Far from Paradise

A Texas Beach Town Romance #3

by Daryl Banner

SEANY
I'm on the run from a bad family situation. Everyone said Dreamwood Isle is where I would find happiness at last, a balmy and promising beach town on the Texas coast.

I'm tired of curling up on park benches. I hate stealing to survive. But it seems even here in paradise, I'm still struggling to find a place I belong.

That changes the night I steal from a local beachside bar called the Easy Breezy.
I don't make it far before Cooper - the handsome, humble owner - catches me.
I already know it's the end. I'll be taken to the cops, turned in, finished.

Instead, he takes me back to his place. Lets me crash on his couch.
Forgives me.

How do I deserve his kindness? Can I even trust it?
What does he expect in return?

COOPER
Working at the Easy Breezy, I know everyone on the island.
My bar is where the locals come to fill their glasses and spill their hearts.
I listen to their woes. I help lost lovebirds find their way to each other.

But lately, I can't help but feel like something's missing from my life.
I'm reaching a certain age. I still live alone.
Can I really expect to fill the hole in my heart by helping everyone else fill theirs?

It's no wonder I decide to give this sweet-faced runaway a place to stay for the night.
Every time he looks at me with his big, doleful eyes, my resolve to protect him grows.
What is he running from?
What won't he tell me?

One night turns into another. The longer he stays, the more he seems to need me.
I may not know his story yet, but I recognize the pain in his sweet eyes.
Is our paradise about to fall apart, or become something more?

From USA Today Bestselling Author Daryl Banner comes a daring and heartfelt installment of his Texas Beach Town Romance series.

✔️ Age gap
✔️ Hurt/comfort romance
✔️ Emotional and story-focused

A short version of just the beginning of this story was included in Dirty Daddies Pride 2022. This is the full-length definitive version. It includes an all-new beginning and over a dozen new chapters that extend past the ending of the original.

Have you read all the books in the Texas Beach Town series?
In Too Deep
Crusher
Far From Paradise
(with more to come...)

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Fiction, Queer, Audiobook, Contemporary, LGBT

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2023

About the author

Daryl Banner is a USA Today Bestselling author, composer, and performer. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Honors College with a degree in Theatre and Psychology. He is happily married to his piano. Theory suggests this is why he writes romance.

During Daryl Banner's time in college, he wrote, composed, and produced a musical under Tony Award-winning musical and Theatre producer Stuart Ostrow, as well as two original plays produced under the mentorship of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, who also mentored Daryl through the writing of his very first novel. In addition to new adult and M/M romance, Daryl also writes post-apocalyptic fantasy as well as dystopian.

Join his mailing list here to be the first to hear about his new releases! He awards an Amazon gift card every newsletter:
https://www.darylbanner.com/subscribe...

Follow him on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/author/darylba...

Like him on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DarylBannerW...

Connect with fellow readers in Daryl's Doorway:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Daryl...

Fun facts about Daryl Banner:

- He is an obsessive self-taught pianist.

- He is a huge video game enthusiast.

- He left his day job of 10 years to tour with a 2-woman-1-man original musical.

- He's been remixing video game music for over 20 years. One of his remixes is featured in the major motion picture "The Spy Who Dumped Me". Check out his work here: http://www.youtube.com/DarylBanner

- He composes original soundtracks that accompany his books and series, including The Beautiful Dead and OUTLIER. He is also the award-winning composer of the audio drama Janus Descending, as well as several films, games, podcasts, and other media. You can enjoy his music here: http://darylbanner.bandcamp.com

Reviews

[~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semicolons~✡~]

DNF @ 30% No rating

Sean is 18. EIGHTEEN. He's been living on the streets, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still in his teens.

When Cooper let Sean blow him after he took Sean in, I felt sick to my stomach. Cooper didn't ask, but he didn't stop Sean either.

My daughter is 17, and if some asshole more than twice her age (man, woman, whatever) came sniffing around, I'd lose my mind.

If you're 28 or older, raise your hand if you'd date an 18-year-old ... yeah, me neither because I'm not a pedophile.

Just because Sean is technically an adult in the eyes of the law doesn't make it okay.

[❀ Jess ( Semi hiatus ) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Far From Paradise? More like Far From Decent 😒

This is what I get going into a book without reading reviews about it. I kept reading thinking it had to get better and I only finished it due to being stubborn.

This isn’t a story of a homeless young man finding his feet and finding a place to call home with a slow burn, nurturing and supportive romance.

Two unlikable characters. Full of red flags.
Coop ( almost 40?) gives Sean (18) food and a place to stay. Sean throws himself at Coop asking to be held the first night. The following day Sean is happy to have had food and a warm place to sleep and gives Coop a BJ because he wants him to feel as happy as he is. Coop kinda sorta weakly attempts to stop him saying he doesn’t need to repay him that way but Sean insists he likes Coop it’s not payment.

Then they fall into a weird sexual relationship where they live like a couple but they’re not officially a couple. There’s a lot of things left unsaid and a lot of misunderstanding. There’s no emotional connection at all. Eventually Coop blurts that he loves Sean and Sean never returns that phrase. Sean gets upset that his friends called Coop his sugar Daddy and lashes out at Coop, wants to break up and goes for a walk to clear his head where he’s thinking of running away to a different town and runs into Coop’s ex who somehow thinks he’s gonna get them back together and eventually Sean decides to stay with Coop and stay in the town under the condition that Coop is his official boyfriend. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beach read while at the beach. The age difference didn't bother me that much. No panties in a twist here. I'll explain why in a minute. First, the book.

