Actual rating 3.5 stars

I requested this on NetGalley because I instantly liked the title and the description. It looked like it would be a sweet romance and, in many respects, that was completely true.

Chris and his boyfriend leave New York in 1992 during the height of the AIDS crisis because they are tired of burying friends and move to a small town and open up a bakery. They break up and Chris' boyfriend moves back to New York, leaving Chris as the only gay man in town. Enter Hank who is there to test the old water plant and things kick off. Rivers play a huge part in this book, bringing the main couple together and continuing to be something which remains a theme of the book.

I really like the variety of characters there were in this book. While the main plot was between Chris and Hank, there were smaller subplots of Shirley and her husband, Troy, coming out of prison, Donnie and his strained relationship with his father and Drika wanting to do the right thing for her nephew while risking her relationship with her brother. Bossa creates varied characters that you can understand, even if you don't agree with their decisions. Liliana wants to send her son to a gay conversion camp because she believes it would be the best thing for him and the psychological, emotional and physical abuse of these camps was not nearly well publicised twenty years ago, nor how completely pointless they were because it led to encouraging self-hatred and denial rather than actually turning people straight. I completely disagree with this decision of hers but Bossa makes it very clear that this ignorant, misguided decision has good intentions behind it and she does this for a lot of bad decisions in this book. We can see why Hank is so scared of being out but we know it is going to stop him being happy if he continues like he is.

This book is set in 1992 and the setting really drives the book. There are all the misconceptions about gay people and AIDS itself which were even more prominent back then, when the only information you got was from books and the media. Sometimes I forgot which time it was set in but it was always brought back to the forefront because it was such an important part of the plot. Hank and Chris find the long-distance relationship even worse when they have only landline phones to communicate on and I really felt for them when events were going on in Chris' life and he didn't want to talk about them over the phone.

Then we come to the relationship. I absolutely loved the last two-thirds of this book where Hank and Chris had confessed to each other but it wasn't a happily ever after, as the two of them had to work through their own issues and outside conflicts as well. It was so nice to see a romance novel where the conflicts weren't based around stupid misunderstandings or mistaken cheating or one breaking up with the other for their own good. Their fights and conflicts stemmed from understandable fear and distance between each other and I loved how it was resolved as well. That being said, the first third of the book was incredibly insta-lovey and if this book wasn't such an easy read, I would have given up on it. I'm really glad I didn't give up on it but I found myself rolling my eyes at how quickly Hank and Chris' relationship developed and wished we could have gotten a more slow-burn start to their romance.

If I was reviewing the first third and the second two-thirds separately, there would be two very different ratings. Together, I would say this book is 3.5 stars and I would recommend it, as long as you get through the first third.

Title provided via Netgalley.

Oi. I wish I could say I liked this, but this just wasn't my cup of tea. I loved the premise, but the execution wasn't there for me. I didn't like the writing style and that pulled me out of the story immediately. I couldn't feel anything when reading it. It was in first person, but it was like the character was having an out of body experience and that's what it read like. The writing and characters had no grounding connection in the story to me.

I also think the setting might have been a bit weird for some. I was born in the 90s so it wasn't too removed from my frame of reference and understanding of the time. For some that may have been an issue, also because generally authors tend to write no more than 5-10 years from the year in which they write. The year for the setting was a good little thing that added charm, because it was just outright different for me from what I've read recently. It's been a while since I read anything with a setting pre-2000 so that was a plus, but the rest of it just fell flat for me.

This is a new to me author. I didn’t know what to expect when I started to read this book. The blurb makes out this book to be a some what light read. That the seriousness of it would be that Hank is really so far in the closet. But nope!

We have Hank’s severe anxiety about coming out and we have a depressed teenager wanting to spread his wings and be true about how he wants to live his life and we have the whole AIDS thing going on in the book.

Not what I was expecting.

Right off the bat... the tone of this book seemed kinda serious. The pace of the book wasn’t to my liking. And Chris seemed way older than he was.
Once Hank came into the picture I thought things would pick up. But they didn’t really. It was kinda boring. I wasn’t really connecting to both main characters. Or all the secondary characters either.

