Crush (House on Glass Beach #1) by Laura Susan Johnson [Paperback]

WARNING: CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE/DISTRESSING TO SOME READERS

Length: 122,000 words

First published 30th September 2012.

Raw, graphic, candid portrait of two young gay men whose love affair is deeply affected by the scars they sustained from childhood sexual abuse. Tammy and Jamie are soul mates, but their love is thwarted for years by bad timing, fear of ridicule, and the damage that lingers long after childhood. Along with the internal, there are external forces that threaten to separate them forever.

Can love overcome any obstacle?

Can it erase the shame and horror of the past?

Can it triumph against hatred, even the hatred of one's self?

In a small California town, a young boy loses his innocence when his manipulative uncle molests him.

Only a few miles away, hidden from the outside world and subjected to cruelties beyond imagining, another little boy pleads for mercy.

When the two children meet in a supermarket, a lifelong bond is forged - one that is fatefully reinforced when they fleetingly cross paths again in high school.

The years pass, but they cannot forget each other...

An old enemy watches and waits, eager for an opportunity to destroy them,igniting a bitter, wrenching battle in the war between love and tolerance, and hate and bigotry.

***

Brimming with raw intimacy and erotic catharsis, CRUSH is the terrifying and revealing journey of two souls and their determination to live and love, in freedom and without fear.

Advance Praise:

"...a fantastic read. The characters have so much spirit and presence that it feels like you know them...I felt a connection to each of the characters as they try to survive their personal hell...I couldn't imagine not finishing the book..." Leslie Purkey

"...vastly emotional...the deceptively simple premise conceals an astonishingly complex and intricate odyssey through the heartbreak of child abuse, the loss of identity, the miracle of love, and the recovery of self...the characters are alive and beautiful..." Rebecca Margo Baron

"...well written, and the narrative style is effective..I could feel the emotional energy instilled in this work..." S.J.

"...not escapist reading by any stretch of the imagination...devastatingly confronting, hard to take at times...and yet, filled with hope as much with despair, uplifting in a bizarre way, written in the simple, no-frills voices of two lonely, searching souls..." Joel and Patsy Moran