When Yanni Tomaras is kicked out of his family home, his parents’ final words are religious insults and an order to never return. Homeless and desperate, he’s lured in by Lance—charming on the outside, an evil predator underneath—who abuses Yanni until he finds the courage to leave. Yanni should feel free. But by the time Spencer Cohen finds him, he’s resigned to being handed back to Lance and once again being caged by fear. Starting school and a part-time job, Yanni begins to reclaim his life. But a love for silent films leads him to Peter Hannikov, a man with a kind heart but who’s twice his age. An unlikely friendship between them blooms into so much more. Neither man knows what he wants, at first. Finding out exactly what he needs is Yanni’s story. “I’d spent years as a bird, caged with my wings clipped, tormented and beaten. I thought I’d escaped when I’d left my abuser, but in hindsight, I could see that I was still caged, this time by fear and self-doubt. Spencer and Andrew, and Andrew’s parents, opened the door to the cage that confined me. But it was Peter who taught me how to fly.” Trigger Warning: Descriptions of violence, suicide, and sexual assault. Reader discretion advised.

Publication Year: 2017