Author A.M. Arthur outdid herself with her latest release Say It Right; this book pulls out all the stops. Childhood best friends who lost contact are reunited when one saves the other from likely death; two addicts one clean for almost 5 years, the other in process work to reclaim their friendship, build trust, and face the fact they’ve loved each other for years. While hopeful, Say It Right is a gritty and chilling story of life on the streets, working to make life better and allowing people in who love you. While not a hearts and flowers romance; this book was real and honest and beautifully told.

Running a shelter for GLBT teens is Marc’s dream and his way of giving back after someone took a chance on him and gave him his life back after living and almost dying on the streets. When the sister of his childhood best friend comes to him and asks him to help her find her brother, he is compelled to help the man who was once the boy he loved. Finding Antonio in an abandoned gas station strung out begins their story and struggle getting to know each other as adults.

This was such a complex story with both men baring their souls, their history, and their secrets to each other. While there is attraction between them, they have a goal or deadline so to speak before they cross that bridge so for much of this story it was them getting to know one another again, living life and sharing their stories of the time they were apart. The struggles were very real for both of these men as they worked towards a loving relationship while baring every deep, dark and dirty secret they hadn’t shared with many before. I loved that Marc’s friends rallied around Antonio and were there to offer help, a job and guidance when needed. It was quite wonderful seeing so many of Ms. Arthur’s characters from other books in this one and made this reader very happy.

Say It Right is an emotionally charged story of loss, pain, suffering, redemption and most of all love and it is one of A.M. Arthur’s best works to date.

After being thrown out of his house as a teen when he came out to his parents, Marc Villegas finally has his life together. He spent years on the street and used drugs, sold his body, and did whatever it took to survive. But now he is drug free and runs a homeless shelter for LGBT kids, hoping to spare some of them what he went through.

One day Marc is approached by the sister of his former best friend, Anthony Romano. The men haven’t seen each other since Marc got kicked out eight years ago, and Marc learns that Anthony is a now drug addict who once again relapsed and is out on the streets. Marc and Anthony’s sister manage to track him down, and Marc brings Anthony home in hopes of helping him get sober.

Both men had feelings for one another as teens, and those feelings are still incredibly strong now. But Marc knows getting involved with an addict is dangerous to his own sobriety, and he is determined not to start anything with Anthony until he can prove that this time he will stay off drugs for good. Anthony wants to be with Marc badly, however, so Marc agrees that if Anthony can stay clean for six months, he will give a relationship between the two of them a chance. Both men know that if things don’t work out, it will be miserable for both of them. But even though getting sober is the hardest thing he has ever done, Anthony is determined to prove to Marc that he can stay off drugs and that they two of them can have a real future together.

Say it Right is the second book in A.M. Arthur’s All Saints series. We first met Marc in Come What May as Tate’s best friend and the co-founder of the shelter the two run together. Although this story could stand alone pretty well, I think it is richer being more familiar with the side characters who appear here and having some background on Marc through his friendship with Tate.

The main focus of this story is on exploring the issues of drug addiction and recovery. Both men spent time on the streets addicted to drugs (though Anthony left home when he got hooked on drugs, while Marc was kicked out). Marc is farther along his journey to recovery, so he has the experience of making it through getting clean and coming out the other end, while Anthony is right in the middle of the struggle. Arthur does a really nice job showing what Anthony goes through to detox and ultimately to stay clean. It is not an easy process, physically or mentally, and I think Arthur really gives us a good sense of his struggle. The story also addresses what life is like on the streets, both for our main characters, but also for a number of side characters as well. Between Marc’s friends and the kids in the shelter, most of these folks have had rough pasts and they provide a lot of support to one another. I could really feel for Anthony, and Arthur makes him sympathetic, but at the same time lets us see him really take control of his life and accept responsibility for his actions.

