4.5 Stars
This review was published on Joyfully Jay and can be accessed here: https://joyfullyjay.com/2020/09/review-born-for-leaving-by-jude-munro-aka-mia-kerick/



Oliver Tunstead is a 25-year-old mixologist with a beachfront cottage on Gillamour Island and a hankering for a yellow convertible VW. With his limited funds, the only way Oliver can afford it is to take in a tenant for his empty guest room, and the rent would cover a good faith downpayment to his dad who would buy the car and allow him to make installments. Oliver is an introvert, however, and struggles with people in his personal space. The quirky ad he finds for a man seeking a room to rent on the island for the summer makes this big personal move seem ideal.

Bodie is willing to share snacks and pay cash to be a tenant, with the stipulation that he only plans to stay from the Memorial Day to Labor Day holidays. That’s perfect for Oliver, who doesn’t plan to make friends with this “man in a Stetson.” Oliver likes his solitude, and he protects it fiercely from his overbearing and snooping mother and his inappropriate and lurking ex, Jack, who happens to be his do-nothing boss at the beach bar Surf’s Up. Right now, because their last bouncer got fired for being lewd, Oliver is manning the bar and tossing out the drunk and surly, allowing Jack to either ogle patrons, make innuendoes Oliver heartily rebuffs, or hide in his office to pout and play Candy Crush. Oliver catches the ire of a particularly beefy drunk one night, and a tall, strong, sexy man in a cowboy hat ends up helping him boot the guy out. He’s only a customer that night, but Oliver’s rescuer is soon revealed to be Bodie, the new bar bouncer and Oliver’s new roommate.

There’s a lot of chemistry between ‘Ollie,’ as only Bodie calls him, and Bodie, but it’s like lightning in a bottle—immediate and dangerous. Jack picks up on their mutually protective behavior, while pressuring both Oliver and Bodie for sex in the bar’s employee lounge—either alone or together. Jack’s a creep, but Oliver has an even worse menace being kept at bay by Bodie’s strong fists and eagle eyes. Their friendship develops quickly, due to proximity at work and home, and aided by mutual care for Oliver’s aging Labrador. Intimacy, both emotional and physical, is new for Bodie, who’s survived childhood molestation and abandonment. Oliver’s own reticence for pushy people enables him to be a quiet and compassionate friend, and a caring outlet for the kind of physical intimacy that Bodie has never previously sought.

This story has a lot of trauma, both current and historical, for these characters. The trigger warning is real. Expect frank discussion of child rape, and some brutal moments for both Oliver and Bodie that end in more sexual trauma—both on and off the page. They struggle to find peace because of their wariness that anyone they let close might/will hurt them. For Oliver, he knows that Bodie’s time on Gillamour is finite, so he doesn’t want to be shattered when then most compassionate and passionate man he’s ever known disappears. For Bodie, no one’s ever wanted him to stick around, not his mom or his aunt, and he’s never had a lover or even a true friend in his adolescent or adult life. He’s twenty-eight, and he’s hardly lived in the same place for more than 6 months since he graduated high school and walked away from his hideous family. Even if Ollie wants him to stay, Jack’s machinations are making that a difficult prospect. It seems that Ollie is repairing the damage of years of his mom’s prying surveillance, yet it’s Jack’s malice that temporarily derails Ollie’s dreams of a healthy relationship with a good man.

This story does a lot of emotional work on its characters, who are the kindest, more generous folks. I loved every moment of Ollie and Bodie and how they supported each other, even when it seems they are making bad decisions. They mutual confidences in Ollie’s dog are sweet, and their tentative and tender forays into physical intimacy have a gravitas, even as they are a revelation for both men. I really enjoyed this story, and was thoroughly gratified that there are happy endings in abundance.

Born for Leaving has every imaginable trigger warning applied to it. The level of assault that happens is really quite frightening. I am pleased to see that the author has added the list of triggers to the goodreads description.

