doing the unforgivable, after having shattered with Sam and his grief. I snuffled a little and turned the pages anxiously.

When the men do reconnect, it’s tenuous—Aiden travels a lot from gig to gig, and Sam has a secure life back in Philadelphia, and making these two things jibe isn’t easy. Aiden doesn’t quite get over the feeling of being a guest in what should be his home, nor does Sam relax enough to let Aiden feel comfortable. It’s understandable in a way—beginnings are delicate, but the things, major and minor, that they don’t talk about are, well, just about everything. “It’s okay” says Sam, or “I don’t mind” says Aiden, but it’s not and he does, and what could have stayed small and been healed grows huge and festering until it threatens to tear the men apart.

Even something as small and obvious as calling to wish Aiden well before a performance seldom occurs to Sam, who surely should be intelligent enough to set a clock to London or Vienna time. A “brace yourself” phone call from Aiden to Sam regarding the paparrazzi’s intense interest in him, plus an explanation from the source, shouldn’t be out of Aiden’s ability. For the second third of the story, I wanted to deliver frequent blows with the cluebat. These guys think but they don’t act. They lie to each other and find it easy to ignore the lie, as Sam muses at one point, and it won’t be until they are brutally honest with one another that they truly have a chance.

The text is sprinkled with promises of events to come that never materialize, not least of which is an intersection between Aiden and Sam’s careers. This is foreshadowed early on, and while the difficulties duly arise, the troubles are resolved via a third party, not by one of the MC’s skills. This has the effect of flattening out an already understated and uncommunicative relationship, and wastes a lot of potential. Aiden and Sam could have been any couple where one is rooted and the other nomadic, a teacher and a long haul trucker, for instance, though the trucker might have borrowed his pal’s bass boat instead of an ocean-going yacht. We barely see Sam’s legal career, or have the chance to follow Aiden on stage and feel his passion for the music, which would have been a good counterpoint to the drippy greasepaint we did see. Nor do we sit with Sam in the concert hall to hang on Aiden’s every golden note. Where one character needed the other’s expertise, it doesn’t happen—they barely discuss what’s wrong.

What we do have, leaving aside the unused possibilities, is a competently told story of learning to love again and the difficulties of an intermittently long distance relationship. Nick hangs over the couple like smoke, creating tension, and the tabloids’ interest in Aiden provides horrible jolts for both men. We also get some lovely appearances of characters from the first two Blue Notes novels. It was nice to see Jason and Jules happy.

I still enjoyed the book, even while seeing how a more thorough use of the various elements could have lifted this story from good to great. 4 marbles

Blue Notes by Shira Anthony

Title: Blue Notes
Author: Shira Anthony
Cover Artist: Mara McKennan
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Genre: contemporary
Length: 227 pages



Blame it on jet lag. Jason Greene thought he had everything: a dream job as a partner in a large Philadelphia law firm, a beautiful fiancée, and more money than he could ever hope to spend. Then he finds his future wife in bed with another man, and he’s forced to rethink his life and his choices. On a moment’s notice, he runs away to Paris, hoping to make peace with his life.

But Jason’s leave of absence becomes a true journey of the heart when he meets Jules, a struggling jazz violinist with his own cross to bear. In the City of Love, it doesn’t take them long to fall into bed, but as they’re both about to learn, they can’t run from the past. Sooner or later, they’ll have to face the music.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Jason Greene, or Jaz, as he’s also called, wants to put an ocean between himself and his usual life. Forced to reassess his priorities after his fiancée Diane steps out on him, he takes a couple of months off to stay in his sister’s Parisian flat, and meets Jules, a young, talented, and nearly destitute violinist. Jules becomes a fixture very quickly, making breakfast, going sight-seeing, and provoking questions about Jason’s sexuality.


Jason doesn’t spend a lot of time pondering, leaving the feeling that his willingness to spend so much time away from Diane has plenty of basis in denial. He considers, but doesn’t angst over this somewhat new development, growing willing to have public displays of affection rather early on. A vacation romance allows more latitude perhaps; no one on the street knows him.

Jules is pleased for the attention, and more than a little grateful; his living conditions are about two steps off the street, and his violin the one valuable he owns. At no time is there a hint of exchange of favors for shelter, which could have easily happened; it is a strength of the writing that Jules’ interest always feels genuine rather than commercial. In fact, Jules is used to being self-sufficient, he’s managed to make a life from an earlier age than a loving family would have set him on his own. He’s so used to it that he doesn’t quite know how to ask for what he needs or for explanations; instead, he runs. He sometimes seems much younger than twenty-two, creating a certain plausibility to Jason’s feeling like his father, though there’s only twelve years between them.

Both men have secrets, which unfold through the book with lovely pacing, and each finds the way to help the other, using his own particular skills. Whether it’s fixing Jules’ present or touching the scars of Jason’s past, there is a feeling that only the other man could have been the one to help. A last minute problem threatens to break everyone’s hearts, including the reader’s.

The author’s love of Paris comes through very clearly, although it does sound a bit guide-book-like at times. She clearly knows her way around. Her love of music is equally clear; giving Jules and Jason reason to play. The music is Jules’ present, Jason’s past, and in a wonderful way, the future for them both.

The writing is generally clear and descriptive, and enjoyable until one hits one of the approximately one million uses of the older man/the younger man/the American/the Frenchman. At least one of those on every page, sometimes more than one, it seems: anything that inspires me to stop reading and start counting does not improve the reading experience, nor did a fascinating passage that switched POVs 5 times in 125 words. Fortunately that was a single occurrence, but a serious bounce out of the story.

A secondary character that appeared toward the end caused some dragging toward the resolution; he seemed inserted as sequel bait, and diverted attention from Jason, who had serious issues to resolve. Diane, the wandering fiancée, was refreshing: she was neither an evil harpy nor entirely too understanding, she was just a flawed and seeking human being, so kudos there, as with sister Rosalie, who interferes just enough.

This was a charming read, even with the flaws; I will certainly look for more stories from Shira Anthony. I enjoyed the unrolling of the relationship and the entwining of the men, the setting, and the music. Paris was almost a character in its own right, and the romance is between Jason, Jules, and the City of Light. 4 marbles