| Title | : | Open Hearts (Heartland #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1634777905 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781634777902 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 262 |
| Publication | : | First published November 25, 2016 |
Moving on is proving more difficult for Ángel Stanford. When Ángel’s husband Zach died, Ángel’s dreams of a home and family perished along with him. He always wanted to be a stay-at-home husband and father, but he never imagined he’d be raising Gracie alone. The closer he gets to the handsome firefighter—and the more Asim becomes a part of his and Gracie’s life—the more Ángel feels like he’s betraying Zach. Ángel has to give himself permission to be happy and realize that while nothing will ever replace the life he had before, the future for him and his daughter can be full of happiness… if he’s willing to reach out and take it.
Open Hearts (Heartland #3) Reviews
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Both previous stories in this series have been full of drama, emotions, tough decisions, and realistic issues. But I was still not ready for the level of obstacles the two main characters in ‘Open Hearts’ face. They have a tough situation to deal with anyway – both have lost a partner – and are in dire need of starting over, but then they go and make it worse. I was ready to tear my hair out more than once!
Asim is a tormented man. He is a Muslim who denies his heritage because gay men are not accepted in his family or culture. He has never come out, but still refuses to enter into an agreed marriage waiting for him at home after he graduates, and decides to run away and becomes a firefighter. As a consequence, he loses his family. Then he loses his lover in the 9/11 attack, and the resulting emotional problems manifest in nightmares and self-doubt bordering on self-hatred for being gay. He is a complicated character and, after suffering so much, I wanted him to have a happy ending. He has to change and grow a lot before he can get there, and it takes him a very, very long time to do it. Anyone who likes flawed characters is bound to like him, but it was a close call for me.
Ángel has his own set of problems. He may be out and proud, but he too has lost the man he loved and is now left to raise Gracie, their daughter by a surrogate, on his own. While part of his struggle is around dealing with wanting to be a stay-at-home dad and people not accepting him because he is "too flamboyant", the thing that holds him back is the feeling that he will betray his deceased husband if he allows himself to fall in love with Asim. Moving on after losing a partner is never easy, but for Ángel, it seems almost impossible for the longest time. As long as he doesn’t allow himself to find happiness, there is no chance he and Asim can make it.
If you like tormented characters and lots of drama, if you think that a path to love that is full of obstacles makes it all worthwhile, and if you’re looking for a read about realistic characters with painful pasts to learn to live with before they can move on, then you might like this novel.
NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on
Rainbow Book Reviews. -
*4.5 Stars*
I have actually only read this one and book 2 of Logan Meredith’s Heartland series. Both are standalones but all the characters mingle so reading from book one might be a good idea.
Open Hearts is crazy emotional! There’s parts of this story that are heavy on the angst. Other parts are angering and frustration. Some areas are utterly beautiful and so full of love. My heart absolutely and completely broke for Asim. I won’t lie and say I was unsympathetic to Angel’s situation because I was. But something about Asim struck a chord with me.
Asim is a firefighter. When the book starts he’s not out of the closet. He has been barely living since the man he loved more than any other died.
Angel is a nurse and a father to beautiful Gracie. He is very much out of the closet. But, he is also mourning the loss of his husband.
Both men with horrible guilt and a desperate need to love having to overcome so much just to be together. It was highly moving.
The frustration I had was of course all the stuff Asim ended up having to deal with. With his colleagues, Angel, his friends, all of it. How he didn’t just explode with anger is beyond me. He’s so patient with Angel to the point even I was like, “Stop. You deserve better.”
Angel has a lot on his plate too but it was the jerking Asim around that was the big anger button for me. I knew Angel was going to have to do something huge to get Asim to want him in his life.
We deal with a lot in this book. Loss, acceptance, love, culture clashes, family, friends, and most of all living.
Logan Meredith has absolutely written a book that will hit you smack in the heart. Lots of tears, some laughs, angst, and reflection. -
I was given a copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
This story about grief is a difficult but thought provoking read. Less than a year after the sudden death of his husband, Angel finds his attraction to Asim very difficult to accept. Fourteen years after 9/11, Asim is still mourning the loss of his family, his culture and his first love. Closeted Asim struggles to accept his sexuality and Angel’s flamboyant sexuality initially brings out the worst in him.
While I felt deep empathy for both of these men, I found it difficult to truly love either of them. Both men make choices that hurt each other and the people around them. Angel’s fear of commitment is realistic but it makes for a very angsty romance. Fourteen years hiding in a closet have deprived Asim of confidence and made him more than a little bit clingy. Neither man is always likeable.
