Touch the Sky (Free Fall) (Volume 1) Paperback – March 29, 2016

Touch the Sky is more than your average MM/Teen/Coming of age story. These two have issues to deal with, adult issues and feelings. When they become friends over the internet, they find a kindred spirit who understands them, who they feel they can reveal themselves to. Circumstances change their friendship however and they lose touch. When they do finally see each other again, they really do have adult issues to deal with and neither of them is very good at dealing with them on their own. But is being together really the answer? Through my life, I've dealt with others who have had mental illness and feels of unworthiness and reading these feelings, these descriptions through Lucas' and Gabriel's minds and emails really hit home for me. These issues were dealt with so powerfully by the authors and I look forward to reading more in the Free Fall series.

Gah!!! Where do I start. Can these two please be real??? PLEASE??? They felt so real to me, like I was floating in an invisible bubble all around them as they lived, as they talked, as they fought their demons, as they loved and that right there is why the writing of this was so perfect. It put me in Luke & Gabe's minds, in their arms....in their hearts. I felt like I was fighting for them to not only survive, but to grow stronger, both individually and together. My heart is so heavy right now but only because it feels the loss of these two amazing men because there aren't anymore pages to keep them in my life.And isn't that how you're supposed to feel after you finish a great book? Like you wish you could dive back in, stay in that world just a little bit longer?Yeah....I thought so.

A beautiful story of two wounded souls who find each other as teenagers, lose touch, and reunite as adults. Once reunited as adults, Gabriel and Lucas reestablish their friendship and it soon blossoms into love. Both characters must learn to face their painful pasts in order to move forward as a couple. Gabriel must take control of his mental illness and find the courage to manage his symptoms. Lucas wants to help him but must accept that the best way to do so is to allow him to help himself. Nyrae and Christina did a wonderful job describing the highs and lows of bipolar disorder. I was impressed with how they depicted the challenges of this illness for both the person living with bipolar disorder, and those who love them.

Luke and Gabe are just hauntingly beautiful. This book has the range of emotion I remember feeling at that age. Uncertainty about the future. Questions about how to be an adult. And to top it off, both characters deal with pasts and presents that are difficult to manage. But the two of them together are so perfect.Christina Lee was the first author who got me to read M/M romance, and I've read all of hers. I'm new to Nyrae Dawn, but the two collaborated on this very touching story. A perfect combination!

Really well written. A wonderful story of being strong for yourself first. I will always love the saying you must love yourself before you love others. I will hold this story especially close. Bipolar is real scary and in my family. Nyrea and Christina are as wonderful separate as they are together. Please check out all books from these ladies 😊

WOW! Wonderful characters. Real life struggles. Two lost souls finding each other in the biggest case of serendipity I've read about. What are the odds of meeting in West Hollywood after five years of not hearing from each other? It was perfection. Lucas and Gabriel were perfect for each other, and their chemistry is off the charts...sweet, loving, sexy, and oh, so hot!Please do yourself a favor and read this book!

Loved Lucas and Gabe...and Ezra and Connor. Well done with the storyline of Gabe! You obviously did a lot of research and you did an excellent job capturing his mental illness.

What a sad story. There was a little bit of an up lift at the end, but honestly, not enough to remove the melancholy that this book inserted into my day.

This is a pretty seamlessly written tale that I could not have said was written by two authors. I couldn't figure out if one had written Lucas and the other Gabe, or if they'd just bounced stuff off each other to create a decent start to a tale - that's what it felt like for me. Decent, and a *start* to these leads' tale. That these guys' journey was only starting, and yes, I want to read more, and I hoped that book 2 would also be about them and the journey that they've restarted, not started - but I just found out it's not. Bummer, but we do get to meet one of the leads of the next tale in this book.I'm a little in two minds about this book. On the one, I kind of like that it hasn't gone into detail about the mental illness that Gabe is suffering from, because reading about bipolar can be harrowing and a little depressing. On the other hand, I kind of wonder if perhaps, despite their hospital and social work backgrounds, the authors didn't err on the lighter side a little too much. I think perhaps the illness didn't quite seem as real as Gabriel insisting on handling his resurgence of said illness the way he did. Also, it ended far too quickly and far too abruptly.I think that if this had been a whole tale (it doesn't feel like it is, sorry) or a longer tale, with both leads learning to live and deal with the condition, then I'd have appreciated it more. I felt as if I was only beginning to know them both when the tale ended, and feel a little frustrated at having to wait for more -and then realising that there won't be more (perhaps unless both appear as side characters in the next book). Both leads seemed tortured in theory, but weren't quite as tortured in the tale, nor was it as angsty as it could and should have been. I may be a little biased in this, because I beta'd for the author of Unquiet, and my psych nurse hubby checked facts and realities in the latter, and all were spot on, in achingly painful detail. This book lacked a realistic intensity, I felt, and I'm not sure why. Mental health issues are only too real, and if an author writing about them enhances awareness and removes the stigma, I'm all for it. Some will say that fiction perhaps isn't about getting a message across, but MM has boomed, and if the opportunity is there, then I think it needs to be done accurately and realistically. Maybe Gabe's bipolar was a milder type? Not sure - for me, the intensity of the condition was missing.Still, it's a worthwhile read with likable characters, a lot of warmth and affection, some sweet sex and the start, I hope, of more of these leads in a future tale and to see them living a HEA,and not just ending at the (possible?) start of the latter.Ebook courtesy of the authors for my reading pleasure.

