Title: Taking Stock
Author: AL Lester
Series: Lost in Time
Genre: M/M Romance, Historical
Release Date: September 19, 2020
Publisher: JMS Books
It's 1972.
Fifteen years ago, teenage Laurie Henshaw came to live at Webber’s Farm with his elderly uncle and settled in to the farming life. Now, age thirty-two, he has a stroke in the middle of working on the farm. As he recovers, he has to come to terms with the fact that some of his new limitations are permanent and he’s never going to be as active as he used to be. Will he be able to accept the helping hands his friends extend to him?
With twenty successful years in the City behind him, Phil McManus is hiding in the country after his boyfriend set him up to take the fall for an insider trading deal at his London stockbroking firm. There’s not enough evidence to prosecute anyone, but not enough to clear him either. He can’t bear the idea of continuing his old stagnating life in the city, or going back to his job now everyone knows he’s gay.
Thrown together in a small country village, can Phil and Laurie forge a new life that suits the two of them and the makeshift family that gathers round them? Or are they too tied up in their own shortcomings to recognise what they have?
A 1970s historical gay romance peripheral to the Lost in Time universe. Stand alone, not paranormal.
I just want to start off by saying 2 things: first, I haven't read all the entries in AL Lester's Lost in Time series but the ones I have read I absolutely loved; second, the author calls Taking Stock "peripheral to the Lost in Time universe" which means it's contemporary(okay historical but as I was born in 1973 I have a hard time thinking of those years being historical😉) standalone minus the paranormal.
That said and though I missed the time travel element a bit, Taking Stock, despite my inner psyche hee-haw-ing over being able to think of 1972 as historical😉, was wonderful. A delightful gem.
Laurie and Phil have a chemistry that is quite beautiful. My family has a long history of health issues including my grandfather's 42 year battle with MS and my Mom's ongoing 30+ year struggle with multiple conditions so it was nice to see a MC who also struggles with health. Now, I know that's an odd thing to say and perhaps I could have worded it differently but I haven't read many stories where health is a big factor so when I find one, those moments really stand out and can quite frankly be a case of make-or-break for me. Well, AL Lester has definitely brought a make it factor. Don't get me wrong, Taking Stock is not a medical book or journal of Laurie's condition and daily life but you get a real sense that the author "gets it", they understand how it effects everything and everyone. That sense of respect and understanding puts it right up there running neck and neck for favorite in the series. If they were cars parked on the street, the space between Shadows On the Border(#2) and Taking Stock are so close I wouldn't want to put my hand between the bumpers.
I don't usually focus on one factor in my review but when AL Lester shows it the respect, the heartache, the strength, the determination that health issues can create it deserves to be mentioned and applauded.
Once again I'll mention that Taking Stock is kind of a series entry but more like "on the fringe" but I know whenever I do a reread in the future, Stock will always get re-visited with the rest of them. This is a gem of a tale that will make you want to shake the characters one moment and wrap them up in bubblewrap the next. Just plain lovely.
RATING:
Phil found his feet turning up the lane toward Webber’s Farm a couple of days after his meeting with Laurie Henshaw almost without thought. He had got in to the habit of walking regularly early on in his sojourn in the cottage. Some days he took sandwiches in the knapsack he’d bought and just went up the footpath at the top of the lane and headed off into the winter woods. It was quiet and peaceful and he found that if he could get in to a swinging rhythm, one foot in front of the other, the swirl of anger and betrayal that seemed to accompany him like a cloud quieted, gradually draining down in to the earth as he walked.
Today though, rather than his feet taking him up the hill in to the burgeoning spring, they took him down toward the farm. Henshaw…Laurie…had grabbed his interest in a way that nobody had for months. The man had been on his last legs sitting in the Post Office and his frustration with himself had been obvious. Phil had enjoyed coaxing a smile out of him. Sitting in the farmhouse kitchen with the quiet warmth of the Rayburn at his back, he’d spoken more about his personal life to a complete stranger than he had opened up to anyone since that awful day when Adrian had got him out of the police station.
It would only be neighbourly to pop in and see if he was all right. That’s what people did in the country, didn’t they? Phil had been here months now, apart from a brief visit to Aunt Mary over Christmas and New Year, and if he was going to be here much longer he should probably make an effort to get to know people properly.