At the 15% mark...their 1st time. It started off hot and heated. But then it slowed down to making love. Ughhh... they had like 2 very short conversations before Hank went to Chris’s house to just have sex. There should be no making love! Not that fast anyway!
Then Hank left and didn’t talk to him for days!

Overall this book wasn’t for me. It took me a long time to read it too. I just kept putting it down. I never got to a point where I just couldn’t wait to see what happens next. This book just wasn't for me.

Seriously mixed bag review ahead. I fear this write-up will be as all over the place as this book felt at times, but I’ll try to keep it reigned in. First, let me say that I ended up liking No River Wide Enough a fair amount. The last quarter of the story was very strong, but it was a struggle at times getting there. Also, in the beginning of the story, the emotion simply wasn’t there. We were told how Chris felt about things, and about how he was learning things about Hank, but there was a lot of on-page relationship development missing. We got there in time, I was rooting super hard for the MCs by the halfway point…but, it took until almost the halfway point before I was really feeling it.

There were a couple of other minor story niggles I had, but the main issue I had with this book was the editing. Or, I should say, glaring lack of editing. Usually I’m completely forgiving of errors, especially considering we often receive ARCs or copies that specifically state they are uncorrected proofs. But, in this case, the review copies were sent two days prior to release, so it should have gone through final edits by that point. And nowhere did it state that it was an uncorrected proof, so I’m left to believe that the book was put out into the world like this. Which is so unfortunate because, along with a few MASSIVE mistakes, there were a ton of typos, wrong words, missing words, and extra words. These problems took me out of the story time and time again.

Like I said, though, mixed bag… So, along with my complaints there are also lots of nice things to be said about No River Wide Enough. I truly enjoyed the characters, the setting was lovely, and the time period was interesting and allowed the author the ability to discuss conflicts that aren’t as prevalent today as they were in 1992. Ultimately, this book was a story of hope and possibility, and left me feeling positive and uplifted.

Most of that positivity came from the characters themselves. Both Chris and Hank are so, so charming. I loved them both. Chris’s boyfriend left him a year ago, deciding small-town life wasn’t for him, but Chris stayed and built a very nice life for himself in St-Clovis. He owns and runs a local bakery and café with his partner, Drika, who he adores, and lives next door to his best friend and her young son. He has mostly given up on the idea of having someone to spend his life with again, though, until Hank Clift comes to town. Hank is intelligent, well-read, kind, and very, very lonely. Having suffered a tough, humiliating, ugly breakup a couple of years ago, he had also all but given up on finding someone, until seeing Chris. These guys were beautiful together. They had so many gorgeous, swoony moments. I loved this, for example:

“Yes…I was that river. Trickling, when I should have been gushing down mountains and pouring through valleys. They split me up. All of them. My father. The military academy. People. And I lost my strength. My dignity. But somehow, in spite of all that, I flowed down to you. And now going back home without you, feels like flowing backwards against my own stream.”

I’ll sum up by saying, I finished the book with a smile on my face—it really did leave me with a good feeling—but, it was sort of a messy journey. I liked the premise and a lot of the parts, but the execution wasn’t perfect. I kept getting glimmers of what made Craving’s Creek (the only other book I’ve read by this author) so magical—there was some stunning dialogue and beautiful imagery that went along with the water theme—but at other times I wondered if this was the same Mel Bossa. And, that editing was so hard to get past. Sorry I don’t have a more definitive yay or nay for you guys. I’m sure some people are going to love it and be more able to overlook the things I couldn’t. But, for me, it was a bumpy read.

A quiet and emotionally intimate love story set in a 1990s small town, "No River Wide Enough" focuses on Chris, a small bakery owner, and his developing relationship with Hank, an engineer passing through. It's an enjoyable, quick read, though the issues that arise--Hank's anxiety, a teenager in the community falling in love with Chris and the fallout that ensues, as well as the stressors of living as a gay man during the AIDS crisis--are shunted aside pretty quickly. That being said, it's nice to see the emotional intimacy unfold, and it's lovely to see two men committed to embracing the kindness and love that they deserve.