Oliver is working a low paid bar job with his ex boyfriend as manager, his heart is set on a little yellow car and he wants nothing more than to escape. In order to buy the little yellow car he decides he will rent the small spare room in his quaint beach side cottage. Enter Bodie, he's brash, he's a loner, he has numerous secrets but he's also HOT. But has Oliver learnt his lesson of not dating work colleagues?!

Bodie fully has fight or flight engaged but can Oliver become the anchor and family he's been looking for?

For me the lack of self help for the characters really unsettled me, I loved their love but I also worry that if there was a sequel they would no longer be together as they are using each other for emotional stability.

<b>Trigger Warning: This book deals with intense themes of childhood sexual abuse, adult abuse, rape, violence, as well as emotional abuse, parental abuse and abandonment. None of these themes are glorified; they are all presented as trauma. If this makes you uncomfortable, do not read this book.</b>

Born for Leaving is about the relationship between Oliver and Brodie. Oliver is struggling to make ends meet financially, unable to pursue his dream career, stuck working for an absolute asshole of a boss (who is also an ex) and desperate for some extra cash, so he advertises a room for rent, even though he really doesn’t want to share his personal space with anyone other than his dog. Raised by a narcissist who feels entitled to every aspect of his life, he has privacy and trust issues.

Brodie has never stayed in one place long. He’s never had a relationship before either, because he’s extremely traumatised from childhood sexual abuse, but these two sweet men have an instant chemistry and explore that in a very open and consensual way.

Unfortunately, their boss, and Oliver’s ex, Jack, goes off on the deep end, sexually harasses, threatens and coerces them to rather extreme levels. As if these guys didn’t have enough to overcome! Mia Kerick is certainly not afraid to put her characters through the wringer.

These are two sweet well-written characters with serious trauma that really would benefit from a professional therapist. Exploring and overcoming that trauma together is the main theme and the question is ultimately can two broken people forge a bond that can survive adversity and what does a happily ever after look like for them? Or will Brodie run away like he’s been doing his whole life?

Will someone PLEASE get these men some counselling?

I’m torn on how to rate this book. From the cover and blurb I expected a fun, sexy romp between two hot dudes. Instead, I got a tale of loss, trauma and emotion. It’s a bold choice to give so much detail about the trauma characters have been through in a romance like this and then to heap more and more trauma on them. Part of why I’m torn is because I don’t feel like I was given this choice in advance and didn’t get what I was expecting. As someone who has been a victim of sexual abuse in the past, I’d personally like this to be telegraphed clearly when it’s the main theme of the book so I can make that choice and be mentally prepared to explore it.

I do think that given the trigger warnings and subject content of the book, this should be a lot clearer to people picking it up for a read. As for why I haven’t rated it higher, see below, but warning, there are spoilers.

<spoiler>The big thing that upset me after I closed Born for Leaving was although Brodie and Oliver get their happily ever after, there’s no justice. The man that sexually abused Brodie as a child is never reported. His mother, who was aware of it, abandoned him without ever being held accountable. Oliver is sexually assaulted, including being digitally penetrated in an alley and beaten black and blue, and decides not to even file a police report. We never see that guy again. Jack sexually harassed his employees whilst threatening to fire them, inappropriately touching, groping and forcing himself on both men. He follows them and stalks them. He then coerces a traumatised Bodie into penetrative sex under threats against Oliver. His business goes under and there’s a single mention of another employee going to the police, but neither Bodie nor Oliver go to the police themselves so there’s no resolution there. It feels like the author went an extra mile to heap assault and indignity onto our sweet characters without giving them any justice whatsoever; enough is enough!

Couldn’t we have at least taken a few of these predators off the streets for some closure?</spoiler>

I’ve given it a three. Born for Leaving is an intense tale of trauma, with deep emotional connections and a sweet romance. It’s not the sexy romp I’d expected, but I cared so much about the characters I wanted to keep reading.

There are several things that I did not like about this book and what I am about to say contains spoilers and discussions about sensitive topics such as: rape, sexual assault and physical violence.