That made him pause for thought. Was he going to be here much longer?
He didn’t know.
He walked through the farmyard cautiously. He knew enough to go to the back door, not the front. The two sheepdogs who had cursorily examined him earlier in the week shot out of the open porch and circled round, barking and wagging cheerfully. No need to knock, then. He did, regardless. And called out “Anyone home?”
“In here,” Laurie’s voice answered, distantly. “Come in, whoever you are!”
He stepped in to the porch, past a downstairs bathroom and through the scullery with its stone-flagged floor, and pushed the door into the kitchen fully open.
Laurie was washing up. His stick was hooked on the drainer and he was resting against the sink with one hip. He turned as Phil came in, propping the final plate on the pile beside the soapy water and reaching for the tea-towel flung over his shoulder to dry his hands.
“Mr McManus! Phil, I mean,” he corrected himself, “what can I do for you?”
Phil paused. He hadn’t got this far in his head. He had just…walked.
“Erm. I was just passing?” he tried. His voice lifted at the end, in a question.
“You were?” Laurie looked at him, one side of his mouth twisted up in a little smile. Or was that the side affected by the stroke? He didn’t know. Didn’t matter, anyway.
“Yes. I was.” He made his voice firmer. “Sally is at my place this morning, so I thought you might let me hide here.”
“Only if you’ll let me retreat to your place when she’s cross with me,” Laurie replied. “Although that will probably mean I have to move in, at least for the moment.” He pulled a face.
“Have you upset her?”
“No. Yes. Sort of….” He turned toward the Rayburn and dragged the kettle on to the hotplate. “She wasn’t very happy about me over-doing it the other day. Patsy told tales on me.”
“Ah. Yes, I can see that. She obviously cares about you a great deal. She talks about you all the time when she comes up to do the cottage.” He paused. “Have you been together long?”
Laurie choked and dropped one of the tea-cups he was moving from the drainer to the table. He fumbled for it and at the same time Phil stooped to catch it. They both missed and it smashed on the stone floor into a thousand tiny pieces. “Shit!” Laurie said, trying stifle his coughing. “That was one of the good ones, too.”
He bent to pick up the pieces, still choking and Phil said, “Stop it, you bloody fool, let me. It’s everywhere.” He put his hands on Laurie’s shoulders and pushed him upward from his bent position and then back and down, in to one of the kitchen chairs. Laurie’s leg gave as he sat and he made the final descent with an unglamorous wobble.
He was still coughing. “Sally!” he got out, around between coughs.
“Bloody hell!”
“Where’s the dustpan?” Phil asked, ignoring him.
Laurie gestured to the cupboard under the sink. “Under there.”
It was the work of moments to sweep it all up, on his knees at Laurie’s feet. Thankfully it had been empty. He rested back on his heels with with full dustpan. “Where does it go?”
“Put it in one of the flower-pots on the window-sill,” Laurie said, gesturing. “I’ll stick in the bottom of a pot for drainage when I plant the new ones up.”
Phil nodded and got to his feet. He lurched as he did so and steadied himself on Laurie’s knee as he rose. Warm, he thought. The man smelled nice. A mixture of soap and fresh air and woodsmoke. “Ooops,” he said, pushing himself upright. “Sorry.”
Laurie grinned at him as they briefly made eye contact. Something flickered in his eyes. “Not a problem,” he said. He pointed at the window-sill behind the sink. “Knock those dead chives in the middle pot out the window in to the yard.” He grinned again, but it was a different sort of smile this time, with slightly too many teeth. “I can’t really balance to water them properly at the moment anyway.”
Phil opened the window and emptied the dead plants outside ad then tipped the pieces of crockery in as instructed. He replaced the dustpan under the sink and stood up and leaned against it, crossing his arms. “Doesn’t Sally help with that sort of thing?” he asked, looking down at the other man.
“No. Yes. Sometimes.” Laurie wouldn’t meet his eye and started to stand. “Sit down, let me get a new cup.”
