The Perils of Intimacy

Title: The Perils of Intimacy
Author: Rick R. Reed
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: February 3, 2020
Genre(s): Second Chance
Page Count: 63K words
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

In reading this book, I am reminded of the phrase "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." Sex is easy but intimacy, true intimacy, is hard. It's easy to say "I forgive you" but true forgiveness of someone and acceptance of "the flawed, broken, and beautiful things they are" can be difficult.

Mark and Jimmy meet two years ago when each man is at a critical point in their life - Jimmy in the throes of a powerful addiction to meth and Mark lost, lonely and unknowingly suffering an addiction of his own. When Jimmy steals from Mark, he steals more than trinkets: “You took my trust. Not just in you, but in people. You stole my judgment, which I was naïve enough to think was pretty good. Now I doubt myself so much that it’s hard for me to let anyone else in.”

While their one-night stand didn't instantly change Jimmy, it sets in motion his going into a recovery program, where he meets Miriam, his sponsor:

Love yourself, Jimmy. With all your heart. That’s the only way you’ll ever find real happiness. We all make mistakes. But I always remember what my sponsor told me—mistakes are the soil we grow from. Every mistake, every bad thing we did shouldn’t be a regret, because everything we do is simply one more step on our journey. Without the mistakes, we’d never grow.

What follows isn't a sweet HEA - and I think if you read this book solely as a romance you'll miss out on something very extraordinary - but rather a difficult process of transformation and acceptance, and real forgiveness. I loved "The Perils of Intimacy" and yeah, I sobbed at points in this story for Jimmy and for Miriam, and for anyone going through a struggle with addiction of any kind. I highly recommend this book.

... no one knows better than I do that the key to unlock our chains is not in someone else’s hands, but in our own. Always.

I received an ARC from NineStar Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. This is a reissue of the Dreamspinner Press edition published in 2017.