fishreads's Reviews > Interference

(3,75 stars rated up) Anthony Austin is a hockey player for the Seattle Bobcats who is not only a proudly out player but also in a loving relationship with one of his teammates, Simon Carson. With a big house in Medina that they bought together and two huge Maine Coons as pets, Anthony and Simon's relationship appears picture perfect. However, they've been living a lie ever since Simon moved out of their house six months ago. They’re still pretending to be a happy couple, keeping their separation a secret from everyone while they try to work on fixing their relationship—or rather, while Anthony tries to convince Simon to work on their relationship.

Wyatt Miller is a disabled veteran suffering from PTSD who has been living on the streets with his service dog, a Doberman named Lucy. With Seattle's weather turning worse and a cold snap forecasted, and with most of their belongings stolen, Wyatt becomes desperate to find a warm place for Lucy to stay. This brings him to a veterinary clinic where he stumbles upon Anthony, who finds himself offering the desperate homeless man and his dog a spare room to stay in.

Wyatt and Lucy meeting Anthony was nothing short of serendipitous and brought tears to my eyes at the beginning of the story. Anthony offers Wyatt and Lucy a place to stay for a few days, and during that time, they slowly get to know each other better.

It was really hard reading about Anthony and Simon's toxic relationship. While their reasons for pretending to still be together were backed up with somewhat believable excuses, I still wanted Anthony to be out of that uncomfortable situation, as it made for a tense reading experience. I also didn’t understand why Anthony kept forcing something that was clearly not working anymore. His relationship with Simon seemed effectively over the moment Simon moved out of their house, and their interactions had completely soured after that point.

I also felt quite apprehensive about what would happen when Wyatt and Lucy had to return to the streets, (view spoiler)[but thankfully that didn’t come to pass. (hide spoiler)] Wyatt's situation was presented as having no other option but living on the street. However, when we found out that, in addition to his parents, who were struggling with the weight of his father's terminal cancer, Wyatt also had two brothers who seemed to be doing okay in life, I really didn’t understand Wyatt’s reasons for not going back home or asking his family for help. I can't pretend to know what goes on in the mind of a homeless person, and I realize that shame can play a big part in keeping it a secret from your own family, but I really struggled to understand Wyatt’s reasoning, especially since he seemed more willing to give up Lucy, who meant the absolute world to him, than ask his family for help.

(view spoiler)[I really hated the fact that even after Anthony and Simon broke up, Simon’s presence was still unavoidable, and he continued to poison the atmosphere with his toxic personality. The more we had to endure him, the less their excuses for pretending to still be together made sense to me. It just didn’t seem like any possible consequences were worth dealing with his toxic behavior. Unfortunately, this particular plot point dragged on until the very end, while I would have much preferred to have left that sorry excuse for an ex in the past where he belonged right at the beginning of the story. (hide spoiler)]

While I had my issues with this story, I still found it to be quite a compelling read. Unlike my recent m/m romance reads, Anthony and Wyatt's story didn't make me lose interest almost immediately after the beginning. I also adored the addition of pets to the story. I believe this is a standalone story, but the author will be part of a multi-author minor league hockey series, so I will be sure to check out their story in that series as well.

Themes: dual POV, hockey player/homeless veteran, character with an amputation, PTSD, pets/service dog, NHL