Phil put his hand back on his shoulder and gently but firmly pushed him back down on to the chair. “What do you mean?” he asked, in a voice that matched his grip, “No-yes-sometimes covers all the wickets.” He removed his hand and turned round to collect another cup and saucer, moving past Laurie to put it on the table beside him and then reaching to pull the kettle off the Rayburn and put both tea-leaves and the boiling water in the teapot.
He brought the teapot over and put it on the cork table-mat in the middle of the table before opening the pantry door and rummaging in the fridge for the milk-jug. Laurie sat and let him, watching him slightly warily.
As Phil sat down and folded his arms again, waiting for the tea to brew, Laurie muttered, “I told her not to do it.”
“You told her not to do it?” Phil repeated. “Ah, I see.” And he did, in a way. He wouldn’t be in Laurie’s shoes for anything.
Laurie worked his thumb over and over one of the whorls of wood in the table-top. It was smoothed from long use. “I hate it, Phil,” he said in a low voice. “I hate not being able to do all the simple things. It makes me feel useless, having them all run round after me.”
“You’d rather let the plants die than accept help?”
Laurie bit his lip and continued to worry at the knot in the table. “It sounds daft when you put it like that,” he said.
Phil didn’t say anything.
“Okay, I know it’s daft.” He looked up and met Phil’s eyes, his own anguished. “But I hate it,” he said, vehemently. “I hate it, Phil.”
Today though, rather than his feet taking him up the hill in to the burgeoning spring, they took him down toward the farm. Henshaw…Laurie…had grabbed his interest in a way that nobody had for months. The man had been on his last legs sitting in the Post Office and his frustration with himself had been obvious. Phil had enjoyed coaxing a smile out of him. Sitting in the farmhouse kitchen with the quiet warmth of the Rayburn at his back, he’d spoken more about his personal life to a complete stranger than he had opened up to anyone since that awful day when Adrian had got him out of the police station.
It would only be neighbourly to pop in and see if he was all right. That’s what people did in the country, didn’t they? Phil had been here months now, apart from a brief visit to Aunt Mary over Christmas and New Year, and if he was going to be here much longer he should probably make an effort to get to know people properly.
That made him pause for thought. Was he going to be here much longer?
He didn’t know.
He walked through the farmyard cautiously. He knew enough to go to the back door, not the front. The two sheepdogs who had cursorily examined him earlier in the week shot out of the open porch and circled round, barking and wagging cheerfully. No need to knock, then. He did, regardless. And called out “Anyone home?”
“In here,” Laurie’s voice answered, distantly. “Come in, whoever you are!”
He stepped in to the porch, past a downstairs bathroom and through the scullery with its stone-flagged floor, and pushed the door into the kitchen fully open.
Laurie was washing up. His stick was hooked on the drainer and he was resting against the sink with one hip. He turned as Phil came in, propping the final plate on the pile beside the soapy water and reaching for the tea-towel flung over his shoulder to dry his hands.
“Mr McManus! Phil, I mean,” he corrected himself, “what can I do for you?”
Phil paused. He hadn’t got this far in his head. He had just…walked.
“Erm. I was just passing?” he tried. His voice lifted at the end, in a question.
“You were?” Laurie looked at him, one side of his mouth twisted up in a little smile. Or was that the side affected by the stroke? He didn’t know. Didn’t matter, anyway.
“Yes. I was.” He made his voice firmer. “Sally is at my place this morning, so I thought you might let me hide here.”
“Only if you’ll let me retreat to your place when she’s cross with me,” Laurie replied. “Although that will probably mean I have to move in, at least for the moment.” He pulled a face.
“Have you upset her?”
“No. Yes. Sort of….” He turned toward the Rayburn and dragged the kettle on to the hotplate. “She wasn’t very happy about me over-doing it the other day. Patsy told tales on me.”
“Ah. Yes, I can see that. She obviously cares about you a great deal. She talks about you all the time when she comes up to do the cottage.” He paused. “Have you been together long?”
Laurie choked and dropped one of the tea-cups he was moving from the drainer to the table. He fumbled for it and at the same time Phil stooped to catch it. They both missed and it smashed on the stone floor into a thousand tiny pieces. “Shit!” Laurie said, trying stifle his coughing. “That was one of the good ones, too.”