I found the narration very superficial and I didn't connect with the personality of each character and their relationships. Along the same lines, I felt that many things happened in a short time and everything to create drama that was not necessary. I think it's a book that uses problems to bring characters together instead of developing deep relationships.

The "drama" that is constantly being used is various near-sexual assault scenes, and for me that's a big problem. Sexual assault shouldn't be used so lightly, so quickly, and so misinformed. I'm not saying that there cannot be books that have this type of scenes, only that it should be approached in a better way. It reminds me of many heterosexual romance novels where the female lead is about to be raped and is saved by the romantic interest just to create this "hero" idea.

I enjoyed this - the relationship between Oliver and Bodie was beautifully written and developed. You could see how much they cared about each other, despite the personal hardships that both of them have experienced. In particular, I found the ending to be really sweet, because you can tell how much the men have grown to care about each other.

Munro's premise here is simple: beach-town bar worker Oliver needs to rent his spare room for a few months in order to raise some money. He's been burned in his previous relationship (with his boss at the bar), so he's not looking for anything beyond a quick and impersonal renting situation - and those expectations are trashed when the renter he accepts, Bodie, is a) also the new bouncer at his bar, b) drop-dead gorgeous, and c) attracted to him. There follows a series of melodramatic obstacles (Bodie's personal family trauma, rancor from that scorned boss, a weirdly unincarcerated rapist with eyes for Oliver, etc.), and Munro writes them with a conviction appealing enough to make readers look forward to the next installment.

This is a beautifully written M/M Romance with some serious dark overtones. As much as I loved it, reading it left me in a melancholy state of mind. Bode and Oliver are two extremely complex characters that as a couple-- fit together like two pieces of a puzzle- this combination is the only option. They are meant to be together.

I loved the vivid beach town backdrop. The relaxed, lazy atmosphere plays perfectly with the intensity of the story. There are some wonderful supporting characters to love here too. And, of course, then there's Jack.

Despite the sometimes sad, often melancholy feel-- there is the feeling of hope. I really connected with this on many levels. It's haunting.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There is really no way to categorize this as a sweet romance because there was a LOT about Born for Leaving that the characters went through that was far from sweet. So much so that the author has left trigger warnings that some readers probably pay close attention to. What was sweet was the relationship between Oliver and Bodie, if they could have lived in their own little bubble, things would have been great for them. *sigh*

A lot of the trauma that Bodie and Oliver went through was in their past, but it definitely affected their present lives. Granted, as debilitating as Oliver's childhood was, it was nothing compared to Bodie's. They were both survivors though. I loved both of them and the slow burn between them was perfect.

As much as I loved Bodie and Oliver, there were quite a few characters in Born for Leaving that were just as easy to hate. One character in particular was devious enough to find a way to push just hard enough to come between Bodie and Oliver. Trust is a fragile thing and although I spent time internally screaming at Bodie and Oliver, it only took one interaction to throw everything away.

Although this is the first book written by Jude Munro, I know from reading several books by Mia Kerrick that this author is not afraid to face tough issues head on. She has a knack for totally breaking characters (and reader's hearts) and slowly putting them back together. Although everything that Bodie and Oliver went through was totally heartbreaking, they came out stronger in the end. And that's what makes reading books like Born for Leaving totally worth it.

Born for Leaving by Jude Munro

A newspaper request for a place to rent
A man with a room available to rent
A bartender and a bouncer will share a house
Two men with potential to become more than roommates

This was a sweet story with the promise of love, safety, a sense of belonging and “home” for Oliver and Bodie. Both men have trust issues and are a bit silent and rather distant from others but do make a connection with one another. The question is whether or not the one “born for leaving” will decide to stay or leave once again.

