Reviewing On The Outside by Louise Lyons

On The Outside by Louise Lyons 2*

BLURB: When Craig Ferguson is released from prison after a year’s sentence for fighting, he returns home to his father and brother, and the family business. Throwing himself back into the life he left, with family, work, and women, Craig tries to forget his time on the inside, but there’s one thing he just can’t get out of his mind.

Cell mate, Rocky Kirk, still has six months of his sentence to go, and after a year together in a tiny cell, Craig misses him more than he cares to admit. He does his best to forget, but when Rocky is released, and arrives on Craig’s doorstep, homeless and hurt, everything that happened between them comes flooding back.

Craig’s family takes in Rocky, now known as Kirk, and gives him a home and a job, but he’s reluctant to join in with their partying, and never seems entirely comfortable in their home. A few months later Kirk announces he has to leave, and when Craig presses him for an explanation, Kirk blurts out that his unwanted feelings for his friend are hurting him too much to stay. His admission changes everything, but Craig’s uncertainty, and fears of his father discovering their secret, threatens to ruin anything that could develop between them. 

My Review: I was given this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book but I struggled to get through it. Now it's not that it's badly written or has major editing problems, it's that from the start the characters jsut didn't feel real enough for me.
It started with the fact that the Dad goes out with his grown up sons and all three of them get themselves girls for the night and are completely blasé about it the next morning.  Then of course the cell matte turns up and straight away they give him a job in the family construction/handyman business without any major qualms, just because Craig wants it, even though he was in for drug related crimes.

So after that I struggled a great deal and must be truly honest and say I finished it last night and can not, now, remember anything that held my interest. I hate to give bad reviews or spoilers but this book just didn't work for me and I apologise for the small spoilers I gave.