Review - Lost Along the Way by Marie Sexton

Daniel’s parents are killed in a car crash. He had been estranged from them for 15 years over their refusal to accept his homosexuality, but they had started to reconnect in the months leading up to their deaths. When Daniel finally faces the task of cleaning out the family home so it can be sold, he finds that his parents had become collectors, bordering on hoarders. Fortunately, their neighbor Landon is there to help. When Landon finds a strange cookbook left on his doorstep, things begin to get a little weird.

“Lost Along the Way” is a contemporary romance with just a touch of magic, if you choose to believe in it. While many romances tell a story of finding new love after a bad breakup, this book looks, in part, at a relationship that’s reaching its end. Daniel chose love with his boyfriend Chase over his parents, but he and Chase have grown apart. An epiphany which may or may not have been magically induced makes Daniel realize there’s no way back to what they had.

The entire story is told from Daniel’s point of view. Although he never divulges his age, it must be mid-thirties. His career as a television weatherman (sorry, meteorologist), like his home life, seems to be stagnating and no longer brings him the joy it once did. The task of cleaning out the house he grew up in, along with meeting Landon, gives Daniel a new perspective.

We only get to know Landon through Daniel’s eyes. The two never discuss Landon’s background, but they end up spending a lot of time together, so we do find out a lot about what kind of person Landon is. He’s definitely one of those rough-on-the-outside, soft-and-gooey-on-the-inside kind of guys.

We never get to know Chase very well. He never gets to explain himself, which fits in with the plot, but it feels like there’s a story to tell there.

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“Lost Along the Way” is available from Smashwords or Amazon (commissionable link).