Hi, everyone! I’m Jacob Z. Flores, and
I’m thrilled to be back here at Romance Reviews Today. The last time I was
here, I sat down for an interview, which is always fun. Today, though, I get to
actually share a blog with all you fine readers. How awesome is that? Well, for
someone who loves to write, it’s pretty darn awesome.
So what will I be blogging about today? Well, first off, I’m
here on my blog tour promoting my latest release from Dreamspinner Press, Chasing the Sun. It’s the second book of
the Provincetown Series and a novella spin-off of the first book When Love Takes Over.
Chasing the Sun is
about Gil Kelly. He’s the father of Zach, one of the main characters from When Love Takes Over. As you might have
learned from the first book, Gil and Zach have a rather complicated
relationship, and a part of the book is devoted to exploring that relationship
and figuring out why the Kelly men seem to constantly be in conflict.
Gil and Zach were not the first men in the Kelly clan to
clash. Gil also had an extremely tense relationship with his father. So since
the book deals with difficult father and son relationships, I thought I’d write
about fathers and sons.
Family relationships can often be difficult, especially
between a father and his son. Fathers want their sons to be independent,
successful, and strong men. Why? Well, because it shows the world that the
father was a good father.
To me, that may be the crux of many troubled father-son
relationships.
As a son, those are high expectations to live up to. As a
father, those are high expectations to get a son to reach.
How then does this conflict get resolved or are fathers and
sons doomed to struggle?
To me, the answer is really simple. The conflict can be
resolved as long as the father does a few simple things.
A father must make his son feel important. The only way to
do that is to invest in his life. A father must take interest in his son’s
hobbies, schooling, and personal relationships. The son must know that his father
is there to offer advice or a strong shoulder in times of distress. How else is
a son supposed to learn to be independent if he can’t depend on his father?
Fathers are the training wheels for their sons through life. They guide and
protect their sons. They keep them stable and from falling down. Only after
pedaling through life for a few years with that guiding force will the son be
able to take off those training wheels and ride through life on his own.
A father must express pride for his son. In order for a son
to grow into a successful man, he must know that his father sees him as a
success. No matter what. Everyone fails, but those failures cannot be held
against the young man. His father must pick him up, dust him off, and say how
proud he was of the son’s first attempt. When fathers express that pride, the
son learns that he has the unflagging support of the man he is desperately
trying to emulate. When that unwavering support is absent, that is when
conflict can arise.
A father must show his love for his son. To me, this is the
most crucial aspect. Fathers often show little to no affection for their sons.
They fear it might make their sons weak, but love is the strongest force in the
universe. Love cannot weaken; it strengthens. Does that mean fathers should hug
and kiss their boys? Yes. Just as they should tell their sons daily how much
they love them. Sons need to feel loved, and they need to hear that they are
loved. With love, anything is possible, and that’s where true strength lies.
These are all lessons that Gil Kelly must learn in Chasing the Sun and learning these
lessons might not only rebuild his shattered family, but he might also find the
love he’s searched his entire life to find.
Before I go, I want to thank everyone who joined me here
today. I have included a blurb and an excerpt below. Also, as part of my blog
tour I’m holding a contest. All you have to do
is leave a comment to this post, and your name is entered to win a free copy of
Chasing the Sun. If a reader happens
to follow all my blog stops, then she or he can leave a comment at the other
sites a well. At the end of the tour, a winner will be chosen and announced.
Blurb:
As a physician and prominent citizen of Victoria, Texas,
Dr. Gil Kelly took a hard fall when his vengeful wife revealed his infidelity
with other men. Closing ranks around her, the town’s elite ostracized him, and
his relationship with his children was nearly destroyed.
After spending his life focused on living for others, he
has no idea how to live for himself. He wants to find love but now settles for
anonymous sex that only further clouds his world with shame and guilt. Gil
believes finding true love is an unobtainable dream, what his father used to
call “chasing the sun.”
