Summary:

Matthew Tucker is a successful actor on a hit television show, his career on the rise. Life is good. What more could he want?

Daniel Westman, that’s what – his co-star and close friend for the last two years.

Matthew desires more than friendship with Daniel, though, his attraction for the other man growing day by day. So much so that Matthew gives up the safety and security of his current long-term relationship for the slimmest chance of a relationship with Daniel, feeling there’s something between them, just under the surface. And he was gambling his happiness on it.

But months go by, with Matthew suddenly afraid to go forward, to make the first move, to tell Daniel he was falling in love with him. Because if he was wrong, and Daniel was just being his natural charming self and Matthew was looking too deeply into it…he’d lose his best friend.

So instead Matthew longs for his friend in silence, until an accident on set may leave Daniel permanently blinded. With his friend hurt, scared and confused, his life possibly forever altered, Matthew never wavers from Daniel’s side, no matter how difficult it gets.

His dedication brings them closer than ever before , but is it possible to find happiness, and love, in the wake of a tragedy? Or has Matthew’s hesitation cost him that chance and he’ll lose Daniel to the darkness instead.

Review:

Matthew Tucker, an actor in a popular television series, has been secretly in love with co-star, Daniel Westman, for quite some time.  While the two men have become close friends, Matthew, unsure if his feelings will be reciprocated, has been afraid to express his desires to Daniel.

    One night while filming, an accident results in an explosion and a serious injury to Daniel.  His eyes are burned and must be bandaged.  Over the next several days, Matthew diligently and selflessly cares for his friend, staying in Daniel’s home to assist in his recovery.  When the bandages are removed, though, Daniel’s sight has not been restored as predicted.  Once again Matthew agrees to tend to Daniel.  He attempts to help his friend work through his feelings of helplessness and isolation, even though Daniel often rejects Matthew’s efforts at communicating.  Gradually, though, Matthew’s friendship and support influence Daniel, and the affection between the two of them slowly develops into something much more.

    Darkness Falls is a poignant and touching story about the power of love and friendship.  Matthew and Daniel are believable and endearing characters in both their strength and their frailty.  Their strategies for coping with the tragedy that has befallen them are very different; Matthew is open and emotional while Daniel is stoic.  The sex scenes between them are some of the best I’ve ever read, both on a physical and an emotional level.  Having read a vast number of M/M romances, I was impressed by the author’s ability to capture and depict rapture and intimacy so beautifully.  She skims over some events that I’d have preferred to see fleshed out, though.  Several weeks of Daniel and Matthew’s lives while Daniel acclimates to his blindness are summarized rather than shown.  Darkness Falls is quite good as a novella length work, but I believe it would have the potential to be brilliant as a full-length novel.  I hope Ms. Miller will revisit the lives of Daniel and Matthew, as I’d be eager to see how their relationship will progress.