What I liked:
* Oliver: a mixologist-bartender with debts and dreams. He has a home, a dog and has been burned in love. He knows what he wants but it might take time for him to get everything he wants.
* Bodie: a strong rather silent man but still waters run deep. He had a difficult childhood and has reasons for keeping himself apart. He is a jack of all trades that feels safe rooming with Oliver
* The relationship that builds between Oliver and Brodie – sweet and charming and filled with hope
* Hugo – a special yellow lab that is special to both Oliver and Bodie, too.
* Sam and his daughter LeeLee, Mika and Nico – great friends and colleagues of Oliver and later of Bodie, too.
* The way the friends looked out for one another
* The information about mixology that was shared
* That the story did not veer away from tough subjects
* The way the story made me think and care and feel while hoping for a HEA for the two men
* Knowing that there was a good future for the people I learned to care about in the story

What I did not like:
* Knowing that the tougher issues faced by both Oliver and Bodie are confronted daily by people in the real world. People should not have to put up with harassment at work, child abuse, attempted rape/rape, etc
* Having to say goodbye to the characters when the story ended

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

A Match Made in a Want Ad"

When they say be careful what you wish for, do you pay attention?

Neither did Oliver Tunstead.

Oliver wishes for nothing more than to get his mind off his crappy bartending job, pile of debt big enough to swallow him whole, and playboy ex-boyfriend/boss who refuses to back off. Too bad distractions, like the hot little convertible he has his eye on, cost megabucks. And Oliver is flat broke. Renting the spare bedroom in his rundown beachfront cottage is his only option to pick up the cash he needs—a risky proposition, as Oliver is the polar opposite of a people-person. When he responds to a bizarre ad in the Waterfront Gazette seeking summer housing, he gets more than he bargained for. But Oliver can cope… After all, how much harm can a single quirky tenant do to his tightly guarded life in three short months?

Where Oliver is a loner by design, urban cowboy Bodie is a loner by necessity. A family dispute long ago dropkicked him onto the path of a lifelong wanderer. This changes when Bodie moves into the tiny beachfront cottage and starts working the door at Oliver’s bar.

Despite Oliver and Bodie’s nearly paralyzing instinct to avoid commitment, they fall into a wary romance. And to their surprise, life as a couple is sweetly satisfying; that is, until their jealous boss devises a cruel plan to destroy the tentative bond they’ve built. True to form, Bodie hits the road, leaving Oliver to lick his wounds alone.

Can these wounded souls defy their urge to flee and fight for love?

An atypical MM romance novel that dives into darker themes of childhood trauma, sexual harassment, and rape; while there are rough patches in its characters and narrative, the author has overall woven an engaging story with two sympathetic and memorable leads.

This was a fun romance book between Oliver and Brodie. It had it's flaws One of the things I found lacking in this book was the quality of the conversations. I wouldn't say 'sexy' or 'hot' scenes because I truly believe that the focus was on the intimacy of the act. But it didn't feel that much special for me and I missed some technical aspect that are often left out but are still part of love making.

This was just ok for me. I had to force myself to finish. It started good. Thank you to netgalley die the ARC.

Oliver is broke and wants to buy a car so he places an add for a roommate for the summer. Brodie is a drifter who just needs a place to crash for the summer. The two end up sharing a house and working at the same bar. Oliver is the bartender and seems to run the place. The owner is his ex and quite a jerk who doesn't like to take no for an answer. Brodie becomes the bouncer and quickly gets the place in shape. Oliver and Brodie naturally get together and their relationship works despite themselves.

It is good to know that even gay romance novels still follow the same tropes as straight ones. There is the instalove factor of course. Relationships never really grow over time but happen very quickly in romance. Brodie is the brooding guy with a past that haunts him. In this case he was sexually abused as a child and has shut away his feelings ever since. Oliver has to deal with the ex Jack who pressures him for sex and actually rapes Brodie. I thought the story wrapped up a little too neatly but it was enjoyable.

This was a fun romance book between Oliver and Brodie. It had it's flaws but I feel it earned its 4 stars because it was fun and I didn't want to put it down

The first major flaw is that I cannot believe that the strong manly cowboy has ginger ringlets. Every time the word ringlets was used it broke my emersion

The second flaw was that there was no regard for employment law. Jack is a terrible boss and there should have been lawsuits against him since chapter 1, instead, Oliver keeps trying to cover for him

I liked the love story between Bodie and Ollie. Unfortunately, I didn’t like a couple of things about this book, so it only got 3.5 (rounded up to 4) stars from me. As several reviewers mentioned, there are several possible triggers which I’m assuming have now been added to the synopsis as trigger warnings.

