About “Carry the One” by Sailor Penniman::
Genre: Romance, Gay/LGBT, Realistic Fiction
“Tobias knows what it means to get kicked around. One bank took his home, the other, his car. After two hard years of barely hanging on, jobless, the former math teacher lives on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles in a roomy tent fully outfitted with as many comforts as his last paycheck would provide. When Tobias encounters Arthur getting robbed and beaten by three thugs in Grand Park, he can’t help but come to the rescue, especially since Arthur seems newly homeless and dangerously clueless.
Arthur sees that night through a lens of drunkenness and can’t remember much of it. He is surprised the next morning when he awakens in the cozy tent of Tobias and learns Tobias saved him from a violent mugging and possibly a stint in County Jail for vagrancy. When Arthur, a lonely man who has longed for a real human connection for fifteen years, realizes that Tobias believes he has nowhere to go, Arthur continues the charade to be near Tobias. His clever scheme works, and Tobias allows Arthur to come closer than anyone ever has.
But Arthur harbors more than one secret, and after finding a clever way to remain in Tobias’s life, he digs a far deeper hole of deception without meaning to. Worse, he knows that if Tobias learns the truth, Arthur will lose all access to the man with whom he has fallen deeply in love. Can he keep the mystery hidden long enough to make Tobias love him, no matter what? Or will what started as innocent duplicity destroy the only love Arthur–and Tobias–have ever known?”
Forget the other Rich boy x Poor boy stories and read this one! “Carry the One” is a beautiful story that explores the destitution of both ends of the wealth spectrum in detailed and heart-wrenching realism.
Tobias is a math teacher who slowly lost his money to greedy bank fees, his house, his car, and finally his job when his desperate state is discovered by his bosses. The author’s account of the problems of the homeless is heart-breaking and eye-opening. The entire story is laced with compassion while detailing the atrocious manner in which the poor and the homeless are treated.
After living on the streets for a year, Tobias meets Arthur when the undercover billionaire is mugged. Arthur, though wealthy, is entirely alone save for one close friend. He’s been sucked into the cycle of only being seen for his money rather than the person he is. With this in his mind, he continues to let Tobias believe he is financially destitute.
The two must battle their inner demons and their doubt to fight for the love they want with each other. But will that love be enough to see past each other’s flaws and deception and truly understand each other’s heart? In every breath and at every turn, I found myself gushing happily and even crying reading this story. It’s wonderfully written with perfectly developed characters and atmosphere with a powerful plot-line that hits the core of many issues from both the physical and emotional standpoints.
Buy the ebook here (FREE with Kindle Unlimited).
Sailor Penniman can be found on:
Twitter @SailorPenniman
Goodreads
Amazon
Author Website
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~Sahreth ‘Baphy’ Bowden
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