Secret (A Wilder Inc. Story Book 1)

I read to escape and I read romances for HEAs. That is not to say that I don't like emotional scenes or that I don't want any conflict in the story. I like books that cover all the basics. This book does just that. I was engaged quickly and invested in the outcome of Tristan and Dylan. I have read all of Kindle Alexander's books and they don't disapoint. This book has heartache, hope, love, lonliness, forgiveness. I would recommend it for sure. Tristan and Dylan are right up there now for me with Logan and Tate (Ella Frank) and Matt and Jared (Marie Sexton). Strong men that can be masculine and tender at the same time? Yep! That's all it takes. Well that and an author that can write really hot sex scenes!

“Love’s hard to find, and when you do, you don’t throw it away.”Ever since I finished this book, I haven’t stopped smiling. Smiling because stories like these fill me with an indescribable sense of hope and positivity. Smiling because some stories are just so wonderful in every single way—inspiring, brave, honest, relevant—that they fill my heart to bursting. Smiling because some love stories touch us so deeply that we never want them to end. And this is a book I wanted to grow old reading.“…he was a gay man buried so deep in the closet he questioned if he would ever find his way out.”Dylan Reeves is a married man in his late thirties—a man married to the same wonderful woman for the past nineteen years, a father to three well-adjusted kids, a successful businessman on the verge of the greatest professional accomplishment of his career—and yet he has been living a lie all his life. Dylan’s marriage, as supportive and loving as it is, has been a sham from the start, an arrangement between two best friends who agreed on living separate lives while raising together the three people they love the most in the world. But while his wife has given herself permission to find true love outside their marriage, Dylan has denied himself the same, putting his children’s happiness before his own, and living by a strict moral code of always doing the right thing, at all costs.“…they didn’t ask to be born. It wasn’t their fault I didn’t have the balls to be me.”While on a weekend business trip, as part of his company’s merger negotiations with one of the most successful technology companies in the world, the last thing Dylan expects to find on the other side of the negotiating table is a man who suddenly makes him forget all he’s pretended to be for so long, awakening all his suppressed yearnings, and igniting the very sexual man he was born to be.“I’m in trouble…”“That you are. I think we both are.”Tristan Wilder is a man at the top of his professional game, a self-made computer mogul who has the world at his fingertips, but his success has also cost him his personal life, rarely finding the time to engage in anything more than commitment-free trysts with men who never ask more of him. Until a closeted man walks into his life, and ends up turning it upside down. Never one to have to pursue his conquests, Tristan finds himself in uncharted territory as he romances a man struggling to let his desires consume him. But the more time they spend in each other’s arms, exploring each other’s bodies and stealing each other’s hearts, the more it becomes apparent to them both that their weekend together would end up changing their lives forever.“There’s no way this will end well for me, but not taking the few moments you’re willing to give me seems like a far worse fate.”And this is all I will tell you about the storyline because even a peep about what comes next would deprive you of the very special way this story unfolds and eventually comes together, of the way these characters react in certain pivotal moments in the story, of the way their unique bonds are attested, because it is those unexpected actions and reactions that make this book so extraordinary in its approach. This is not a story that trivialises the vows of marriage, or validates infidelity—this is a truly inspiring story about living one’s truth, about the kind of selfless love and devotion that puts most of us to shame, about finding the courage to show’s one’s most vulnerable side to those we love the most. Love does not always mean an easy road ahead, but stories like these make us believe that there might be a happily-ever-after for us all. There is something truly uplifting about tales like these, tales that show us how life should be, the life we should all have the right to live, and I am always astonished by the sheer beauty of these authors’ stories, consistently inspiring but inexorably sexy. Whether a seasoned m/m reader or new to the genre, this story should be on top of your reading list.“I’ll wait for you, however long it takes. I don’t care. I’ll wait.”

