This is no lighthearted romance. Jasper’s life at the beginning of the book is positively grim. You can feel how the years are all stretching before him in a grey cloud. Then, the awful event that starts the plot rolling happens and your heart breaks for him. That leads to the meeting with Rob, however, and we begin to see how the age gap/income gap tropes are being set up. Nothing ever feels stale here, the tropes set us up, but Jasper and Rob are two unique and compelling men. You want to follow their lives as they learn to be honest with each other, trust each other and find out how to build a life that is better than either of them dared hope for. Not a light read but an emotionally satisfying one. David Allen Vargo has the knack of capturing all the emotion in a story like this without ever crossing the line and going over the top. That restrained power makes everything so much more moving.