The guys stay true to Marc’s original promise and keep things strictly as friends for six months. They were best friends before, and are pretty much platonic boyfriends through the book until the six-month mark. They live together and are clearly in love with one another, but they keep the relationship as friends officially until Anthony proves he can stay clean. The chemistry between the guys is intense, but we don’t see them actually get together until most of the way through the book, as the story is primarily focused on Antony’s period of recovery. I’ll admit I did wish I could see them together as a couple earlier in the story, but I also think it helps for us to see how hard Anthony is working to get sober and make a real life for himself.

One aspect I struggled with a bit was feeling confident that Anthony’s sobriety wasn’t totally tied to his relationship with Marc. This is addressed in the book, but it is mostly focused on whether Anthony is only attracted to Marc, or whether he could be interested in other men (Anthony has never come out before this point). This is supposed to show that he can be independent of Marc, but although it shows his attraction isn’t exclusive to Marc, it doesn’t show he is stable on his own. Anthony goes from living on the streets to living with Marc. All of his friends are Marc’s, all of his social life involves Marc, and when Marc isn’t around, Anthony doesn’t really go out. Even his job comes from a connection through Marc’s friends. And the driving force that keeps Anthony sober early on is knowing Marc will date him after six months. So I honestly didn’t feel secure in the sense that without Marc, Anthony would be able to maintain his sobriety and I wish this had been addressed a little more thoroughly.

There is also a conflict at the end of the book when Marc gets violent with Anthony and I felt a little uncomfortable with how this was addressed. Marc’s dad is abusive and when Marc is dealing with a stressful situation, he lashes out by first shoving and then hitting Anthony (though there is indication the punch was an instinctive response to being startled). Although Marc feels really bad, there is a little too much sweeping this under the rug for my liking. Even if the punch was instinct, the shove was not, and he got too much of a pass for me to be fully satisfied with how this resolved.

Overall, however, I am really enjoying this series and think Arthur does a nice job tackling some tough issues. The books have a particular focus on LGBT homelessness, a truly serious issue, but also deal with addiction, recovery, and people who have painful pasts. I think Arthur really explores these things well and it makes the series both thought provoking and really interesting. So I am enjoying this one and looking forward to more.

Really enjoyed this, am looking forward to the next one.

Marc and Anthony were the best of best friends growing up. They were absolutely inseparable until sixteen-year-old Marc was thrown out by his father for being gay and the two boys lost touch. Eight years later, Marc is pretty damned surprised when Anthony’s little sister shows up on his doorstep out of nowhere and asks for his help to save her drug addict brother.

A.M. Arthur writes beautiful, angsty love stories that always tear me apart emotionally, and in Say It Right Marc and Anthony are so very broken, both having lived on the streets and having struggled with hardcore drug addiction and other terrible things that I don’t even want to mention (slight spoiler: there’s at least one scene were a past assault is described and. It. Is. Heartbreaking.). Marc’s been clean for almost five years and now co-runs an LGBT shelter for homeless teens, while Anthony is just coming down from his last high and has a long way to go towards recovery. Marc knows that he’s risking his sobriety by taking in his old friend, but how can he not? He loved him eight years ago and he still loves him now and it turns out Anthony has loved him back all along – oh my gosh, my heart ached for these two!

Say It Right is the second book in the All Saint series and can be read as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading Come What May, the previous book in the series, to get a fuller picture and get to know some of the background characters. In fact, if you’ve read Arthur’s other books set in the same universe you’ll recognize quite a few characters – Ezra (Maybe This Time) and Alessandro (No Such Thing) play big rolls in this book (and their partners to lesser extents), plus Romy (Stand By You) and Riley and Boxer (Finding Their Way) also make an appearance. If you have no idea who any of these people are, no worries, you won’t miss out and they’re all briefly introduced on a need to know basis so you’ll be fine.

I loved Say It Right, from angsty beginning to HEA, and I can’t wait for the next book in the All Saints series, As I Am, which comes out February 13th and looks to be even more of an emotional ride.