...Bookfanatic

and he wrote a story, actually he's written several but let's just focus on this one for now. His name was Josh Lanyon and the story was called 'In a Dark Wood' it was short about 40ish pages, it was excellent, it was about 2 men who went on a camping date that turned into the date from hell and it scared the crap out of me. I loved it. 

Fast forward to the present (ok September 2013) and what should appear in the reading world but a follow up to that book. Of course I bought a copy ASAP and it has sat in my TBR pile every since because well to be honest...I was a bit apprehensive about reading it. I had very little doubt that it would be good after all it was written by Josh Lanyon and I love his books. No my problem was I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what happened to Tim and Luke after the events of their camping date gone horribly wrong, but as will happen with all innately curious people, my curiosity eventually got the better of me and I needed to know and now I do.

One of my friends on GR warned me that she had shed many tears over this story and so I grabbed my box of tissues and my comfort bear and curled up in my fav reading chair. I was going to do this I could handle anything...well almost.  

Have you ever read a book that grabbed you and grabbed you hard and you wanted to cry...sweet jesus crying would be so much easier than the hollowed out feeling that was building inside of you leaving you feeling so empty and alone and just desperate for those tears that would wash it all away.  That's where I'm at right now. I finished the book and I wanted to cry, to just curl up and quietly cry it all out but I'm afraid to.  I'm afraid I won't stop...ever.

We all have stories that for whatever reason have a stronger meaning, a deeper connection for us than they do for others. Not because we're special or we see some cosmic design that others missed just because our life, our experiences make us more empathetic towards a particular set of circumstances or something about the story reminds us of people and events in our own lives that we miss or we wish had happened differently.  Whatever the reason this was one of those stories for me.  

Everything about Tim and Luke clawed at my heart and made me hurt in so many ways. Josh Lanyon is one of the few authors who can leave me feeling emotionally raw on such a regular basis. It's sometimes a good thing because it makes me step back and look at what it is that has made me connect with a story so strongly and sometimes a little introspection is a good thing.  But mostly it's just because I love his stories and the characters he creates for his readers to fall in love with and care about.

'The Parting Glass' was a very well done, emotionally filled follow-up to 'In A Dark Wood' I loved it and would totally recommend it to anyone, however, only if you've read 'In A Dark Wood' first, this is just one of those times that you can't have one without the other.