Afraid to Fly by S.L. Jennings Review

4 Smooches!

Synopsis

Coming May 26th

I’d like to tell you that I’m ok.

That the meaningless sex with countless women has somehow numbed the pain. That it’s deciphered the constant confusion in my head. Eased the self-hatred that sinks into my gut every time I look in the mirror.

I’d like to tell you that time heals all wounds. 

That we evolve and grow into well-adjusted, stable adults, set on a path to right the world’s wrongs. That we are not our past…we are not our pain. 

I want to tell you all those things. Hell, I want to believe all those things. But I’d be lying. I’m good at that. Living a lie is the only way I truly know how to survive. 
But the day I saw her, I stopped surviving. I stopped existing. And for the first time in 24 years, I started living. 

She brought me back to life. Set me free and sent my soul soaring. Made this useless shell of a man feel like…something. Something whole and real and good. 

She saved me.
Although she believes I wasn’t even worth saving.

This story chronicles the journey of Dominic Trevino, a character from Fear of Falling. However, it can be read as a standalone.

Review

‘“I don’t care about the sins of you body. I only see the light of your soul and the fullness of your heart. That’s all I’ve ever seen. Even that day you saw me- shaking like a leaf in front of that crisis centre- I knew that I would grow to love you. Because there is just something inside you that makes it impossible not to.”’ – So says Kami Duvall the struggling heroine from the first book of her best friend and lost soul Dom.

I knew from the first book that poor misguided Dominic was going to have some awful inner demons to face. The constant need for casual sex, the drinking, it all pointed to him drowning out whatever he didn’t want to feel or think about so I was both intrigued and nervous about reading Afraid to Fly. It was a brilliant story and SL manages to burrow beneath the superficial surface of Dom’s jerky character to give us a man that is both overwhelmed with compassion and love but also with a darkness and crippling self-loathing. It’s only when beautiful and intelligent Raven enters his sphere that the impenetrable shield he shrouds himself in starts to crack and feelings sneak their way in. It truly is a great story with some brilliant and colourful characters littering the way however when I reached three quarters of the way through, the plot started to feel like the same recycled and generic escape hatch. Raven’s character was supposed to come off as strong and determined as she fought valiantly for her man as some other girl was having her way with him in a strip club, first of all gross and second of all I detest cheating in stories and I guess the loop hole here is the fact that this happened when Dom was in his dark I’m pushing people away to save them from my destruction because I don’t deserve love phase and he and Raven were on a break (That age old Ross and Rachel scenario) but it still rankled me and messed up a rather terrific story. I feel like that is such a cop out with stories these days and it makes the female protagonist look weak and flaky when she willingly accepts this type of behaviour because her man has issues. Other than that Afraid to Fly is written well with interesting characters and a great storyline up to a point. I would recommend it and if Angel’s tale is next I’ll still read it.

~Nicole

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