The actual romance is long and slow with very little story to support the relationship. I grew a little bit tired of the hesitant, tentative relationship at times. But there were sweet and tender moments that redeemed the men and made me cheer for their relationship.
Readers will need to be in the right headspace for this story because it is heavy and dark at times. This is a sensitive exploration of grief and new love and the writer shares some important insights with her readers. -
Open Hearts is the third book in the Heartland series by author Logan Meredith. I found this book to have its up and downs. I think there is a great story here, I just think it also fell a little short as well. The connection to the characters that draws me to a book really was just luke warm to me. I wanted it to be much more than it turned out to be.
Asim has night terrors and memories that haunt him. He cannot really come out yet as gay. He is a firefighter. He is a very hard on himself character. Very angsty in his own right.
Angel is very friendly. He too has had a partner die. He has always wanted to be a stay at home father and husband. Raising Gracie alone was never in the plans but he has no choice now. He is flamboyantly gay.
These two have a strength the other needs. I liked watching them interact and bond. I do feel this story is not yet done. There is a happy for now ending. I would like to visit these two again and see how happiness is treating them.
This is the third book in a series. I have not read the previous two, I do think they should be read in order to fully comprehend relationships in this story.
Four Twinkling Stars -
🎁 FREE on Amazon today (11/16/2022)! 🎁
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ARC provided by the publisher through
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words in exchange for an impartial review.
Asim Bishara is a firefighter in Indianapolis, the city he settled in when he left his family-of-origin behind in New York City after the 9-1-1 attack. He lost his family after he admitted he was in love with Steven, a firefighter who died when the World Trade Center collapsed. He never stopped loving Steven, even now, thirteen years later, though he was a teen at the time, and they had only just admitted their love for each other right before he died. He’s afraid to come out to fellow firefighters, and that, in combination with his inability to move through his grief, contributes to an accident at a fire scene which ends up hospitalizing him.
Finally attempting to have a social life after the death of his husband, Zach, who died the previous New Year’s Eve, Ángel Stanford gets a babysitter for his daughter, Gracie, and heads to a party given by his friends Jude and Sean, Healed Hearts (Heartland #2). There he meets Asim who, he’s been told, is new to the gay scene and needs to dip his toes into the water of casual relationships. But his friends are wrong—Asim is looking for anything but casual, and he certainly isn’t interested in this outwardly effeminate, flamboyant character who seems to be flirting with him.
Not a good start and neither man is happy at the end of the evening. It’s shortly after this event that Asim ends up in the hospital from his on-scene accident, and the part-time nurse assigned to his case is Ángel. Not taking advantage of that, Ángel nevertheless learns a bit about this man, and when they meet again at a bereavement support group, Ángel learns even more of Asim’s story, and yet Ángel is still hesitant to speak of his own grief. I enjoyed the way the author allowed for a very slow burn to the start-up of this relationship, at the same time giving readers their back story and allowing us to learn more about each man in the way he deals with the grief of loss.
This is definitely not a see-each-other-insta-love story, and yes, there’s angst, but it’s very well done and makes for a highly satisfying read. Throughout the course of the months in which the story takes place, we witness Ángel going through the stages of grief for Zach, finally coming to terms with his death, but it’s a long time before he’s able to cope with and act on his feelings for Asim. In the meantime, Asim is seeing a therapist and coming to terms with his grief and his virginal attempts at having a relationship, including finding the patience to wait for Ángel.
Of all three books in this series, I liked this one best. It had much more depth and touched me deeply, tugging on my heartstrings throughout most of the story. It’s a beautiful love story, both past and present. I hope that those who like hurt-comfort or healing from grief stories consider picking this one up. And, although the story includes returning characters from previous stories in the series, that in no way impacts the enjoyment of this one so it can easily be read as a standalone. -
Stuck in the closet, Asim, a firefighter, has spent the last 13 years not really living, still mourning the loss of his first love during 9/11, blaming himself for his boyfriend's death, as well as avoiding his family after having run from their homophobia and their attempts to marry him off to a "nice girl", as is tradition in his Muslim family. Still a teenager when he lost Steven, and never having gone beyond a few kisses, Asim is, when we first meet him, sort of but not really dipping his toes into being gay.
Plagued by vivid dreams and taking unnecessary risks at work, Asim comes off as tormented, lost and so very alone. From the start, he lodged himself in my heart, and I felt so much sympathy for him. He was wounded, alone, with nobody to help him find his way again.
Angel, a part-time nurse at the local hospital, is far out of the closet, father to a beautiful little girl, and still mourning the loss of his husband. He's grieving too, and certainly not looking to start a new relationship, as he believes that would betray his love for Zack, his late husband.
