Standalone | Hurt/Comfort | Age Gap | Blue-Collar Romance | Found FamilyGet comfortable for a love story that promises Chicago grit, sizzling heat, a playful rivalry between a White Sox diehard and a Cubs fan, and an autistic boy’s dream to see the ocean.There was nothing like starting the new year with a snowstorm and trying to keep a sinking ship afloat in the middle of Chicago. Trace Kalecki had grown up at the Dearborn Clover, an Irish sports bar that’d been in his family since the late 1800s. He loved the place. He lived and breathed the Clover, from its staff and the sports memorabilia on the walls to the creatively named items on the menu and the soup kitchen they hosted twice a week. But the business was a damn headache too.One night, when he was wrestling garbage bags out to the dumpsters in the alley, he heard a broken plea for help.Ben O’Cleary was mostly hoping the snowstorm was going to finish him off once and for all. He was cold, hungry, drowning in defeat, and now wounded, too. Wasn’t it just great? Almost fifty years old, and he couldn’t take care of himself, much less his son and his old ma. Ashamed and shattered, he asked a young man for help, and…maybe that was the start of something new?That guy, Trace…? He had an offer for Ben.-------------The Guy in the Alley is a stand-alone spinoff following The Guy in the Window. While the main characters from the first book do cross over briefly, it’s not necessary to read it to get the full enjoyment of The Guy in the Alley.Disclaimer: No fans of the White Sox, Cubs, Red Wings, Dallas Stars, Preds, Cleveland, Canucks, Minnesota, St. Louis, or Green Bay were seriously injured in the making of this book. Probably no Yoopers either.
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**I received an electronic ARC via BookSprout. Thank you!**
Cara Dee returns to the world of The Guy in the Window with this standalone spinoff novel, The Guy in the Alley. Readers follow Trace as he is setting into his new role as owner of the Dearborn Clover sports bar, a bar that's been in his family for generations. When Trace is taking out the trash one night, Trace stumbles into Ben. Ben has been robbed, is injured, and his car was stolen - an issue that is only compounded by the fact that the car was where Ben had been sleeping. All of Ben's money goes toward his autistic son Alvin's care and toward Ben's mother, who is taking care of Alvin. When Trace steps in to help Ben treat his wounds, it may be a start of change for both of them.
First, there is no need to read The Guy in the Window to read The Guy in the Alley. There are some crossover characters, but the storylines are separate.
Full disclosure, Cara Dee is a favorite writer of mine. I have read over 20 of her published works, and she is absolutely an auto-buy author for me.
Cara Dee, as a writer, never shies away from showing the difficult portions of the lives of her characters. Her characters struggle emotionally and physically with the circumstances they find themselves in, which makes her HEA/HFN resolutions all the more impactful. You know that the characters have earned every single bit of the happiness they find. While The Guy in the Alley may seem as though it is set up for heavy topics and a sad storyline, there is always an underlayer of hope. This book is, at its heart, a romance even if it isn't light or fluffy in getting there. These characters feel honest, raw, and authentic in a way that is consistent for Cara Dee's books but is so rare in the publishing industry as a whole. This does not mean that the entire book is sad or emotional as there are plenty of "bright spot"s along the way.
There is also a great deal of care given to the representation of neurodivergence in Alvin and in mental health representation throughout the book.
Overall, I was so pleased to have the privilege to read The Guy in the Alley early and will absolutely be picking up whatever Cara Dee writes next.
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