A review by jamieb_19
Easton by Riley Hart

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I want to be here for him. It feels like the most important thing I’ll ever do.

Oof, this was a bit of a tearjerker! I’m not surprised, though. Given what I knew of Easton from Morgan’s book, I knew this would be an emotional story. All of the Swift brothers have their issues as a result of the things their family has been through, but I think Easton had it worst of all - for a lot of reasons. The biggest one was the loss of his twin sister when they were kids, and he has blamed himself ever since. The only way he knew how to handle the trauma was by acting out or getting into trouble, which further alienated him from everyone else. But underneath the troubled exterior is a broken, lonely man who is starved for love and connection. Thank goodness for the day Archer Thorn walked into his life. He made it his mission to be the one person Easton could count on no matter what. Archer helped Easton see that he did have people in his corner and made Easton feel, for the first time in his life, like maybe he was worth fighting for.

"There’s a lot to like about you, Easton Swift, and I don’t plan to stop telling you until you believe it.”
And I don’t want him to. Holy fuck, I don’t want him to stop, and I can’t figure out how to make sense of that.

God, Easton broke my heart. Between losing his sister the way he did and then the way his awful father treated him his whole life, he felt like everyone was better off without him and worked hard to alienate himself from others. But it was clear from the first time Archer fell into his life that he was actually starved for affection. I loved all the little ways he kept letting Archer in and seeing them slowly fall for one another. Easton couldn’t believe Archer would want anything to do with him, but he wanted it to be true so badly. And Archer kept showing up and proving himself to Easton until he finally believed it. It wasn’t an easy road, not when you have the amount of trauma Easton had. But seeing him want to get better and make steps toward that was just beautiful. His journey brought me to tears a few times throughout the book.

I also loved seeing the three Swift brothers keep making strides toward repairing their relationship. A lot of progress was made to that end in this book. Their father did so much damage to them and I love seeing them finally work through that and moving forward together.

Archer can’t fix me, but for the first time in my life, I’m wondering if I can fix myself, want to find a way to do it.

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