Then he runs into Tom Martinez, his son’s childhood best
friend, who returned to town a grown man and offers everything Gil needs. But
Gil hesitates to fall into Tom’s arms, because after his high-profile divorce,
the potential scandal of loving a younger man could separate him from his
children permanently.
Spin off of When Love Takes Over (1st Provincetown Series
book)
Excerpt:
“Is
that why you still live here?” Tom asked, looking around. “I figured after the
divorce, you would’ve moved away, but if you feel staying here somehow punishes
you for what you did, I guess I can see that.”
Damn.
How did Tom know him so well? No one had ever understood him like that. “I did
stay as penance. This place reminds me of what I did. How my being gay and my
affairs destroyed my wife and my kids.”
A
shiver fluttered down his spine as the ghosts of a once-happy family floated
around him. Every square inch housed a memory, and like vengeful phantoms they
terrorized him daily.
“Do
you plan on punishing yourself forever?”
“Maybe
I’ll let myself off the hook when I turn eighty.” Gil attempted a smile, but it
faltered on his lips.
Tom
put his glass down on the table and closed the distance between them. He patted
Gil’s left shoulder. Tom’s warm touch caused a fire to spread down Gil’s arm
until it fully ignited in his groin.
He
wanted to withdraw before Tom glanced down to see the growing hardness in his
tan pants, but Tom’s gaze held him fast. Gil couldn’t move or even conceal his
obvious erection.
As Gil
stared back, he noted a change in Tom’s eye-color. No longer their usual light
brown, his eyes turned dark, mirroring the severity that replaced Tom’s usually
cheerful demeanor.
“You
can’t do that to yourself,” Tom said. “You did hurt your wife and kids, but it
wasn’t done maliciously.”
“That’s
not what Donna thinks,” Gil added. “Or Zach.”
Tom
rubbed Gil’s shoulder, as if trying to massage the tension out of his body, but
only succeeded in making Gil’s cock fully engorge.
“I
think you’d be surprised by how much Zach’s grown in the last few years.”
“You’re
right, I would be surprised, since we don’t speak to each other,” Gil admitted.
“Communication
is a two-way street, you know?”
“I
tried. For years, I tried. But he’d never meet me halfway.”
Tom
drew closer. A hint of amber and patchouli lingered in the air between them.
The musky, earthen scent caused Gil’s cock to jump in his pants.
This
shouldn’t be happening. Tom was trying to console him, and he was standing
there sporting wood. Could he be anymore pathetic?
“Here’s
some truth for you,” Tom said, finally breaking the silence. “If your child
doesn’t meet you halfway, then you go all the way to him. You are the
parent, right?”
Tom then withdrew and crossed
back to where his glass of wine awaited his return. As Tom drank, Gil pondered
his words. If there was something wrong between him and his son, the burden of
responsibility to fix it rested upon his shoulders.
You can buy Chasing the Sun here:
And I urge readers to visit me at any or all of my social
media sites:
Blurb:
Chasing the Sun
As a physician and prominent citizen of Victoria, Texas, Dr.
Gil Kelly took a hard fall when his vengeful wife revealed his infidelity with
other men. Closing ranks around her, the town’s elite ostracized him, and his
relationship with his children was nearly destroyed.
After spending his life focused on living for others, he has
no idea how to live for himself. He wants to find love but now settles for
anonymous sex that only further clouds his world with shame and guilt. Gil
believes finding true love is an unobtainable dream, what his father used to
call “chasing the sun.”
Then he runs into Tom Martinez, his son’s childhood best
friend, who returned to town a grown man and offers everything Gil needs. But
Gil hesitates to fall into Tom’s arms, because after his high-profile divorce,
the potential scandal of loving a younger man could separate him from his
children permanently.
Spin off of When Love Takes Over (1st
Provincetown Series book)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Link Only
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/ZGE3NmNlN2VmMTUxMDJkMDllZTJmNzNkMDBmZmQ2OjE4/
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