A review by jackiehorne
In Step by Jay Hogan

3.0

I enjoyed the low-conflict, "we're only going to be together for six weeks, so let's not let our feels get away from us" romance between thirty-year-old repentant Kane, living and working on the mussel farm owned by the family of Judah, the boy he once violently abused, and forty-four year old freelance choreographer Abe, visiting the small New Zealand town of Painted Bay for a six-week working vacation, helping Judah choreograph a dance recital for physically disabled kids. Neither man really came alive off the page for me, though, as unique, individual characters. Kane is portrayed as feeling unworthy of being loved, both because of his past bullying of Judah and of the far more frequent abuse of which he was the recipient at the hands of a violent and homophobic father, which makes makes it ok for the reader to buy into his transformation from antagonist to protagonist. But he doesn't seem to have much of a personality beyond that. And Abe, who supposedly loves the life of a globetrotter, which points to a personality who thrives on variety and change, never seems to experience wanderlust or boredom while he is in Painted Bay; he doesn't have much of a character arc beyond the typical het romance "I'm tired of sowing my wild oats and now feel the need to settle down into a nice monogamous relationship in a small town." And I really didn't care for

Spoiler

the threat of Kane's father hanging over the story, particularly the threat that he might act violently toward Kane's cats, or even Kane himself. Happily, that never happens, thank goodness. But I really didn't like that during his final confrontation with his father, Kane punches him. If we're supposed to be anti-violence/anti-bullying here, having Kane be "exorcised" by inflicting violence on his abuser seemed precisely the wrong message to be sending...

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