3,5 stars:
the first 30%: 2 stars
the second part of the book: 5 stars


First of all I'd like to thank my GR friends, Ami and Meep, who LIKED this novel and whose reviews inspired me to KEEP ON READING ( BTW, Ami, it was also my first Mel Bossa )


This novel was a tough nut to crack. BUT ONLY during the first 30%.
It is why, on the one hand, I can understand the readers who DNF it within these cursing percentage. On the other hand, I feel pity for these readers. Because the remaining 70% was just amazing, but they may never know it.

For the second part of the book I can't give anything less than 5 stars. But you have to be patient to get there.

No River Wide Enough is a SLOW-PACED romance that told you about two lonely men who found each other, fell in love with each other, but who first had to overcome obstacles, conquered their own difficulties and met the right decisions to be together. I really want to emphasize that this is a slow-pacing romance, not a slow-burning one. I think it was the reason why it took me so long to come through the first 30%. There is a lot of insta-love in the first part, that I didn't expect from a slow-burning romance, and I'm not a fan of it. But even if Chris and Hank knew relatively soon about their feelings, it was not an easy way to their HEA. Exactly THAT PART is actually a great story.

The author has a very pleasant writing style, quiet, smooth, beautiful. Maybe not a book that stays with you forever, but this love story won't leave you indifferent.

No River Wide Enough is a slow starter of a novel. The character building is uneven and the plot is difficult to follow, but we do get there eventually.
Despite these complaints, the characters are people you like to know and watch grow throughout the book. It’s hard to believe the 90s are so long ago, so what was true then is now a different story.
Chris and Hank, especially Hank, are good small town people. Chris has built himself a life by opening a bakery in St. Clovis. His business partner Drika is a good woman. Hank is having trouble finding his niche in this small town. He’s very intelligent but lonely, and is afraid of establishing a relationship with Chris, having been burned before.
The comparisons between water and rivers with Hank are wonderful. Hank meanders, with purpose, just as rivers do. This is a book to fall into and fall in love with the characters.

3 Stars!

The book starts off by letting us know it is set in 1992, when the AIDS epidemic is still very much talked about and being feared. This is one of the major reasons Chris and his then boyfriend moved. They were tired of burring their friends and the turmoil it brought them. Chris settled into small town life and ended up buying the Frontier Cafe and Bakery. Trevor, his boyfriend, couldn't handle the small town life and left to go back to the concrete jungle of New York. It has been a year since Trevor left Chris and although he has a job he loves and great friends, he is quite lonely. He figured being the only out gay man in town he will be living with his loneliness for the rest of his life. That is until the county fair. Him and his business partner have a booth sat up and it's there he meets the eyes of a tall dark handsome man. He hopes the long eye contact they keep means what he think it means.
Hank has been living a life of lies and solitude. He travels all over for his job and never stays in one place too long. He has an anxiety disorder that he deals with on his own. It affects him a lot especially when it comes to his sexuality. He's a 37 year old man who has been alone the entire time with no real relationships keeping himself locked up tight in that closet of his. He works, reads, and takes care of his ornery father. But meeting the eyes of the ginger man has him losing his self control that he tries so hard to obtain. He knows this man is going to be his game changer. The one who will pull him out of his solitude and that dark closet. The one who he will do anything to be with.
This is a slow burn love story about two men, one out and one not, who've been lonely in their own way finding each other and changing each others lives. There are many struggles both men go through together and separately. Hank struggles not only within himself but also with his relationship with his father. Chris struggles with choices and decisions he's made that essentially changed his outlook on things and how naive he had been.
It was a great story. I really enjoyed it. It just didn't wow me. The chemistry of these two characters took awhile for me to believe. They spent too much time apart for my liking. It was a quick read once I got started (RL interruptions). I never felt bored or that the story was dragging. It was a satisfying read.

Happy reading dolls! xx

It's 1992. Two gay men meet in a small Canadian border town. One is out and proud but extremely lonely. The other is buried in the closet and suffers from anxiety. Their eyes meet and sparks fly. A little sneaking around and the relationship that should be over before it really starts develops into something deeper. Strong feelings between these two help them find a way through life's challenges.

I liked it. I had a bit of trouble with the "era" of the story. Why don't I remember 1992 very well? ... Oh yeah, I was out partying until my memory blanked. Oops. Oh well, I like 2018 much better anyways.