Bodie and Ollie are similar in that trust doesn’t come easy to either of them and they don’t open up to others. However, their backgrounds are very different. Bodie’s childhood was horrible and it doesn’t sound like he’s ever dealt with it, just pushed it down and moved on. Ollie was emotionally manipulated, and he hasn’t ever really dealt with it either, so he just isolates himself. I love how they learn to open up to each other and start to heal together.

I don’t understand the customer Dale, his actions, and his sudden disappearance. Jack, the bar owner, was horrifying and I honestly can’t believe all his employees just accepted the way he treated them. I also can’t believe ALL the customers accepted it. If I had witnessed it, I would have said something and never gone back.

The miscommunication/lack of communication between Bodie and Oliver came out of nowhere and was surprising. The resolution also seemed rushed. I know Bodie’s view of forced sex is skewed but it feels like the conflict between them surrounding Jack is glossed over. The entire situation was confusing.
I didn’t realize this is the start of a series. I’m not sure if the series will continue with Bodie and Ollie or a new couple as we don’t really meet anyone who could be characters of a new book. I’m interested in seeing where this goes…I would not read a book with Jack as a main character, but I would read a follow-up story with this couple.

3.5 Stars

An atypical MM romance novel that dives into darker themes of childhood trauma, sexual harassment, and rape; while there are rough patches in its characters and narrative, the author has overall woven an engaging story with two sympathetic and memorable leads.

The novel's biggest accomplishment is the depiction of its two leads; both Oliver and Bodie are emotionally introverted with a less-than-happy family history. The gradual unveiling between the characters, both physically and emotionally, in small snippets of daily interaction, is both tender and believable; a rarity for this specific genre. Born for Leaving shines the most during its intimate moments.

For the overarching narrative, the novel sticks close to the genre playbook, telling a summer-long tale on a fictional New England resort island, with the anticipated ups and downs of friend-to-lover and moments of obstacle and miscommunication. The story contains several antagonists, all of whom are quite comically villainous in comparison to the complexity of the two leads. In particular, the character of Oliver's mom and an ex-lover Jack, both went through a character arc that felt very sudden and over-dramatic. Lastly, while the last plot turn offered some emotionally raw moments between Oliver and Bodie, the initiated action taken by the character felt out of place, and the following events leaned a little too much into the melodramatic, rather than common sense.

Overall, thanks to the author's perceptive writing and the introduction of darker subject matter to a genre commonly known for its sexy fun, Born for Leaving is a captivating read beyond what the lackluster book cover otherwise suggests.

***This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***

Wow, this is a truly spectacular story! It's also intense, raw , gritty , thought provoking ; it gave me goosebumps and left me a basket case of emotions.

Please, take to heart , the trigger warnings . They're plenty, they're graphic , they're heartbreaking and they're taboo.

I know , I am going to have a massive book hangover . Born for Leaving is one of those tales who stays with you for a long time.

I just reviewed Born for Leaving by Mia Kerick writing as Jude Munro. #BornforLeaving #NetGalley

A true romance book grim at times yet still seems always gentle with true love winning through in the end. Maybe its not real life but its nice to dream at times

Olliver wants a roommate to save money for a car and he finds one in a newspaper ad. The mysterious Bodie, turns out to be a handsome cowboy in need to stay for the summer so the arrangment is perfect.
They become easy friends with both of their quiet, solitary nature and then slip into a relationship just as simply.
Nothing is that simple, though, as both men have a painful past that they struggle to overcome and Bodie's instinct to leave before he can build a life in one place is destructive for their relationship.

Also, an ex and boss is living out his jealousy and does everything to break them apart. Every wicked, disgusting thing.