My use of the title of one of Kindle Alexander's best books (well, they are all "best books" in MY book) to lead off my headline of this review is done for two reasons: 1) It's the theme of the book, and 2) it's personal.Let's get the personal out of the way. I have corresponded with Ms. Alexander for a couple of years because I just love what she does with men who have some serious issues about loving other men. A lot of authors do this very well, but she does it for such a wide cross-section of men in so many situations that I just kept telling her this, and she kept writing back and we had some very nice philosophical discussions (by e-mail only, we have never met or talked or Skyped or connected by social media), and shared some personal histories.Therefore, I was completely taken aback when I saw to whom she dedicated this book--Bo--and I sent off a missive asking if she knew someone else by that name, and she said, "no, silly, it's you." And I nearly died on the spot--after my jaw hit the ground. Full disclosure.Just so you don't think I was unduly influenced by this unbelievable honor, I wish to let you know that it took me a few days to let that settle in, and then I started to read, nervously. After all, what if I didn't like it? And, actually, the first couple of chapters, which concentrate on a bit of a family crisis in the life of computer genius and Dallas semi-mogul Dylan Reeves, threw me for a bit of a loop.While the jacket blurb of the book does a good job of setting the reader up for a potential romance between him and computer genius and Laguna Beach mega-mogul Tristan Wilder, the exquisitely handled introduction of Dylan's family--wife Teri, daughters Chloe and Cate, son Chad--has me shaking my head: Is this going to be one of those books where one MC, i.e., Dylan, is straight as a Texas arrow and we are getting set up for a sloppy seduction process by an admitted player in Tristan Wilder? This man Dylan Reeves is a completely devoted husband and father, and you could not even imagine where Ms. Alexander is going with this.Until the last couple of pages of Chapter Two--wherein you discover that the title of the book is not only the name of Dylan's high-tech company, but also the definition of virtually every little plot twist that comes along. And, wow! Do they twist and turn--but with such deft segues, beautiful writing, and extraordinary sexual heat that you ultimately cannot put the darn book down.This one took my breath away in every way and in every chapter. It's fast-moving but not capricious, to the point but not nasty (well, one little incident is, but that's expected), mind bending but never outrageous in its premise that two alpha males just over the 35-year-old divide can blow their lives apart, but agree not to keep doing it, until there is no choice.There is never a choice in this book for continuing to have secrets--which is why the title of the book, the name of the company, and the plot twists are so cool to contemplate. No, the reason there is no choice is because Dylan Reeves is one of the great characters to have emerged from the M/M contemporary romance novels I have read (and there are many): He lives his life on integrity, except, of course, for one part of it which some might say qualifies him as a hypocrite, but not when you get to know him. He is walking honesty personified, and he manages to change people's lives with that honesty and integrity without leaving the other people, or the reader, raising skeptical eyebrows--a testament to Ms. Alexander's fertile imagination.That he has a wife who is a major positive player here may stun you at first, just as much as how a conflicted Tristan thrashes about trying to wrap his head around a man he cannot figure out, may take you aback at first. But when you get wrapped up in this tale, and this family, you will wonder how many other couples are in the same situation, and how few of them deal with it as this one does.Here is a book that will challenge you to guess when the next secret is disclosed, and how these people will deal with it. That Ms. Alexander will toss a nice little bomb in your path to each of those discoveries will rivet you to the page, this tale, and to these characters.One could have no greater honor than to have had a book like this carry one's name on the Dedication page.

Kindle Alexander has once again proved that they know exactly how to reach right into your soul and wrap their characters right around your heart! The plot is captivating, the characters are well developed and I want to crawl right into this book and stay here.Dylan is just the sweetest man ever and it's his morals and convictions that make him so special. I loved that he was true to himself and his family throughout the book. Tristan is so accepting of finding unexpected love and the unconventional way he has to go about keeping it. Even the secondary characters were wonderful. Dylan's wife Teri and their children just make you love them as much as the MC's. Of course the love scenes are supper hot! I didn't think I could love these two authors more than I already did... but I do!!! This book is a must read for any mm fan!