Other than that, it was a good story. It still needs some line editing and it's not a big, flaring romance, but it's moderately paced with strong relationships between all the characters.

*~~*ARC kindly provided to me for an honest review *~~*

- Review to come

Review originally posted on my blog with added content on Mikku-chan / A world full of words

TW: Explicit on-page homophobia, AIDS discussions, physical assault, talk about conversion therapy

I was surprised when I saw the date at the beginning of the book, because nowhere in the blurb does it say when the story is happening. From the description I imagined that it is happening in a small town in today’s times. But no, it is happening in 1992 (a year before I was born 🙂 ) and in a small town.

But the story fit. And I cannot believe what I will say now, but it does feel more historical than contemporary. It is unsettling to say that, but it does show how different times were back then.

Chris has been living in the city on his own for about a year, since his ex decided that small-town-living is not for him and moved back to a big city. But Chris has decided to stay, to take care of the bakery, despite being the only openly gay man in the town. And during the stereotype-fuelled times, with AIDS epidemic still in full swing.

Hank, on the other hand, is deeply closeted, and after having a bad experience years ago when someone outed him to a small circle of people, he is afraid of ever coming out. But he cannot deny his attraction to Chris.

Their story starts quickly, it is pretty much…I don’t know if actually insta-love, but certainly attraction is there from the beginning, and they fall in love. But Hank has a hard-ass father for whom he has to care, or find a home that will take him, after every single one near their actual home doesn’t want to.

As said in TWs, there is explicit homophobia and physical assault from a homophobe father who thinks Chris has ‘turned’ their son gay, as well as a discussion about sending the boy to conversion therapy. Luckily, the boy has a good grandmother who gives him money to move to the city, and Chris gives him a contact of his ex, so that someone will help the boy avoid the major traps. (The assault is basically a man pushing Chris, causing him some minor injuries, and it is over pretty quickly, but it is still there).

There is not much discussion about Chris’ ex on page, but I did not find it missing as much, I liked how it was all focused on the present.

The book seemed very realistic, especially in describing the AIDS epidemic, telling how Chris and his ex have seen many funerals, and how it affected people’s views of gay men. And even the HEA ending seemed very realistic. It is not as ones you would find in books happening nowadays, but it does say in the epilogue that it was 1993.

It is not the easiest book to read, as it deals with many issues I described above, but I liked it a lot.

Book – No River Wide Enough
Author – Mel Bossa
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
No. of Pages – 213
Cover – So pretty!
POV – 1st person, one character
Would I read it again – No
Genre – LGBT, Contemporary, Romance
Content Warning – aids crisis


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


DNF'd at 18%
Sadly, this one just wasn't for me. It started out okay, but the writing was very choppy and needed a few beta readers or another round of edits to bring it all together.
I was initially confused as to why the year 1992 was used at the top of Chapter 1, where a POV note would normally be, but when the story went on to talk about San Francisco and ACT UP, it made more sense, but that didn't come until halfway through the chapter.
The writing wasn't my favourite. Though it had some decent storytelling ability, there was just far too much back story, too many info dumps, and too much telling instead of showing. There was 2 years of history between Chris and Lewis that was explained in one chapter, through Chris thinking to himself. It started to wear, after a while, because it wasn't organically explained, at moments that made sense. Chris was also made out to be some shy, desperate gay man in the middle of nowhere, who had given up his dreams, stopped living, put on weight, had no self confidence, yet was completely irresistible to Hnak the moment he showed up in town. It felt too contrived.
I didn't feel any chemistry between Chris and Hank. There were furtive looks and mumbling, lots of uncomfortable moments between them, but it felt too much like two gay men desperate for any kind of attention at all that they just pounced on the only other gay man close by. Within days of meeting, and not seeing each other for more than two seconds, Chris gives out his home address. A few days later, Hank shows up and two steps in the door is snogging and undressing him, until they – and I quote – “Slowly, and for hours, we made love.” Then Hank went all conservative and closeted, insisting it couldn't happen again and that he had to leave. I get that these two haven't had sex in (a year, for Chris, and two for Hank) a while, but the way they jump each other without even knowing each other isn't natural, romantic, or even makes sense. There's not even the kind of spark or chemistry that would usually precede a one night stand. It felt more like – well, I'm gay, you're gay, so let's have sex.
There were quite a few editing issues, like Drika asking Hank to introduce himself when pages before they had already introduced themselves; Chris knowing with certainty that the deep voice he hears is Hank when that's impossible to know; missing punctuation marks. I was also confused by the decision for Shirley to mention the t-shirts at the county fair only for Chris to start mentally lamenting her ex-husband and how he was no good for her, then needing Drika to reintroduce the topic of the t-shirts a paragraph later. It made no sense. We already knew Chris' thoughts on Roy, Shirley's ex, so there was no need for it and it made the entire passage feel disjointed.
The only character that I actually really liked was Donnie – the silent kid who seemed to be the teenager with a crush on Chris who was always ignored.