He bent to pick up the pieces, still choking and Phil said, “Stop it, you bloody fool, let me. It’s everywhere.” He put his hands on Laurie’s shoulders and pushed him upward from his bent position and then back and down, in to one of the kitchen chairs. Laurie’s leg gave as he sat and he made the final descent with an unglamorous wobble.
He was still coughing. “Sally!” he got out, around between coughs.
“Bloody hell!”
“Where’s the dustpan?” Phil asked, ignoring him.
Laurie gestured to the cupboard under the sink. “Under there.”
It was the work of moments to sweep it all up, on his knees at Laurie’s feet. Thankfully it had been empty. He rested back on his heels with with full dustpan. “Where does it go?”
“Put it in one of the flower-pots on the window-sill,” Laurie said, gesturing. “I’ll stick in the bottom of a pot for drainage when I plant the new ones up.”
Phil nodded and got to his feet. He lurched as he did so and steadied himself on Laurie’s knee as he rose. Warm, he thought. The man smelled nice. A mixture of soap and fresh air and woodsmoke. “Ooops,” he said, pushing himself upright. “Sorry.”
Laurie grinned at him as they briefly made eye contact. Something flickered in his eyes. “Not a problem,” he said. He pointed at the window-sill behind the sink. “Knock those dead chives in the middle pot out the window in to the yard.” He grinned again, but it was a different sort of smile this time, with slightly too many teeth. “I can’t really balance to water them properly at the moment anyway.”
Phil opened the window and emptied the dead plants outside ad then tipped the pieces of crockery in as instructed. He replaced the dustpan under the sink and stood up and leaned against it, crossing his arms. “Doesn’t Sally help with that sort of thing?” he asked, looking down at the other man.
“No. Yes. Sometimes.” Laurie wouldn’t meet his eye and started to stand. “Sit down, let me get a new cup.”
Phil put his hand back on his shoulder and gently but firmly pushed him back down on to the chair. “What do you mean?” he asked, in a voice that matched his grip, “No-yes-sometimes covers all the wickets.” He removed his hand and turned round to collect another cup and saucer, moving past Laurie to put it on the table beside him and then reaching to pull the kettle off the Rayburn and put both tea-leaves and the boiling water in the teapot.
He brought the teapot over and put it on the cork table-mat in the middle of the table before opening the pantry door and rummaging in the fridge for the milk-jug. Laurie sat and let him, watching him slightly warily.
As Phil sat down and folded his arms again, waiting for the tea to brew, Laurie muttered, “I told her not to do it.”
“You told her not to do it?” Phil repeated. “Ah, I see.” And he did, in a way. He wouldn’t be in Laurie’s shoes for anything.
Laurie worked his thumb over and over one of the whorls of wood in the table-top. It was smoothed from long use. “I hate it, Phil,” he said in a low voice. “I hate not being able to do all the simple things. It makes me feel useless, having them all run round after me.”
“You’d rather let the plants die than accept help?”
Laurie bit his lip and continued to worry at the knot in the table. “It sounds daft when you put it like that,” he said.
Phil didn’t say anything.
“Okay, I know it’s daft.” He looked up and met Phil’s eyes, his own anguished. “But I hate it,” he said, vehemently. “I hate it, Phil.”
What is the biggest influence/interest that brought you to this genre?
I sort of lurched sideways in to it from sci-fi, if I’m honest? I read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursulal Le Guin years and years ago and was struck by the way she plays with gender. And then when I was very unwell a few years ago and lay in bed a lot and read anything free on my kindle, and I think I also had a KU subscription. I came across queer fiction then and never looked back, either reading or writing. Over the last few years it’s become clear to me that I’m non-binary and retrospectively, I think that was actually the draw to the genre.
When writing a book, what is your favorite part of the creative process (outline, plot, character names, editing, etc)?
My favourite part is the blank page right at the beginning. There are so many possibilities, right there. I write using Scrivener, which lets you move scenes around and view summaries as cards. I like watching the cards build up as I get more and more out of my head and on to the page. I also have a section of each project for characters, like filing cards, so when I have a thought about a character I get it down as soon as a I can. I really love watching it all build up and the characters become firmer and firmer as I write. Eventually the book seems to write itself, I’m just telling a story that already exists.
