Review: Rock by Anyta Sunday

Title: rock

Author: Anyta Sunday

Publisher: Self-Published

Pages/Word Count: 256 Pages

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb: Igneous.

When Cooper’s parents divorce, he finds himself landed in Week About—one week with his mum and one week with his dad.
Only, it’s not just his dad he has to live with. There’s Lila, too: The other woman, the one who stole the rock-solid foundation of his life.

And then …

There’s Jace. Lila’s son. Lila’s smug, regurgitated-fish-scale-blue eyed son.

All Cooper wants is to have his family back the way it once was, but there’s something about this boy that promises things will never be the same again.

Sedimentary.

Resisting the realities of his new life, Cooper and Jace get off to a rocky start. But rocky start or not, after hundreds of shared memories together, they forge something new. A close … friendship.

Because friendship is all they can have. Although it’s not like they are real brothers…

Metamorphic.

But how does that friendship evolve under the pressures of life?
Under pressures of the heart?

Review: I have read a few books by Anyta Sunday, and I loved the humor and banter she wrote into each of them, but I had no idea this book was going to be at the other end of the spectrum. This book grabbed me from the very beginning and wouldn’t let me go. I couldn’t put it down until I finished it and by the end, I wanted to pick it up and read it all over again.

This book follows Cooper from the age of twelve, well into adulthood. Cooper has a very unique relationship with rocks. Rocks of all kinds define Cooper’s moods, his memories, and all the major landmarks of his life. When Cooper begins his new life with his father’s other family, he has no idea that it will take a lot more than his rocks to get him through. Over time, he forms a tight friendship with his “almost” stepbrother and if he wants more than friendship, well, he will just have to learn how to live without that since Jace isn’t gay.

As the two boys grow into young men, Cooper finds out that not only is Jace bi-sexual, but he has been harboring the same feelings for Cooper all along. This should spell out a HEA for these two boys, but no, it only complicates things further.

With plenty of issues to deal with while trying to blend these two families into one, Cooper has to learn to put his feelings aside when Jace makes it abundantly clear that nothing can, or will, ever happen between them romantically. Too bad Cooper has already given Jace his heart.

Both boys go their separate ways and try to learn to live their lives without each other. This is easier said than done for Cooper. He does eventually try to move on, and finds himself in a relationship. Of course, this is when Jace comes around to see him, and Cooper is completely lost and has no idea what to do. It takes a family emergency to get them in the same room together after years apart, and they have to decide if they are going to take what they both want, or settle for second best.

Anyta Sunday did a fabulous job of setting the stage for Jace and Cooper to grow from friends to lovers in this book, and she made it totally believable. I found myself crying like a da’gum baby more than once while reading this book. I was completely invested in Cooper and Jace finding a way to get to their HEA. They eventually did, but man the road was a rough one, and there were some pretty hefty prices paid along the way.

I don’t say it often, but I believe this is a MUST READ book. So get your tissues, settle in with your drink of choice, and take this journey with Jace and Cooper.