Genre: Contemporary, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewers: Maryann; Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild
Get It On Amazon
About The Book
Learn to fly. Fly away.
Isaac: After one quarrel too many with our wealthy father, my eighteen-year-old brother, Ezra Fitz-Henry, does exactly that. He flies away, leaving me behind to play the part of the perfect and dutiful son. When our cold, heartless father dies a decade later, Ezra strolls back into my life—as difficult and secretive as he is beautiful. I’m not prepared. You’re not supposed to want the one you can’t have.
Ezra: I only go back for the money. I have a three-point plan: take what’s mine, use it to escape my lousy flat, and never have anything to do with the Fitz-Henrys ever again. But that’s before I see Isaac, with his solemn frowns and disapproving lips—the best of things and the worst of things. My friend. My enemy. My sinful fantasy.
My younger brother.
Maybe is a standalone M/M romance featuring a relationship between adopted brothers.
The Review
MARYANN
Isaac Fitz-Henry is the golden boy of the family. In his father’s eyes, Isaac is destined to become a top cardiologist surgeon, just like him. Professor Sir Henry Fitz-Henry has Isaac’s future already planned, one that he can’t deviate from. With his father’s sudden passing, Isaac will have even more pressure placed upon him.
The Fitz-Henry family consists of his mother, Lady Janice, and younger twins Saffron and Edward. There is another adopted brother, Ezra, who is four years older than Isaac. Ezra was never loved by his biological father, who deserted him and his mother before he was born. As a young boy he watched the tragedy that lead to his mother’s death.
The only one in the Fitz-Henry family he connected with was Isaac. They both had special feelings for each other, but never expressed them. At eighteen Ezra, had his reasons to rebel, and mistakes were made. When he sought out help from Sir Fitz-Henry, he was kicked out. But Ezra made the best of his life, and flew away without any help from his adoptive father.
With the sudden death of Sir Fitz-Henry comes a will reading. After ten long years in limbo, Ezra is contacted to attend the reading, and that’s of great importance to Isaac, who still has mixed feelings about his adopted brother. He can’t understand how Erza could walk out on him and never contact him again. He is confused about his feelings for Ezra, his hero and more. When the will is gone over by the solicitor and Ezra finds out he’s been left nothing, he walks away from Isaac again.
Isaac constantly thinks of Ezra, and eventually their paths cross again. Can they both get beyond the issues of the past and find what they need?
Fearne Hill has impressed me with several of her other books, Maybe is no exception. It’s a heart-rending story of a dysfunctional family ruled by an egotistical father.
I loved the contrast between Ezra and Isaac. Ezra lived a much different life than Isaac. He is certainly more worldly than his brother. Nothing was handed to him and he made mistakes, and along the way he learned from them. His big issue is that he’s very stubborn and is determined to make his own way, without being a burden to anyone. The stubbornness at times is a way for him to prove he didn’t need the late Sir Fitz-Henry’s help. Ezra keeps his world together, and tries to make it better for one special little boy – Jounty.
Isaac is at the breaking point. He doesn’t even have time for a decent hook-up. He’s working multiple late shifts at the different wards at the hospital, and studying for the Cardiac exam in order to please his late father and his colleagues. He believes he can’t change course, no matter how much the thought creeps in his head. He will also have to face secrets that his parents kept from him.
There are two special characters that give their support. Alaric a good friend to Isaac. He works at the hospital with him, and they always have time to share their thoughts. And Carly and her entire family are a tremendous support to Ezra and Jounty.
I highly recommend Maybe. It’s full of emotions that twist your heart strings – tragedy, drama, surprises, young sexuality, love of friends and family, an enthusiastic and sweet little boy, a love that lasts forever, and snarky and light banter.
One of the best stories that I’ve read so far. I can’t wait to see what Fearne Hill will delight readers with next.
ULYSSES
Dr. Isaac Fitz-Henry has a problem. His late father’s solicitor has called him to a reading of the will, and he has inherited a pile of money and a grand flat in Chiswick. That’s not the problem. Isaac’s stepbrother, Ezra Fitz-Henry, having been absent for a decade, was sought out specifically so that he could attend the reading of the will, only to discover that he had been specifically cut out of any inheritance.
Isaac had been hoping to reconcile with his stepbrother, only to see his hopes dashed by his deceased father’s mean-spirited prank. Now it looks like Ezra, whom Isaac has loved since they were boys, might be gone for good.
Fearne Hill has given her fans yet another deeply heartfelt and moving story of an unhappy family struggling to find genuine love. Dr. Sir Henry Fitz-Henry is one of those people who, despite being dead, hovers like a dark presence over the entire book. He evokes the Judeo-Christian scripture that admonishes people to perform acts of charity in secret, because trying to cover yourself in glory by doing good deeds taints both the doer and the deeds. Sir Henry achieved great fame and wealth in his lifetime by being a great cardiac surgeon; but he left behind a family riddled with misery and neglect.
Both Isaac and Ezra are wonderfully rich characters. Isaac is the golden boy, destined to the same sort of greatness his father carried in the world. For all that, he’s broken and lonely. He loves the work he does helping people, but not the career path chosen for him as if it were his destiny.
Ezra is poor and scrabbles to keep food and shelter for himself; yet is strong and independent and free in the choices he’s made. If not for his stepfather’s cruelty, he might have lived his life without ever giving the Fitz-Henry clan another thought. Seeing Isaac, however, stirs something in him that he thought he’d buried deep inside when he walked away from the family that had neglected and disparaged him while still a teenager.
We know what kind of tale this is; we know where we hope it will go. The only question is how will the author take us on the journey we want to experience? I confess I found myself teary-eyed more than once, for various reasons you’ll have to discover on your own. Goodness and love thwarted by egotism and selfishness are painful, but in the hands of a good story-teller, they’re as compelling as a murder mystery. Fearne Hill pens a finely-tuned narrative takes us by the hand and yet surprises us again and again.
5 stars.
The Reviewers
MARYANN
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.
I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.
My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book!
As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.
My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.
I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.
But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.
ULYSSES
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
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