Not a Review: Abandoned and Vanished by JP Barnaby

The Little Boy Lost series by JP Barnaby is a series I've been hooked on ever since I read the first book, Enlightened, when it was self published.  Since then JP Barnaby has found a home for it at Dreamspinner Press and I've been lucky enough to have had a sneak peek into each of the books during the editing process.  My 'role' has been as a sort of beta, but to be honest the writing and plotting has been so good that my response has usually just been to point out the odd error, and the rest of the time to tell the author what a marvellous job she's been doing.  You can read my review of Enlightened here.

When book two of the series, Abandoned, was released in May, I meant to do a post flagging it up and urging you all to go and read it, but somehow time got away with me and today book three, Vanished, was released.  In recognition of that, here's my catch up with the series and a few thoughts:


Abandoned

Blurb:
Jamie is gone.

Brian's secret has been revealed.

Brian McAllister's story continues as he tries to cope with the loss of his best friend and soul mate amid the alienation and ridicule of his classmates. When hatred turns to violence, Brian narrows his focus to two goals: surviving and finding Jamie. Along the way he meets Adam, whose life has also been shattered by violence and cruelty. Can Adam fill the hole in Brian's life left by Jamie's absence? The answer will change everything.

Abandoned is a book which put me through the emotional wringer, as my heart broke for poor Brian over and over again.  It deals in a realistic manner the problems for a young gay teen in a small town.  There's hatred and bigotry, but there's also love and acceptance.  The story is so intense that at one point I was sure my nerves couldn't take any more!  Fortunately, things got much better for Brian in the second half of the book, and despite the cliffhanger ending I was happy to see where book 3 would take him.  If you've read Book one of this series: Enlightened, then I urge you to continue the series with Abandoned.


Vanished

Blurb:
Brian McAllister’s story continues in San Diego, where he finds so much more than he ever expected: acceptance, friends, encouragement, and an entire world of sexual adventure he’d never dared to imagine back in his small Alabama town. He continues to search for one lost boy in a sea of humanity but slowly begins to realize that maybe dreams really don’t come true.

Encouraged by new friends Mike and Emilio, Brian struggles to find work and keep his spirits up while his hope of finding Jamie starts to falter. But when life comes crashing down, he’s desperate to keep his new life. Can Brian do the unthinkable to remain in California when his money runs out? When Brian meets a beaten and bruised boy no one seems willing to help, he knows that walking away is no longer an option.

After the emotion of Abandoned I wondered what else was in store for Brian.  Vanished is a very different book to the previous two.  There's still the same great writing, and the core of emotion, but as well as that it's a book where Brian really starts to come of age and become a man when he leaves home and finds his feet in San Diego.  More than that though, Brian spends this book discovering what life is like for a young gay man in the city.  He meets other gay men and has his eyes opened to many things he never really considered before.  The Brian at the end of the book is very different to the naive young man that we see in book one, and yet he still retains his core of sweetness.  Another cliff hanger ending left me desperate for more and I can't wait to read book four!

So whilst this isn't a review as such, I would still urge you to read this series. The quality of the writing is high and sucks you right in from the start; the characterisation realistic; and the story unfolds gradually but with a pace which drives you on.  There are another three books in this series to come, and I can't wait to see where JP Barnaby will take these characters into the next books.

Buy the books HERE.