rock Kindle Edition

This stunningly beautiful story heartbreaking story begins with a very young Cooper. He is a total geek when it comes to all things rocks, stones, etc. He loves collecting different types of rocks. Life is all good for Cooper, that is until the day he finds out his parents are divorcing. Not only that, but his Dad is moving in with his girlfriend Lila. He automatically dislikes her for ruin his family. And now he has to live with her and her son Jace for one week, alternating between his mom's and dad's. Right off the bat, Cooper and Jace don't get along. But with time, they end up making the best of their situation and become friends.● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●"Wish I wasn't so afraid all the time. Wish I was strong like you. You don't care what anyone thinks and you stand up for who you are. I need to do that too. But I can't."● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●This book takes you from Cooper being a kid to an adult. As time goes by, Cooper and Jace form a bond. Everyday they become closer, but soon Cooper realizes his feelings are not brotherly, he falls for Jace. They both don't know what to do. They are practically brothers so they can't be more than that. That does not mean that the feelings that they share for one another ends. Nope, there were many years of longing ahead of them.● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●"I know we have to talk." He swallows and looks toward his mum and our dad. "But can you wait?"I can. I have. I always will.● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●Oh, how this book broke my heart. It was so beautifully written. I absolutely loved how Cooper's love for rocks was incorporated into the actual story line. It was so heartwarming to see the meaning behind each stone. I loved seeing Cooper and Jace grow up into men. They weren't always happy, but I think the pace in which they grew up was perfect. I was still able to connect with the twelve and thirteen year old Cooper and Jace, as I was when they were in their early twenties. What I loved the most and what had me captivated, was how much they still wanted each other after all those years. It absolutely killed me to see them apart.● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●"My favorite rock," I say."I know."I whisper, "Not the opal. You."● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●Another thing that I really enjoyed was that there was a realistic quality to this story. It wasn't always sunshine and rainbows, there was a lot of hurt from their years of yearning for each other. It was so painful to watch them try to move on from their feelings. This story punched my heart and made me tear up bad. I was able to finish this in one day, and I will tell you that I did not want to put it down. At. All. And I probably wouldn't have if real life hadn't gotten in the way. I loved this book to pieces. I loved Cooper and Jace. I loved the family they made. It was pretty short, and yet still, it was perfectly executed. I loved it! This is definitely one of my top favourite m/m books and one I totally recommend everyone should give a try. I can't wait to read more from this author.

OUTSTANDING. This book took me on such a heart breaking ride I was SO not expecting. It's a story about two boys and their journey to friendship, acceptance and love and while we start with two teenagers we have the privilege of seeing them grow into men who are brave enough to follow their hearts.There's a sentence I snatched from this book which for me sums up so much of it - "Broken home, broken rules". It's such an innocent sentence yet it somehow enables Cooper and Jace and us as well, to accept what happened between them. Though I know a lot of people won't like this turf, I URGE you to give it the right chance because as the many tears I've shed in this book clearly showed - IT'S SO WORTH IT!At 13, Cooper's life is shattered when he finds out not only is his father leaving their house and divorcing his mother, he already has a family with someone else. Someone he has been seeing for the past few years (and known a lifetime). While Cooper's mother (and father) try to explain to him and his bigger sister Annie that their marriage haven't worked for a LONG while and they are not mad or hurt by either's actions, it's naturally still very difficult for both kids especially with the having to live now in two houses not too far apart - one with their mother and the other with their father, Lila (the "girlfriend") and Jace (her son, who is a year older than Cooper is).Though Cooper and Jace seems to be hating each other at first sight, they somehow can't stay away and little by little they become best friends. As we only get Cooper's POV we don't know what's Jace's reasoning for his actions but for me they were louder than words. He cared for Cooper. Yet for Cooper there was another layer of attraction he wasn't sure how to handle. First it's dealing with discovering he is gay, they there's the fact Jace seems to be into girls.. not guys.. not to mention while they are not blood related, they are still considered siblings.There was something so beautifully tender in these two families coming together. It was faltering and difficult at times but also sweet, endearing and yet also heart breaking in a way words cannot describe, or at least I can't.. Anyta sure can! See, it wasn't just Cooper and Jace's story, it was also the story of David and Marie (Cooper's mother) as well as David and Lila. It was also the story of Cooper and his good friends, his beautiful relationship with his sister Annie and all the other interaction between them - all was beautifully written in such a tender way.If you're wondering why this book is named simply "rock" you'll get your answer throughout this whole book in the little stones Cooper collects. Every stone has a unique ability, every stone also captures Cooper's memories and experiences and becomes a part of who he is. It was SUCH a unique concept. I LOVED it. I also highlighted my personal precious stone's ability and was quite humbled by what I found about it. There is something so special about the way these stones become so much more than just a minerals when it captures all these qualities and abilities some human, other's almost magical.There is so much more to say about this book. It's not that long but each chapter takes us more and more into what it means to love but also what it means to lose love and how important it is to FIGHT for the love we want and believe in with all the heart ache involves. It was a special journey, one which starts with two 13 and 14 years old teen and ends with two men in their 20s who know some things are worth fighting for even if they are against all odds and might not be acceptable by everyone.HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Keep and open mind and you not only won't be disappointed you're going to take this story and keep it close to your heart. That's a promise!Tags: Young Adult (MM) RomanceMore @ Ultra Meital Reviews.