When reading a book, what genre do you find most interesting/intriguing?
I like romance, but with intrigue and suspense as an equal plot driver. So, sci-fi, saving the universe and falling in love at the same time. Or a murder mystery, but with the detective falling in love with an unsuitable witness—or another detective. There has to be adrenaline involved. I’m not much one for cosy romances.
If you could co-author with any author, past or present, who would you choose?
Am I a horrible person if I say I wouldn’t want to? I find working with other people really stressful—I used to be part of an IT team that wrote code and I got incredibly anxious about the others looking at my output and not finding it good enough. Sitting here staring out of the window and putting my thoughts on the page suits me down to the ground. Over the summer though, I have been getting up early and joining Nell Iris and Ofelia Grande in the JMS Books Author Chatroom and we do fifteen minutes sprints for a couple of hours. That’s worked really well for me. It’s people to work with, but it’s a very light touch!
Have you always wanted to write or did it come to you "later in life"?
Always. I wrote stories when I was in primary school, angst-filled poetry in my teens and early twenties and then began seriously thinking about publication a few years ago post-babies, with the encouragement of the lovely Mr AL. We have a complicated family situation and it’s hard to carve out the time, but it gives me a connection to the ‘real’ me, if that makes sense? The person I am under the parent, child, partner. Having a creative outlet is really important to me and when I don’t make an effort to find the space, my mental health definitely suffers.
I sort of lurched sideways in to it from sci-fi, if I’m honest? I read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursulal Le Guin years and years ago and was struck by the way she plays with gender. And then when I was very unwell a few years ago and lay in bed a lot and read anything free on my kindle, and I think I also had a KU subscription. I came across queer fiction then and never looked back, either reading or writing. Over the last few years it’s become clear to me that I’m non-binary and retrospectively, I think that was actually the draw to the genre.
When writing a book, what is your favorite part of the creative process (outline, plot, character names, editing, etc)?
My favourite part is the blank page right at the beginning. There are so many possibilities, right there. I write using Scrivener, which lets you move scenes around and view summaries as cards. I like watching the cards build up as I get more and more out of my head and on to the page. I also have a section of each project for characters, like filing cards, so when I have a thought about a character I get it down as soon as a I can. I really love watching it all build up and the characters become firmer and firmer as I write. Eventually the book seems to write itself, I’m just telling a story that already exists.
When reading a book, what genre do you find most interesting/intriguing?
I like romance, but with intrigue and suspense as an equal plot driver. So, sci-fi, saving the universe and falling in love at the same time. Or a murder mystery, but with the detective falling in love with an unsuitable witness—or another detective. There has to be adrenaline involved. I’m not much one for cosy romances.
If you could co-author with any author, past or present, who would you choose?
Am I a horrible person if I say I wouldn’t want to? I find working with other people really stressful—I used to be part of an IT team that wrote code and I got incredibly anxious about the others looking at my output and not finding it good enough. Sitting here staring out of the window and putting my thoughts on the page suits me down to the ground. Over the summer though, I have been getting up early and joining Nell Iris and Ofelia Grande in the JMS Books Author Chatroom and we do fifteen minutes sprints for a couple of hours. That’s worked really well for me. It’s people to work with, but it’s a very light touch!
Have you always wanted to write or did it come to you "later in life"?
Always. I wrote stories when I was in primary school, angst-filled poetry in my teens and early twenties and then began seriously thinking about publication a few years ago post-babies, with the encouragement of the lovely Mr AL. We have a complicated family situation and it’s hard to carve out the time, but it gives me a connection to the ‘real’ me, if that makes sense? The person I am under the parent, child, partner. Having a creative outlet is really important to me and when I don’t make an effort to find the space, my mental health definitely suffers.
Writer of queer, paranormal, historical, romantic suspense. Lives in the South West of England with Mr AL, two children, a badly behaved dachshund, a terrifying cat and some hens. Likes gardening but doesn't really have time or energy. Not musical. Doesn't much like telly. Non-binary. Chronically disabled. Has tedious fits.
BOOKBUB / YOUTUBE / SOUNDCLOUD
EMAIL: ally@allester.co.uk
Taking Stock #4
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