...Bookfanatic

right off the setting for this one had me wanting to read it…you guessed it…CANADA!!! And to boot one of the most beautiful places in Canada the Thousand Islands located on the St. Lawrence River.

So we’re off to a lovely start with this setting and then I got to meet Indigo…I loved Indigo for so very many reasons. I loved that he was unapologetically who he was. Indigo refers to himself as ‘genderflux’ and rather than take a bunch of space up here in my review explaining this I’m going to suggest that you do as I did and go ask google. I admit I had a general idea of what this term was but being curious I wanted to know why ‘genderflux’ wasn’t quite ‘genderfluid’.

So back to Indigo who is a young, gay man who also identifies as ‘genderflux’ and well…he’s just special. He’s one of those people who has that something extra special and knowing him makes a person’s life that little bit better and while he’s confident, he’s not conceited or arrogant. Indigo’s come to ‘Bere’s Den’ for the summer to earn money for school, he’s a botany major, taking care of the grounds and helping out with Mathieu Beresford’s care.

Following some pretty serious surgery on his leg after being taken down during a game in the play-offs that resulted in a broken leg…a very complicated broken leg. Mathieu’s the captain of the ‘Buffalo Surge’ and at 38 years old he’s had a solid and successful hockey career and all he really needs to make it perfect is a Stanley Cup win to his name…sadly his team goes on to achieve this while Mat’s in a hospital bed.

As Mat and Indigo spend time together and get to know each other Mat begins to question his life and the choices that have led to him being so deep in the closet that finding the door is more akin to trying to follow a maze without a map.

Along with the MCs we were given an interesting cast of supporting characters from Mat’s friend and beard, Fran. I loved Fran, she was confident and outspoken the kind of friend everyone needs…she gave Mat the truth rather than what he wanted to hear when he sought out her counsel. I also liked Indigo’s father who was Mat’s caretaker as well as his friend and then there was Mat’s agent Arn…while he wasn’t perfect, he was Mat’s friend and what came out of his mouth wasn’t always the right thing to say it was truly never said with malice but with Mat’s best interest at heart…albeit misguided at times, but still he wasn’t a bad person by any means. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the owner of the ‘Buffalo Surge’ that man was a bag ‘o’ dicks! and last but not least there was Mat’s nurse. Sorry I honestly can’t remember her name and can’t be bothered to look it up but she was definitely an interesting character. Even though I felt sorry for her, this didn’t stop me from disliking her immensely as well.

There was so much about this story that I enjoyed and top of the list is the dynamics between Indigo and Mat. While Indigo is the younger partner in this May/December romance. He’s also in many ways the person who truly knows himself the best. He knows who he is and what he wants and most importantly of all he knows that as much as he loves Mat, he needs to love himself as well. Mat knows that he loves Indigo and that what they have is something special. What he doesn’t know is if he can be the man that Indigo deserves but he really wants to try.

This wasn’t necessarily a perfect representation of how the sports world is…specifically the world of professional hockey, I liked that this story gave a more realistic representation of the challenges that a gay man would face as a professional hockey player. For Mat being out and a professional hockey player was never really an option, so his world was about choices…out and proud, personal happiness or professional success, hockey or Indigo…maybe, one day these won’t be choices that a person has to make. But for Mat that day hasn’t arrived.

This wasn’t just a story about falling in love, for Mat it was also a story about finding yourself and being true to who you are, I admit that while I loved Indigo from the start it took me a while to warm up to the character of Mat. Not that he didn’t evoke any emotion in me…nope, I can honestly say that Mat made me angry, annoyed and frustrated on more than one occasion because amongst other things he sometimes felt like the king of the pity party, but he also had me cheering for him and smiling as he traveled his own path of self awareness and personal growth.

‘Lost in Indigo’ is the first book in V. L. Locey’s new series ‘Colors of Love’ and it’s definitely a strong enough start to have me wanting to see what comes next…and maybe I read the blurb at the end of this one but either way sign me up for the journey.

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A copy of ‘Lost in Indigo’ was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.