It took me a bit to decide between a 3 and 4 so I finally settled for 3.5 stars. The stepbrothers or maybe brothers part didn’t bother me, it’s just the story dragged on for so long that by the time the HEA happened, I was too exhausted to care. I did like Ernie and Bert, they were good friends and Annie too for being a good sister.

As teenagers, 14 and 16 year olds respectively, Cooper and Jace are thrown together when Cooper’s Dad divorces his mother Marie. It seems that he has been living a double life while supposedly away on long business trips. He has been with Jace’s mum, Lila, who was his girlfriend, years ago, but they broke up and he left for the USA. When he returned he met Marie, who was a friend of Lila’s she even introduced them. Now they are back togetherInitially Cooper and his sister Annie, hated Lila and her son Jace for breaking up their family.Subtly over time, Jace and Cooper becomes more friendly towards each other and Cooper introduces him to his main interest in life, stones or rocks. They form an important part of their friendship. Jace is a musician, and plays Cooper’s favourite songs on piano. Things start to change when Cooper realises he is gay and he is attracted to Jace. He keeps this attraction secret to himself but is happy to let his family know he is gay.In his late teens, during a special moment between them, he tells Jace of his feelings for him and everything changes. Even though Jace showed his feelings too, he backed off, he couldn’t do it.“It’s complicated” he says, and doesn’t elaborate.When Jace goes off to college he puts more distance between them, he goes to North Island to study and perform music. Cooper still has to graduate from High School. Their phone calls becomes less frequent and visits home become less frequent.During one holiday break Jace brings a boy home and Cooper’s heart breaks when he walks in and finds them in a very intimate situation. He flees without being noticed.How can he ever recover from this heartbreak?Oh these two guys put me through the emotional wringer, they are so good for each other, they are adorable together.I guess there’d be no interesting story to tell if there was nothing standing in the way of their relationship. Does the truth matter? Maybe, maybe not. Really felt the connection and struggle between these two.Anyta Sunday is a new author to me but I see she has quite a library of books to her credit. She is a New Zealander and the story is set there too. I will add more of her books to my TBR list as I enjoyed this one very much.

The sort of aching taboo that could or might not be, that pulls on the chords of yearning, and keeps a lump in the throat of the readed throughout

Tales that come to us via an oral tradition, told and retold by professional travelling storytellers, and folk songs that have survived hundreds of years, have to grip the listener before he loses interest and walk away. As examples, I am thinking of the Scots The Wife of Ushers Well, or the British folk tale, The Watchers by the Well collected by Ruth Tongue from a New Forest gypsy source. In these, the storyteller knows when to indulge the audience's delight in the full details (gory or otherwise), and when to skip detail and trust to their imagination. They are direct and simple.Likewise as readers, we need to be kept in suspense, our attention grabbed and held; we also have to be able to follow a coherent story line, and not to be let down by the author who apparently can't be bothered to guide us through the twists and turns of a plot. There is a conflict here: say too little and the reader can't make sense of what's happening; say too much and the reader can be drowned in a turgid bog of detail - another version of TMI.The skilful storyteller knows when to use the brake and when to press the accelerator. Both are needed, while either can be disastrous in excess. Anyta Sunday, in Rock, knows.M/M literature is notable, and wonderful, for its insight into often complicated feelings, and its serious exploration of the realities of complex relationship, as well as the traumas that can make or break that relationship. At best its observations illuminate, and are relevant to, the full spectrum of possible human engagement, and not just the gay bits. At its worst, it obsesses in endless anatomical details of turgid repetitive bedroom activity which obscure the people behind the physicality of sex. What to leave out and what to put in are constant, moment-by-moment decisions for an author, even if made at the very edge of awareness.So in Rock I find a chapter (argyllite) that ends with the question, 'Will you move in with me?' Turn the page to find the answer, and I am kept in suspense, reading until the end of the following chapter before I find the answer, which is then only implied. But I don't need to read the entire conversation that led up to it, and it has carefully been left out in the interests of progressing the story. There are many other examples of this judicious, folk-song-like, compactness.In the same chapter is the following passage:He plays with my fingers for a moment before I pull away to steer around another stretch of winding road.We're in the middle of a curve when the song comes on."Turn it off." I plead.Zach sounds surprised. "What? This is a great song."In my mind's eye, I see Jace's smile as he says diamonds.I breathe in sharply. "Turn it off!"He does, and the silence is loaded with questions I don't want to answer.We are not told and have to guess what the questions may be, just as we are never told what the song is; we have to think back to the chapter garnet, 12 chapters earlier, and be aware of the repetition of a particular song title at crucial moments in the story. Doing this work for ourselves helps us appreciate the resonance of this particular song for Cooper. We don't need to be told everything at every moment. We should be able to work out the implications for ourselves. In the same way there are 'missing chapters' where time passes, but we catch up on what happened in them only in retrospect. We don't need blow by blow descriptions all the time.All this takes a high level of control by the writer - thinking moment by moment about when something was last mentioned, judging if it needs to be said again. It takes careful editing, as subsequently written passages may alter the balance of the decision taken at an earlier point.It is clear that the rock theme runs through the book. Mineral names are used instead of chapter headings, and stones provide bedrock to the writing, geologically and symbolically. The literal material is enriched by combining it with a symbolic stratum that reflects underlying states of mind.Holding all this together takes skill that I can only gasp at. All this and no typos, no wrongly used apostrophes, and no horrible spellings of barbecue as 'barbeque', which has to be 'barbequeue' if it is to be consistent. (Sorry! Hobby horse of mine!)Rock has some of the economy of a folk tale, the skill of a storyteller, and the control of a real writer. Anyta Sunday has escaped me until now, but I shall be looking out for more from this serious author.

