Extreme Homecoming was written for the M/M Romance Group’s 2014 Love’s Landscape Event. It’s told in first person through the eyes of Hunter.

Hunter is at the top of his sport of eXtreme motocross, but it still doesn’t take away the deep ache in his heart from when his lover Bastian left for Afghanistan and never contacted him during the three years he was gone. Hunter was heartbroken,worried sick and constantly wondering if Bastian would end up on the list of dead soldiers. The author makes the point that Hunter is very, very, very, upset with Bastian and what he did.

One day Bastian returns as a medic for the motocross and Hunter sees him just as he’s taking a practice jump. He crashes his bike and later goes off to ride off his distress at seeing Bastian. Bastian hunts him down and they have a ‘friendly,’ dirt bike competition. When they sit down and rest Bastian tells Hunter,

“Okay. Ask me. Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell ya. For the next hour, I’m an open book. After that, I want to put all of this behind us and move forward. I love you, Hunter. I have for years. As much as I hate the distance between us, I get it. So let’s do this.”

I have a problem with Bastion telling Hunter he’s only got an hour. See, I equate this to something like cheating. Person One has wronged Person Two. Person One does not have the luxury to dictate to Person Two how long they can or cannot feel hurt by what Person One did. It doesn’t work that way. Person One grovels and takes whatever Person Two dishes out for however long Person Two takes to trust Person One again. If it looks like after a long period of time nothing will be resolved, even with going to therapy, then they split up. But never should the offending person tell the person they hurt, ‘get over it when I tell you to.’ That is so very wrong in my book.

The other problem I have is that the author, presented through Hunter, how terribly hurt he was with the way Bastian behaved and then they have sex and everything is solved. No, just no.

Finally, many men and women are separated from their spouses and kids and parents when they serve overseas and they don’t say they can’t handle it and cut all contact. Their family is their lifeline from all the death and destruction of wherever they are stationed. And their family needs to hear from the soldiers just as much. Bastion was a total a**hat and Hunter was a doormat for forgiving him so quickly.

The issue of a very hurtful situation was resolved way too fast in this story with sex. The excuses Bastion gave didn’t hold water and Hunter is rather weak-willed. The author is a good writer and I want to thank her for giving her time and talent to the event. But this story has many things that did not work for me. I give it 3 Stars

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