Review: A Clean Break — by Keira Andrews

Other Reviewers: Goodreads

This is an advance reader copy given to me by the author for an honest review.  As with all of my review, these are my own opinions.

This is book two in a three-part series (Gay Amish Romance) by Keira Andrews.  I have previously reviewed the first book in the series, A Forbidden Rumspringa, which can be seen here. If you have not read the first book, then I suggest not reading this review as it will contain spoilers.

Basic Plot:

Isaac and David have made a break from their Amish community, straight to Isaac’s brother’s home in California.  Can the boys learn to live in the English life or will they find life together too difficult?

Isaac:

Isaac seems to have an easier time of assimilating into the English world.  Isaac’s struggle is with building new relationships and friendships.  The support of his brother Aaron keeps him balanced and his love for David gives him strength to move forward.

“Look!”  Isaac pointed as they rumbled across a street that dipped down.  “The water.”

Isaac glowed, and David found himself watching him more than the view.  To see Isaac so filled with eight calmed his worries.

Isaac reminds me of the person who runs head first into a challenge.  He’s scared of the newness, but he is so excited to be moving forward in his life.  There is still the guilt and concern to leaving his hometown, but for him it is worth everything to be with David.  That would never have been feasible for them to remain together in Minnesota.

David:

David is our tortured character.  We saw that in the first novel, the stress of trying to take care of his family lead him to question his relationship with Isaac.  For David, being the supporter of his family and then Isaac is all that is important to him.  We see this early on in A Clean Break:

For so long he’d tried to be a good Amish man.  But when it came time to give his vow to God and join the church, he’d faced the truth.  On his knees in front of Bishop Yoder and all of Zebulon, David had said the only thing he could: no.  To say yes would have been a betrayal not only of his heart and honor, but of Isaac.

Most of David’s conflict is with how difficult it is him to leave his guilt from leaving the family behind.  Andrews does an amazing job of letting us into the head space of someone trying to leave a conservative community.

Theme Summary:

It is difficult to decide to leave a life that is so different like being Amish.  For Isaac and David, this challenge is overcome by the love that they have.  They are willing to give up their old way of life to be together.

Exhilaration rushed through him at the thought that soon they’d work together again.  He didn’t know how or where, but they’d make it.  They’d build a life with new tools, piece by piece.

I think for any of us, we could relate to this.  Imagine that you had to move to another country, one that did not speak your language and had completely different cultures.

Strong Points:

The strongest part of this novel is the emotions that we feel as we read about their struggles.  There were so many times that I was crying, pulling my hair in irritation with the characters.  I wonder what type of research the author must have had to go to so easily portray the drama and emotions that David and Isaac go through.

What could be better?

There was a lot of sex in this book, which in the end I actually skipped some of the scenes.  I think that if it was a case of book length, I would have rather just merging book two and three together.  While book 1’s ending was natural, although there was the slight cliffhanger.  In A Clean Break,  the ending is jarring and the wait until the next book will be rough.

Conclusions:

I enjoyed this book, although I had to give it a 3-star rather than 4.  The jarring ending and the reliance of sex scenes made the read not as enjoyable as the first.  However, the emotion that Keira Andrews is able to depict in A Clean Break is amazing.   I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a bit of angst and lots of steamy sex.  Just remember, there is a cliffhanger!

Bea