Product Description

Cooper has spent the last three years running from a painful past. He's currently moving from town to town, working in restaurant kitchens, and playing his violin for tips. As soon as he starts to feel comfortable anywhere--with anyone--he moves on. He's aware that music may be the only human language he still knows. Ironically, the one man he's wanted to communicate with in all that time is deaf.

Shawn is part of a deaf theater group at the nearby college. Shawn wants Cooper as soon as they meet and he begins a determined flirtation. Cooper is comfortable with down and dirty sex, just not people. As far as Shawn is concerned, dirty sex is win-win, but he wants Cooper to let him into the rest of his life as well.

Cooper needs time to heal and put his past away for good. Shawn needs to help Cooper forgive himself and accept that he can be loved. Both men find out that when it comes to the kind of healing love can bring, the sleepy beachside town of Santo Ignacio, "St. Nacho's" as the locals call it, may just be the very best place to start.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195226 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

Customer Reviews

Time to Heal
Maxfield, Z.A. "St. Nacho's", Loose Id, LLC, 2009.

Time to Heal

Amos Lassen


Cooper is running from himself and his own painful past. As he moves from town to town taking jobs as a waiter or playing his violin on the street for tips he tries to escape what was obviously a painful experience, As soon as he finds comfort with someone he picks up and moves. He feels that music is the language of communication and the only person that he is ready to get close to is a non-hearer, Shawn. Shawn belongs to a theater group at a college and he falls for Cooper at their first meeting. Cooper, who cannot seem to be able to close to people, does find some degree of comfort in having dirty sex. Shawn is ok with the sex but he really wants something more than that with Cooper.
Whatever happened in Cooper's past affects him deeply and he needs time to forget and to heal. Shawn wants to help Cooper to forget and more to accept the fact that he can be loved. Cooper is from a good family and is somewhat of a genius when it comes to music but as a youngster he got mixed up with drugs and alcohol. When he was out with his lover who was driving while intoxicated, there was an accident and a young boy was killed. It was this incident that caused Cooper to flee and he ended up in Santo Ignacio, California (St. Nacho's). For Cooper it is a paradise and he is welcomes by the local gay community and he meets Shawn. Both men are in need--Cooper for his past and Shawn for his disability.
The character development is wonderful here and we see so much about the two men. They are not at all what they seem to be at first and as the story progresses we are let into their lives and learn much more about them. The other characters are also interesting. As things develop we are pulled into a story of two men who both need love and understanding and see how they find it.

St. Nacho's by Z.A. Maxfield
Cooper is a man in flight from himself, or maybe from a man he doesn't like and doesn't want to be no more. From a good family, a little genius of the music, Cooper had all the chances to be someone good and successful; instead he was a trouble kid and later an even more trouble man. Drugs and alcohol didn't help, but even when he was wasted he still had something good in him, something that prevented him to drunken drive; unfortunately the same thing wasn't in his lover and Cooper was in the car when they had an accident and killed a little kid. From that moment on Cooper is a runaway, trying to be as far as possible from his past. Then he arrives to Santo Ignacio, California; the places is like a little heaven in the hell that is the world for Cooper; and in this little heaven Cooper finds an ever more little paradise in St. Nacho's cantina, a gay club along the beach with a crew that is almost a family. A family that welcome Cooper inside their home and arms. They are so overwhelming and open that Cooperf finds himself delaying day by day his departure, above all since one member of the family, Shawn, has a personal interest in Cooper, even if they are a very unlikely pair.

First of all the obvious: Cooper is unable to express his feelings, above all with his body, the only time when he lets go something is when he is playing his violin; Shawn is deaf and he needs the physical touch, sometime he is even forceful when people physically avoid him, since for him is like shutting the only communication channel. Then Cooper is the classical bad boy, leather, tattoo, piercings and bike, he is not at all the reassuring type. Shawn has the face of an angel and his disability leads people to try to protect him, to always pair him with the good boy next door.

But the appearance could lead to big mistake, since nor Cooper or Shawn are what they seem. Cooper is a submissive for nature, he loves to be gentle manhandled and almost to be coaxed to do the right thing; he really needs someone that for once, doesn't let him go since it is the best thing for him to forget, but instead forces him to face his biggest nightmares. On the other hand Shawn is not the docile and sweet man everyone thinks he is; he has a strong streak and he likes to lead and to be a little forceful, but in bed than in life. Between Cooper and Shawn it's not a classical D/s relationship, but for sure it's a power game, a fragile balance of allow and forbid.

The story has a very involving development, with some nice and unexpected turn of event; it has also a various and interesting bunch of side characters, like all the St. Nacho's family member, and Stan, the apparently good priest: watch out as the author turns the man from steady and strong supporter to spoiled baby to whom someone has stolen his latest shiny toy. I like also that the author, in the three books I read by her, has never replayed the same character, always managing to have a different story with its own original heroes, even if they all live in sunny California.

Above all, Z.A. Maxfield is a fabulous writer
I think I read some statistic years ago that the majority of gay fiction and television was consumed by heterosexual women. I have many theories for why that is but I'm one of them. Whether that makes me more or less qualified to write this review, I don't know but that's up for you to decide. I stumbled upon this book when I was getting to know the world of ebooks and found a recommendation for another book by Z.A. Maxfield through a messageboard. It's called Drawn Together, also an EXCELLENT read. Anywho, after loving both Drawn Together and Crossing Borders I was a big fan of Z.A. Maxfield. She writes characters convincingly and makes you care about what happens to these men. St. Nacho's was no exception.

At first I almost didn't read this book because of the title, I'm not going to lie but I'm glad I did. This is the story of a 28 year old man named Cooper running from his past. Biking from city to city trying to find what makes him human. He stops in a little California town and meets Shawn, a angelic looking 22 year old man who immediately intrigues him. Everything Cooper (and the reader) think we know about Shawn is immediately turned upside down and Cooper finds a piece of himself that he's long thought was lost.

I absolutely loved how these men fell into their relationship and I loved how Z.A. writes Cooper as so much more than just the bad guy who rolled into town. This relationship is further deepened by the fact that Cooper was once a gifted violin player accepted to Julliard and Shawn is deaf. They learn to communicate in a way neither of them ever have before and after finishing this book I was really touched. I guess this book goes down as gay erotica but I would call it gay romance. Yes, there were some very hot scenes but at the heart of this book was the love between these two men.

I suggest you read this and ALL of Z.A. Maxfield's other books, they are fabulous!