"We got this."This has definitely been one of my most anticipated releases.Did this live up to the hype?Abso-f...ing-lutely!Lucas and Gabe met each other online and their friendship grew over time and they made plans together but due to difficulties in their lives, all contact was cut. Years later they both still carry the memory of each other and their friendship and all the emotions that come with that. They finally come face to face and have to mend the hurt they both feel while also dealing with their past and present."I want to know if he's the guy I always imagined him to be."I've no idea how to review this book. I really don't. I just wanna put down so many amazing quotes/parts of the book I've highlighted because I highlighted at least 80% of the book."A long time ago, my friend had sewed himself into the very fibers of my skin -my heart- and since then, he's added a few more stitches."I'm honestly kind of speechless. I want to tell you how much I loved Gabe and Luke together and individually, how beautiful this story was written, all of it but I just don't know how to put it into words."You make me feel like... ""Like what?""Like things might be okay." He pulls back to stare into my eyes. "You make me wanna try for more."Christina and Nyrae done a great job of pacing this story, of showing us all the sides to Gabe and Luke. Showing their struggles and dealing with their struggles while falling in love. I've read both authors books and while I could feel the distinct difference between both boys I've no idea who wrote who. At times I guessed who might have but the writing melded together beautifully and seamlessly."And when he murmurs, "I want you," with his mouth against my ear, there's no possible response except to whisper, "Then take me."Christina and Nyrae dealt with some pretty serious subjects. Mental health being one of them and they done it justice, highlighting so many aspects of it. This is gorgeous, emotional, raw and heartbreaking and terrifying at times. It's the kind of book that can make you face things about yourself, make you think and make you feel.Beautiful.Stunning.Real."...and I bow my head...and cry. For what Gabe's going through. For myself. For my mom. For everything. I'm tired. So f...ing tired. I just want things to be easy. I want something to be okay."I got to the end and it was one of them "NOOOOO" moments. I didn't want it to be over. It couldn't be over. I didn't want to say goodbye to Lucas and Gabe!! But I was so unbelievably happy for them. I can't wait to read more from these authors! Maybe Ezra is getting a book? Conner too? Conner and Ezra together? Hehe. Either way I can't wait to see what they give us next!

Mental health issues are a hard difficult subject to write about but these authors have done an excellent job of it. Gabe is bipolar and off his meds when at a bar he is reacquainted with his one time online friend Lucus. Lucus is still angry that Gabriel dumped him five years ago when he needed him most but Gabe has a secret that Lucus doesn't know, he was institutionalized for a year due to his declining mental health. Both men have secrets they don't want to share but as they get closer to each other the walls surrounding their hearts start to crumble and the secrets they keep start coming out. Can two damaged men find love with each other or will their insecurities tear them apart. This is a lovely book to read and I really liked the characters of Gabe and Lukas and their many friends. Can't wait for book two in this new series which I hope is out soon. Recommended

Got this at midnight and planned to read a couple of chapters before I slept. Of course, I couldn't put it down and ended up pulling an all nighter. I just had to know what happened next. Both Lucas and Gabriel are such beautiful, fragile characters, I had to know how things worked out for them.There was so much to like about this book. Gabe is a wonderfully written character. Despite the dreadful hand he's been dealt, he just shone from the page. Lucas too hadn't had an easy life. They're both broken in their own way. However, even though there's some angst in this story, it never bogged the story down or stopped it from flowing. Gabe and Luke just worked as a couple and you just knew that things would somehow work out.The book is beautifully written and both the plot and the characters were seamless. The ending was a hopeful one which I appreciated, and it made me sigh happily. It wasn't a HEA, more a HFN. However, I felt hopeful that their relationship would be a lasting one.This is the first part of a series, if the second book involves these two and if there's going to be more heartache I really don't want to read it. I'm hoping the second book will involve one of the secondary characters in this book, with glimpses of Gabriel and Lucas living their HEA.

3.5 starsMY REVIEWNyrae Dawn is an author i have read many times but Christina Lee as an author is new to me, but as a writing duo they do not disappoint, this book is beautifully written, its a heart warming story of love, friendship and overcoming obstacles that life has thrown at them.Lucas and Gabriel's story has some hard hitting subjects but it is emotional and swoony and well written.I adored the emails from there past interactions that were dispersed throughout the story and how the ended each one with 'we got this' so cute.Beautiful story.