Overall, while Chis was supposed to be 29 years old, I felt like he acted more of a teenager than Donnie did. He was so utterly desperate for human contact but painfully shy that he was a cliché and stereotype all rolled up into one. Sadly, while I loved the concept in the blurb and the writing was okay if littered with issues, I just couldn't get into the story. I found myself bored, my mind wandering, and not liking Chris or Hank very much. I didn't believe in them. I didn't believe they had any reason to be drawn to each other. And, if I'm not interested in the main characters or their potential relationship, there's really no point of continuing.

There were aspects of this book I enjoyed. It was very sweet and so was the main character. It was nice to live in his life. However, the insta-love aspect of the story didn't work very well for me. I didn't *feel* the chemistry that led to the fast development of a relationship from their hook ups. It was more like being told.

On a personal note, the queer pain aspect didn't work for me, but this is very much subjective and not reflective of how the author handled it. Just forewarning if that's not a readers thing that it is very much present in the book.
I enjoyed the secondary characters and the small town feel.

This is a sweet and heartwarming story of a gay couple in the early 90s. A bit of insta-love, but much of it felt true to life.

Reviewed for Netgalley

Despite the many typos and grammar issues, I enjoyed No River Wide Enough. I don’t think a story like this one would work in a modern setting, but for taking place in 1992, it is effectively told and the mentions of having to answer a pager were a good reminder of when the story was happening.

I liked Chris. He was naïve, sweet, and heartbreakingly lonely. I thought the deeply closeted and repressed Hank was also an interesting character, but I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the supporting characters who made up the small town of St. Clovis. From the single-mom neighbor to the distraught Donnie, the lesser characters were really what made the overall story so endearing. Bossa captured the small town vibe and brought the story to life with this family that Chris didn’t even realize he had until he was forced to come out from his shell and interact with his customers.

The situations that Chris encountered, a love interest who is terrified of being out, a young boy afraid of being stuck in St. Clovis forever, homophobia, the 90s fear of the AIDs virus, were all written so well and added such depth, sadness and eventually hope to the story.

No River Wide Enough is a fast, sweet, enjoyable read.

No River Wide Enough by Mel Bossa

Set in 1992 this book deals with issues that I remember well. The AIDS epidemic was real and something that not everyone had full information about. Being in the closet for many was still a big issue - as it was for Hank Clifts in this story. There were some who were more open but not in small communities or in some conservative religious groups. Issues are more openly discussed now than then but there still needs to be more openness and acceptance in this world.

Okay, this book is a heartwarming love story set in a small community. It is also a story of friendship and sharing and caring. I liked and could relate to the characters and believe I would have enjoyed living in this town. Chris is such a good man and he always sees the best in others while trying to do what is right. He has made a home for himself and is content though he does dream of having a true love someday. When Hank shows up in town there is instant attraction and though it takes Hank a bit of time to make his move it is just what they both needed when they finally get together. They realize that it might be short-term but both wish it could be more…and with some work they do manage to eventually get their HEA.

Side stories include the friendship between Chris and his neighbor and the issues she is facing, the postcards Chris receives, a young man in town who is facing a personal crisis, a medical emergency, personal growth of more than one person, bigotry, the way community pulls together and more. The art and river and sharing and caring were wonderful.

I did question whether or not men would think and talk and behave as they did in this story BUT since I am not a man or a gay man…may never know how true to life these men might be. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and would actually like to read a book about Donnie at some point in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Less Than Three Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars