cover image New Hand

New Hand

L.A. Witt. Riptide, $18.99 trade paper (408p) ISBN 978-1-62649-695-8

Witt’s contribution to Riptide’s multiauthor Bluewater Bay contemporary series is sweet without much substance. When Garrett Blaine is widowed in his early 40s, a small town in the Pacific Northwest seems like the perfect place to recover from watching his husband’s agonizingly slow death from cancer. He gets a job as a bartender and soon—maybe sooner than his bruised heart would like—he swoons for 20-something comics shop clerk Jesse Brooks, who’s just been rejected by his latest would-be hookup for being HIV-positive. Jesse and Garrett begin to navigate toward each other, sliding sweetly and fairly easily into a tender relationship. Though their patience for each other and lack of conflict are admirable, they make the story fairly bland; whatever misunderstandings the men have are resolved before the stakes can be raised. Those who want a smooth ride and a happy ending will be happy with this May-December love story, but those who want their dark moments harrowing and their happy endings hard-earned should look elsewhere. (Dec.)