Book Reviews

Book Blurb

After a harrowing seventeen-year separation, Hirata Morimasa leaves his home and secure future to search for his childhood friend, Sho. Blinded by illness when they were children, Sho was sent away, apprenticed to a blind masseur (an anma) to learn his trade, and then disappeared. 

Desperate to find the other half of his heart and soul, Hirata willingly sacrifices the prestige and security of his father’s dojo to find him. When an anma who looks exactly like Sho crosses his path in front of a gambling parlor one day, the man flatly denies he is Sho. Hirata knows better and is determined to get the truth…and to get back the friend he’d lost. However, even though Hirata knows in his bones this man is his soul mate, Sho has…changed…in ways Hirata could not have prepared for in his wildest imaginings, changes that could continue to keep them apart…forever.

First edition published by Ai Press, March 2013.

Second edition published by Dreamspinner Press, November 2016.

 

Book Review

What starts as an unbreakable, or so they think, friendship between two ten-year-old boys in 18th century Japan, develops into one of the most hauntingly beautiful love stories I have read in a while. Torn apart by fate and parents who have their best interests at heart without understanding the bond between them, Hirata has to watch as they take his friend Sho, who has been blinded by illness, away to be trained by a member of the Guild for the Blind.

Hirata is destined to become a samurai and his future is secure, but all he cares about is finding Sho. He is finally granted that right when he turns seventeen, and so he sets off to find him. Hirata’s determination is inspirational, his need to find the friend who is the other half of his heart palpable. Ten years later, he needs a rest but isn’t ready to give up. He has a fleeting thought of letting Sho find him and within hours what he has longed for becomes truth. He sees Sho in the street and believes his troubles are over.

There is only one problem: Sho doesn't recognize him and refuses to admit they know each other. The heartache Hirata feels made me cry in sympathy, and his struggle to find out what is going on robbed me of the rest of my breath as I moved to the edge of my seat as their story unfolded before my eyes. It is a story not just about deep friendship and love, but about fate and growing up – mentally and emotionally.

If you like tension-filled stories full of noble and honorable characters, if you enjoy reading about a man who loves deeply and will do anything to keep his promise to always love his friend, and if you're looking for a read full of passion that will leave you breathless with suspense, then you will probably like this novella as much as I do.

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 95 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	01-October-2019
Price	$3.49 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Love-Sword-Silk-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00C3O6F64