Blog Tour and Review: Two Tribes by Fearne Hill

07 August of 2022 by ButtonsMom2003

Two Tribes By Fearne Hill

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Tropes: Second chances, friends-to-lovers

Released: August 5, 2022

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 321 pages

Cover Design: Garrett Leigh

Synopsis

It’s 1995, and troubled seventeen-year-old Matt Leeson harbours three passions: indie music, wartime history, and the posh boy he sits next to in maths class. Not in that order. One of those passions is closely guarded, along with a few other secrets Matt tucks away. Such as his abusive father, the cramped run-down flat he calls home, and the futility of his dreams to escape both.

Twenty-five years later, and plodding Dr Alex Valentine, recently divorced, is looking back on a life less lived. On his failed marriage and the dull bore he’s become, on the empty, lonely weekends stretching ahead. And, in a corner of his mind, wondering what could have been, if only a slender, raven-haired young man hadn’t so abruptly vanished all those years ago.

First love. Teenage love. It should be nothing more than an opening chapter, right? A short prologue even, before the real test of adulthood begins.

But what if that chapter never closes?

Trigger warnings: written with a light touch but please be kind to yourselves and observe trigger warnings for: death of a secondary character, depression, domestic abuse (off page), self-harm (off page), attempted suicide (off page).

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

A very emotionally powerful book.

Sometimes a book hits me so hard I don’t really know how to describe it. Two Tribes spans over 25 years: from first love as teenagers, to difficult early adult years and finally to finding the love of your life all over again. Second chance stories are pretty much tied with friends-to-lovers for me as favorite romance tropes and Two Tribes hit both of those with a mighty punch.

The Rossingley series books were my first by Fearne Hill and they also blew me away but Two Tribes did so in a totally different way. I’m trying to remember the last book I read that spanned so much time and hit me this hard and I can think of only one other and it was several years ago.

As a US reader I have to admit that some of the terms in this story were unfamiliar to me even though I read a lot of books by British authors. However, that had absolutely no negative impact on how much this book affected me.

Please do heed the trigger warning because this story deals with some difficult subject matter. I have more than one family member who suffers from clinical depression so I am a bit familiar with that serious health issue. Fearne Hill treats the subject matter frankly and with respect.

This story very definitely has an HEA but the characters go through a lot of things, over many years, before they get there. I’m telling you that it was so worth every tear I shed while reading their story. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy for two characters to finally find happiness with each other. I hope Matt and Alex have many happy years together. Their story felt very real to me and I absolutely loved it.