The View From Olympus Mons by Barry Creyton

#mm #netgalley #verysad

I am having a hard time putting into words what this book made me feel. And boy do I have a lot of feelings inside me now.

This is not a romance, but it is a love story.

When they were both 15, Craig and Nate were the best of friends. Craig was the son of a drug user and Nate was the son of rich parents who hated Craig. Neither were raised well, but only Craig was physically able to leave the horribleness of his childhood. This story ends when they are 45.

This was written in the present and past, but the past had 2 different stories as these friends never saw each other after Craig's mother died the same day Nate kissed Craig. Nate always thought that the kiss was the reason everything happened after.

Spoilers ahead, stop reading if you don't want to see them.

Now that we have that out of the way, I have to admit, I hated Craig. Why did he get the family, career, daughter, and all that but Nate didn't? While Craig was emotionally not ok because he wouldn't admit that he was gay to himself, his actual life was. Craig was put into a loving home when he went into foster care and got the love and support he needed to get into college and make a go in his life. He had a marriage (my name finally gets into a story and its in the form of a horrible person), a good career, a wonderful daughter, and the ability to cheat on his wife. He meets Danny, falls in love with him, divorces his wife and starts a relationship with him.

Nate started trading sex to live with he was 16, after being kicked out because he was gay. It eventually leads to him becoming a sex worker and being locked up when he was busted. He eventually moves on and actually does find the love he so desperately deserved, but the partner dies alone due to aids related complications when Paul's (the partner) parents show up and take him away from Nate. He spirals after the death and that leads to him being beat up by a homophobe and ending up in the hospital and starting the beginning of the story.

In all the years apart, Craig never lovingly thought of Nate. But Nate still loved Craig. Nate wrote letters to Craig his entire life and kept them in his backpack. The same bag he carried with him always. In fact, he thought the guy who beat him up was Craig which is how he ended up dying.

I thought it was going to be a great emotional thing when Craig went to get the pack they buried as a time capsule after Nate died, but all he did was take all the letters that Nate had poured his soul into and bury them as well. Nate didn't even get to know that his letters would be with Craig. To Nate, the letters were as important as Craig's child was to him.

The last bit were Craig then decides to become emotional and let Danny know how much he loved him was to me a horrible ending. Nate should have had his HEA and did not get it.