Asim and Angel meet at a mutual friend's place, and Angel immediately sizes up the other man as someone not worth his time. Because, clearly, Asim is closeted and hating himself for being gay, and Angel wants none of that.
Their path to a relationship is long and winded, with many setbacks, and neither character is initially ready to start again. There is a ton of drama and heartache in this book, and so much emotional baggage on both sides, that for a long time, their relationship is a dance of two steps forward, one step back. While I didn't dislike Angel, I did love Asim, and I wanted him to be happy. They are two very different people, with Asim being hesitant to come out to his fellow fire fighters and still very virginal, and Angel being very much out, flamboyant, a bit effeminate, and very unapologetic, but they also share common ground - they both have loved deeply and lost that love.
The author did a great job showing us their individual struggles, though I thought that the work issues raised here for Asim were possibly a bit much. The guy simply couldn't catch a break.
Both men also had lessons to learn, and they do. Those lessons help them to eventually move forward and realize that while they may have lost, and lost much, their lives do continue, and it is okay to keep going. I especially liked how very patient Asim was with Angel's waffling between wanting Asim and not wanting to hurt the memory of Zack. Asim encouraged Zack's pictures being displayed - he made it very clear that he wasn't interested in replacing the dead husband, and that he fully understood that Zack would always be a part of Angel. It took Angel a lot longer to understand that Asim too would always keep a part of Steven with him, too, and that it's okay to love again.
This being a romance, it does have a happy ending, but it's one that's hard fought for. They both learn and grow throughout this book, and face truths head=on they weren't necessarily prepared to face. That alone takes strength and character, and in the end, they both realize it was worth the struggle.
Recommended if you like heavy, angsty books with a lot of drama and a hard fought for happy ending.
** I received a free copy of this book from its publisher. A positive review was not promised in return. ** -
This was a sad book if I am honest. My heart broke for both of the main characters for some of the same reasons and then for different reason. I will also be honest and say I had mixed emotions at different point and times about both of the main characters.
Both Angel and Asim know what the loss of the significant other feels like. For Angel it has been close to a year and for Asim it has been fourteen years. The thing is no matter the time frame both of their grief is still real and it still affects both of them. Asim's grief has affected his job as a fire fighter so much so that he was suspended until he was able to deal with it.
Angel is the opposite on that aspect, because he lets his grief affect him in the way that he will not let anyone close to him. When Angel and Asim first met it was not a pretty meeting. They so did not hit it off at all but the more they spent time together the more they both realized that they was wrong to judge he other from their first meeting.
More time spent together and the closer they started to get, that is when the real problems started.
At first I was upset with Asim thinking he was pushing Angel to much, to fast for more but as he story went on I got upset with Angel because he just did not seem like he could make up his mind one way or other. To say these two had issues is putting it mildly.
When it was finally all said and done I got a better understanding of both men and my heart really just broke for each of them because it was just a hard situation any way you look at it.
This book is a true example of how hard grief can be on someone and I think it was written beautifully. It was a great read but like I said I found it to be a sad read.
Was given this galley copy for free for an open and honest review -
Can two people who’ve suffered great loss, come together and create a new life together?
That’s the question throughout this story. When we meet both characters, they are reeling from the loss of their significant other – Asim’s boyfriend has been gone for 13 years, but he’s never dealt with the loss or tried to move on; while Angel’s husband hasn’t been gone a year yet. The plot is based around both men trying to come to terms with their loss and build something new… something that felt impossible to them both, before trying it out.
While dealing with very emotional subjects, this book didn’t take you on an emotional rollercoaster – in fact, it didn’t go very deep into the emotions, although you did ride along and observe them. And at times, though the back and forth of trying to make a decision or move forward got a bit taxing, it came across as true… even if you did want to kick one of them in the butt a few times!
The great glue for Angel and Asim, is Angel’s daughter Grace – who is well written into the story, without being a speed bump. She provides a way for the men to connect and communicate, even when they can’t find the words. Well done!
Overall, this is a good read for anyone who likes to see people find love after loss – and the struggles that go along with it, without needing a box of tissues. The heat was there… just hidden and not throughout (it will make sense, I promise!).
Review Copy of Open Hearts provided by Dreamspinner Press for an honest Review.
Reviewed by Mel from
Alpha Book Club
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Topic is NOT for me. So many things here will piss me off. Hard pass.
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A Good Story
I enjoyed reading this story. I liked the characters they were great. The story was well written, and had a good story line. -
First in a very sweet and romantic series of 3. I enjoyed all the MC's and they were perfectly imperfect for each other.
