Emory Murphy has had a tough life - indeed, it seems like every important person in his life has gone away and left him wallowing in misery and loneliness. With his recent relationship break-up, it appears that his life has hit rock-bottom. Tate Alexander, meanwhile, is running away from a life of notoriety and money - running away from a forced lifestyle that lacks empathy and consideration for any person that fails to live up to the expectations of his parents and the self-righteous agenda of their conservative national organization.
Tate meets Emory while tending bar at the Flamingo, a LGBTQ bar owned by Tate's grandmother, who also seems to be estranged from Tate's parents. Wishing to avoid the embarrassment of going to his brother's engagement party alone, Emory accepts Tate's friendly gesture to attend the function as Em's fake plus-one. This seemingly simple and innocuous arrangement, however, leads to a much more complicated series of events and emotions between the two men.
First, I must say that I am in awe of how brilliantly this book is written. Not only is the plot quite involved and complex by itself, but the subplots of the book certainly add a multi-dimensional quality of cohesiveness and intrigue to the book, as well. Indeed, with all the twists, turns and dips in this novel, I it found extremely difficult to put down!! The secondary characters in this novel are priceless. With each adding his own idiosyncrasies of personality, the secondary characters help to ground the main characters and give Em and Tate a sense of perspective, reality and direction.
The style of writing is superb in Free Spirit… the author writes with a meticulous attention to detail concerning descriptions of physical places and seemingly mundane situations, which, in my opinion, gives the book an exotic and charming appeal. The interactions of Em and Tate with each of his respective family members, and the way in which they were described in the book, is a testament to the ability of the author to convey each character's feelings of emotional confusion and mindset.
Spencer Spears is an absolute master at putting the feelings of his characters to words. While reading the book, I was spellbound by the imagery of the words used to describe the ways the guys were feeling. It was as if the reader was living inside the consciousness of each character - feeling the misery, alienation, fear, loneliness…. and, fortunately, the feelings of gratitude, inclusiveness and love, as well.
A wonderful read, with a little bit of mystery, angst and controversy - and a whole lotta love!! 5 stars, definitely!!
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