Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall

Title: Waiting for the Flood
Author: Alexis Hall
Published: February 21, 2015
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
ASIN: B00TWI05QA
Genre: Contemporary Romance

People come as well as go.

Twelve years ago, Edwin Tully came to Oxford and fell in love with a boy named Marius. He was brilliant. An artist. It was going to be forever. 

Two years ago, it ended. 

Now Edwin lives alone in the house they used to share. He tends to damaged books and faded memories, trying to a build a future from the fragments of the past. 

Then the weather turns, and the river spills into Edwin’s quiet world, bringing with it Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight, this stranger with roughened hands and worn wellingtons, but he offers Edwin the hope of something he thought he would never have again. 

As the two men grow closer in their struggle against the rising waters, Edwin learns he can’t protect himself from everything—and sometimes he doesn't need to try.

Rating: ★★★★★

This is a story about imperfections and ephemery and fasciculing and floods and rivers and houses that should be homes and men who think they're broken and stuttering and environmental agencies and self-consciousness and loss and orange waders and wellies and overcoming and dimpled smiles. It's a story about love.

This is one of those rare occasions when a book was nothing like I expected it to be and still completely surpassed my expectations. And then some I didn't have.

Waiting for the Flood did in 106 pages what many books cannot manage to do in several hundred; it made me feel. I literally smiled the whole way through this book, even when I was crying.

Our Hero is a thirty one year old gay man living on his own in the house purchased by him and his ex boyfriend, trying to come to terms with being alone. Edwin has some pretty serious self-confidence issues which mostly center around his stutter and his feelings of unworthiness brought about by his break up with ex boyfiend Marius. Edwin is a flawed human being; he has cut himself off from the world because he truly believes no one will accept him, that no one truly wants to know him and so keeps to himself and his elderly, octogenarian neighbour. Edwin also has serious trouble coping with social situations or situations which make him feel uncomfortable and often finds himself resorting to sarcasm. He's not perfect, and that's what makes it so much easier to love him.

Our love interest in this novella is Adam Dacre who is working for Oxford council's Environmental Agency and is charged to help flood-proof Edwin's street. Adam is sweet and charming and so ready to see the good and beauty in everyone and everything and, also, the complete opposite of Edwin in every way; he's outgoing and flirtatious and cannily sure of himself in ways that intimidate Edwin and it's so easy to see just what it is that has Edwin so enchanted.

The story is told from Edwin's point of view, so we're given full access to Edwin's inner turmoil and his thought process whilst dealing with Adam and his feelings for the red-headed engineer. Most of all, the thing I love is that we get to see Adam's beauty through Edwin's eyes. Edwin tells us:

"No one could have called him handsome, and the orange waders probably didn't help - but when he smiled? Suddenly handsome didn't seem important anymore - only the things happiness could do to a man's face."

It's wonderful to come across a romance in which a person is beautiful because of who they are - because of the type of person they are and this is exactly what we get with this story: two flawed, imperfect people who meet and see something wonderful in each other and it's beyond beautiful.

Alexis Hall's writing is wonderfully simplistic and exquisite. This being my first Hall book, I cannot comment on whether this is a consistent theme in all of his books but I do know I will definitely be reading more of his works to find out.

This is short and so, so sweet. It is a simple story that is beautifully written and a definite must-read for all romance fans. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you don't.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.