Review: Kept Tears by Jana Denardo

Reviewed by Whuppsy
Kept Tears by Jana Denardo
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 210pgs
4 Pants Off

Blurb:
Having left most of his arm and his self-confidence behind in the Afghanistan desert, young veteran Aaron Santori has enough on his plate learning to use his prosthetic arm. Attending graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh makes life both interesting and challenging. Mentally, he's ill prepared for meeting Rhys Edwards, a young-adult novelist from Wales and everything Aaron could want in a man. Between the scars from the explosion and his PTSD, he’s reluctant to date. Ready or not, though, Aaron finds himself jumping into the deep end of the relationship waters. 

What Aaron couldn’t possibly know is that Rhys isn’t human at all. As a prince of the Tylwyth Teg, Rhys is fae, with a list of enemies he’s accumulated over the past few centuries—among them a former lover, Morcant, who is back to make Rhys’s life miserable. An unwitting pawn in their Machiavellian fae politics, Aaron only knows he’s falling in love, never suspecting love might be his death sentence.

Review
This story had so much going on. You have a young veteran, Aaron who was badly injured in an IED attack. He’s been back on US soil for a bit trying to get better and going back to school. He’s a HUGE Steampunk/Nerdy Fan and he’s absolutely adorkable!! He’s young and kind and sweet and even more than that, he’s absolutely the kind of guy that you’d want to wrap in your arms and just make sure nothing bad happens to.

Rhys is Fae and not only Fae, but he’s a Prince. He’s lived a long life and has had many human lovers. The thing I liked about Rhys was he was more secure in who he was. Even with that, he was drawn to Aaron. He was loving, attentive, kind and just an all-around good guy. He took his responsibilities very seriously. To protect his family and the humans that he lived amongst. I liked the integrity that he showed throughout the book.

Now, I know that this is going to shock some people, but Rhys is married. To a woman!! Now, don’t get up in arms just yet, it was actually ok. I loved that that was an added surprise to the story. Now, at first I was pretty shocked, just like Aaron was when Rhys told him. But when Rhys explained his life to Aaron, I was like, Oh, okay. I totally get it. Not a problem.

The secondary characters were actually pretty darn groovy!! They were funny and they gave the truth in fun ways and yet they really showed that they cared and gave not only words of support, but they showed it through their actions. They were the kind of people that you’d really like to have in your life. I truly loved Rhys’ conversations with his sons, lots of laughter and love.

I liked how the story was true to Aaron’s feelings regarding dealing with PTSD. The way his body wasn’t perfect like it was before he got hurt. I liked that he had his insecurities and that he was working through his issues. I loved how he was so involved getting help and still going to school. That he wanted to make not only himself better, but to be able to help others. I loved the strength of Aaron’s character. He was such an amazing character. I kept falling in love with him.

I would recommend reading this book. There was the element of fantasy and romance that just worked so very smoothly together. A great way to spend a couple of hours. Trust me!!

4 Pants Off