Anyta Sunday has quite possibly crafted one of the most original M/M romance reads of 2014 that I have read. Aside from being impeccably written it's one gut wrenching tale, but it's just amazing. It kicks off with a fast pace, it also lets you know very quickly that it's not going to be a nice love story either and the usual terms to try and describe it just don't fit this book because it so vastly different to anything I've read before, it's hard to even explain let alone add labels or try to pigeon hole it.The beauty of this book and why I felt it worked so well is because it's all about watching two young families growing and fracturing and coming together again over a 15-20 year period, but even then it's like are they two families or one, it's so complicated and it's also extremely hard to say it's great when it keeps wrenching your guts out? There is two main characters but the rest of the family all feature very prominently in this book about seriously damaged families, love and relationships. It is so emotionally draining but it's just so all encompassing you need to know what happens to them. Starting them off as children is what I think makes you grow such an irresistible instant attachment to them. I didn't want to go into characters in this review but when Cooper meets Jace for the first time as kids, with in the first few pages you just want to want to die for the poor kid Cooper.Every time Anyta lets you think there is a good thing finally happening she rips the rug from under your feet over and over again but you can not stop looking at this train wreck because you want for them to find happiness so badly.I highly suggest this book to anyone who want's a great dark romance that is packed full of drama, frustration, longing, desire and despair. Just when you think "please give them a break", along comes the next curve ball. It's not that you don't see quite a few of them coming either and to me that made it even worse. It really is that good, jump on in the waters fine.Rock is one very aptly named novel. It's possible that rock was used in every context available both literally and or inferred by the English dictionary via definition. It's all about rocks, including real ones but beware of falling rocks, I feel like I have been smashed over the head by more than one of them. Some just jump right out of the book and slam you in the face and they're not physical blows.Every chapters is assigned with a different rock or gem. It took me a few chapters to realise the significance of this. I found it to be a brilliant idea because it defines that chapters content with that rock's particular make up in every way imaginable. From physical characteristics, consistency, attributes, element, strengths and weaknesses. It then merges this with it's corresponding uses in folklore and eastern metaphysical beliefs and is a smart way to tell you how distressing the next chapter will be if you know your rocks intimately, which I do not but A+ for effort there.It literally starts with a rockslide, and the relentless barrage of emotions you are dragged though took me to the point where I felt like I couldn't take it anymore but I could not stop reading. I cried and had a couple of shuddering sobs rack my body. I would recommend this book to my father to read.I did have one small gripe, I think they used the wrong U2 song. I thing Red Hill Mining Town or One Tree Hill had much more apt lyrics and the second song was dedicated to a Maori that was a dear friend of Bono's that died

Reading some of the reviews, my mouth just fell open.I know tastes differ widely as each human is different… but… come on! This book is more than good, it’s Special! It’s raw, it’s rare and it is written in such a refreshing fluent way!Minerals and their meaning play a huge role in this story and it is wrapped up and braided in so beautifully and always made sense. It gives the story so much more than Amy good Plot can do. And the plot is good, really good!I won’t tell more, you know it’s gay romance, yes it’s a stepbrothers-enemies-to-Friends-to-lovers story and there is loss in it too.There is a Happy End though, but you might shed a tear or two, so be warned.But it’s worth it! Really!This book is a gem. It’s meant to be found by you and if you did, take a closer look.