Misty’s book, Kian’s Focus, is the second book in the Brigs Ferry Bay books. I’m really hoping for more books in this world, but I haven’t seen anything about them yet, so I’ll be keeping my eyes out. Anyway, the first book was about Jax, who was pining over his high school love, Kian, and today we get Kian’s story.
So, Kian is very out, and has been for years. He makes no apologies for who he is, and he’s mostly happy with his life. He has Blur and Focus, one which is primarily a wine bar, the other which is a gay dance club, and they are his babies. He still has hurt feelings over the way that Jax didn’t come ut when they graduated and now that Jax is with Dante, Kian is dealing with some angst and bitterness. He’s hired a new bartender, named Sara, and things seem to be going well enough there, at least mostly. And her hunky brother has just moved to town.
Archer was a crab fisherman in Alaska until his partner tragically died at sea. Then he sold his share in the boat and the business and hid away. When his sister Sara, who he more or less raised, called for help because her scummy husband just abandoned her and their kids, he rushes to Maine to help her out. It’s hard on him, because he never really planned on having kids, and now he’s dealing with two young children, plus he’s still dealing with his feelings about losing his partner, and now he’s worried about Sara too. Things with her seemed to start out OK, but she doesn’t seem to be sleeping or eating and just doesn’t seem like herself.
Then Kian and Archer meet, and there is chemistry. Kian tells Archer that he’s willing to just be friends, and that works for a while, but all of a sudden, just being friends becomes much harder, on both of them.
I like Kian. I don’t think that he’s still up in his feelings about Jax as much as he is in love with the idea of him and Jax. As we get older, we tend to look back at our first loves with some fondness and idealize them. Even though Kian and Jax had that hard ending, Kian still had some unresolved feelings about him, and never really did anything to resolve it. Seeing Jax come out for Dante would’ve just really stirred all that up for Kian, so I can totally understand his bitter feelings. Luckily, he has some friends who smack him around a bit and tell him what’s what.
Kian is definitely a fixer, and maybe a people pleaser too, but I’m not too sure on that one. But he really does want to make everything and everyone better, and I think that it comes at his own expense sometimes. I think that Kian would willingly keep slicing himself into smaller and smaller layers if he thought that it would fix or help someone. I think that he needs to work a lot more on self-care and stepping back some. You can’t help others if you don’t have the resources inside your self first.
Then we have Archer, who really, truly has nothing left in his resource well, but he’s trying so hard. He loves his sister so much, and he feels so responsible for her. He just wants to make everything better for her. And I think that is slightly dangerous for Sara. Not that he is trying to make it that way, but he’s so determined that he is all the help she needs and that she will be fine that it makes it easy for her to not get the help that she may need. I think that his determination also makes it harder for her to let him all the way in. And, to be honest, Archer isn’t dealing with all his own feelings all that well.
All that being said, it is obvious how much he loves his sister and her kids. He wants to make sure that they are proteccted and cared for. He is willing to sacrifice a whole lot to make it happen. I think that he’s also willing to ask people to do things that might not be the best thing in order to make that happen too.
OK, as to Sara’s actions, I kind of guessed that was going to happen. It makes me sad that I was right, but I think that it fit into what her character arc was.
OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 