So I was rather pleased with this book! The story, the characters and the backstories were built in a great way and I enjoyed it a lot. Though my MM romance obsession might have had something to do with this fact!

Ollie's shy nature is a strange pairing with him being a bartender but his passion lays with the drinks he creates not the people he has to interact with. It is rather interesting how slowly it is revealed why is he the way he is and how a man who only stays for three months can get him out of this lonely existence.
Bodie's issues are with intimacy and trust due to his horrible past which is introduced a bit suddenly and without tact but maybe that was the point?!

One of the things I found lacking in this book was he quality of the conversations. A huge emphasis was on the importance of sharing snippets of their past with each other so it was a bit disappointing that their convesations were written a bit weird. Like the author's strength was writing the other parts, the inner conversations and acts but not the actual talking part. It wasn't really bad it just kind of stopped the flow of the story every time.

My other issue was with the intimate parts. I wouldn't say 'sexy' or 'hot' scenes because I truly believe that the focus was on the intimacy of the act. But it didn't feel that much special for me and I missed some technical aspect that are often left out but are still part of love making.

These little problems were mostly writing style related and I had a great time reading because the story after all was nice and enjoyable.
Character building and consistency was great and the evil of the story was introduced and depicted in a way that I just knew from he first moment I'm going to hate him.
There were a lot of sweet moments showing how one can learn to be intimate and loving after going through some terrible things.
And I also shed some tears at the end on the cruelty of the situation.

All in all, a really nice read for the lovers of bittersweet MM love stories!

CW: (attempted) rape, coercion, sexual harassment, (childhood) sexual assault, violence, parental abuse

This book was a "Read Now" option on NetGalley, and my first one at that. From the beginning, I enjoyed the narrator's voice and opening scene, even as things grew more predictable. It was a little weird to have the initial "twist" be very clear to the reader but still go unnoticed by the main character (Oliver) when he was the one noting things that made it very clear.

There were some cliches that are typical to the genre, such as instalove and the love interest effortlessly rescuing the main character even when he insisted he ~didn't need it. As it went on, most of the dialogue flow was less realistic and more stiff, and the last 15% of the book was not as enjoyable as the first portion. Everything wrapped up quickly and a little too nicely with everyone getting the jobs they wanted through incredibly convenient circumstances, lifelong poor relationships repaired with no effort, etc.

Some of the main character's comments near the end of the book contradicted things from earlier (eg. "I know you would never do that" when he'd spent weeks wondering about it), and miscommunication/lack of communication caused the big final conflict, which was frustrating and a trope I'd love to see the end of. The multiple villains in the book seemed a little one-dimensional and as if they were just there to cause strife for the main characters, even when the main characters didn't really take any actionable steps to be rid of them.

A lot of this book focuses on instances and impact of sexual assault, and while I appreciated the characters calling things rape and the way trauma affected some characters long after the assault happened, it felt like it was used as a plot point quite often. One character's attempted rape was framed so strangely it didn't seem to have much of a lasting impact at all.

Overall, the story was unique in some ways, and it did have an LGBTQIA+ couple as the focus. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was far from the worst story I've read for this genre.

Firstly, there are trigger warnings listed by the publisher and I was thankful that they were. Please pay attention to them, however they are well written. The only thing I would add, would be harassment.

<3 I adore the two main men in this book, although LeeLee have stollen my heart. Sorry! LeeLee is the cutest person to grace the planet. I love the build of this book over a singlle summer though occasionally I wanted to bump their heads together. Hah, but what good plot happens where you are completely satisfied with everything that happens?

Officially love Hugo too, everyone needs a good boy like him in their lives.

I like to see family arcs and I liked what happened with Ollie's family - but I also wish I could slap Bodie's mum. Multiple times... then I'd like to slap Jack. I was worried that he wasn't going to get his comeupance but I'm glad that rectified itself by the end too. 100% glad that Bodie and Ollie both don't work for him any more.

I read this book in under 24 hours, and I really liked it. I would have liked if they had stood up to Jack sooner, but I'm glad they got there in the end.