Seany is 18 and homeless. The opening chapters made my heart hurt. The hopelessness and desperation. Seany had to grow up way too soon. His misery is palpable. He's fortunate to land where he does and meet Cooper. I get the feeling that if sex never entered the picture it would still have been okay. Growing feelings. A mutual attraction. I went with it.

Seany finds his place and there is hope for the future, a better life. To me, that was all that mattered.

Cooper, pushing 40, is a nurturer. That's his deal. It's what brings him joy. That much I understood. Cooper's attraction to Seany, other than the nurturing aspect, was harder for me to understand. To me, Cooper's character was not as well defined as Seany.

Now, since I am neither a man nor gay, I have no understanding of the complexities of their particular relationship, the why of it. Wait a minute, I think I do actually, perhaps more than most even. Getting back to those twisted panties ...

At Seany's age I was involved with a man Cooper's age. A summer romance is a good description. God he was gorgeous and funny, smart and hot and it was exciting and we ended up good friends. He moved on and so did I. I could care less about his money. I knew exactly what I was doing at every moment. There was no grooming. That was over 30 years ago. I remember it fondly. Never told a soul until now.

I was mature enough to know what I was doing and handled it. So, if I could, why couldn't Seany? Gay or straight it makes no difference. No one took advantage of me. Maybe the author comes from a place of knowing also. Who knows? Not my business.

I enjoyed this simple story. No, Cooper is not a pedophile. He does not have a psychiatric disorder with an attraction to prepubescent children. Cooper is 18, not 5. That is simply gross and illegal. I'm sure that's not what the author was aiming for.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another sweet read from Daryl Banner. Very insta, but it works. Both Sean and Cooper were afraid of a lot of things, but their perseverance and trust in each other wins out.

As for the Mom for Liberty type who thinks this is "pedophilia" because Sean is 18 and Cooper 38, fuck you and your straight white woman gate keeping. Read all the heteronormative bullshit romances that are unlike anything in the real world, and instead smear a book written by a gay man who understands age gap relationships like this exist and are part of the experience of many younger gay men who are attracted to older men for whatever reason. It's not about you and your immature adult daughter. FOH.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I loved this book. I loved the story. I loved Coop ans Sean. I loved revisiting characters we already love and finding new ones.
This book gripped me from the beginning and didnt let go. I found my self crying more then once they were tears for the characters finding their place. I had a deep emotional bond with this book.
If you havent read the books in the series before this one it will leave you wanting to know those stories. This book also left me wondering who the next story will be based around.

[Jenny (Nyxie)]

No rating DNF. The plot and characters were fine, but not interesting enough for me to get over how awkward the narration of the audiobook was. Would not recommend in audio form.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t my favorite. Felt like the love between the two was too instant! :(

[DeniReadsMostlyMM · Rating 5 out of 5]

***ARC Review***

This is my honest review for the ARC I received.

This is the third book in the A Texas Beach Town Romance series. Daryl Banner has a way with words. This is a moving hurt/comfort story. The descriptive language in this book is beautiful. It’s also an age gap romance with a touch of daddy kink elements to it. Seany is eighteen. Cooper is pushing forty

Seany is on the run and has fallen upon hard times. He’s homeless. Before, he lived on the streets of San Antonio. He takes a bus to Dreamwood Isle, a beach town on the Texas coast. Cooper owns the local bar Easy Breezy. A month after arriving in Dreamwood Isle, Seany is still homeless and he steals a can of nuts from Cooper’s bar. Cooper offers Seany some food and a place to stay.

Seany doesn’t trust easily and is wary of every act of kindness. That said, Seany feels safe with Cooper in a way he hasn’t before. Both of the MCs fulfill something in the other. Cooper protects Seany from the harsh realities of the world. Seany ignites the caring, nurturing side of Cooper. The pair begin a physical relationship, but Cooper remains cautious that Seany’s feelings will change one day. He makes Seany promise that he will keep his doors open. Both MCs have to overcome their insecurities to reach their HEA, but they manage it. The finale is told in two parts.

There’s a lovely cast of characters to round out the story. Some are characters from other Banner books/series. Adrian, Mars, and Chase are great. Seany founds a good friend in Toby, and his boyfriend Vann. Cooper has been burned in the past by Drake, but Drake actually does a good deed for Cooper…and Seany. Grandma Pearl is such a sweetheart!

This book is really interesting and thought provoking. It will keep you invested. It touches on a found family theme as well. Definitely check it out!

[Sharing The Book Love (Kelli Maree PA) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heading back to Dreamwood Isle where Sean and Cooper have an interesting meeting :)

With doubts from both of them about a variety of things, communication is needed and it takes a while but they get their HFN but not without angst and pesky exes :)

[Christina Farr-Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slllllloooooooooowwwwwwww burn. It was decent just not for me

[Cindaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one although during a certain incident towards the end it seems like the Vann from his and Toby's book would've said something so that was disappointing. But I loved Seany and Cooper, this was really good overall.

[Toddles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh!! This had 5 star potential, and it was rushed. I loved the plot. It was different, emotionally moving, and thoughtfully real worldly. Then the end of Chapter 7 happened.... and all I could mutter was WTF... There were at least 4 or 5 chapters that could have been written before that as more back story and character development as individuals before we went there. Jumped the gun....

The whole story was angsty, which was a given as Seany was homeless, scarred, and scared of everyone. He put up a defense to protect himself even from good people. Cooper was burned on the past but is still a caring person. He wants to trust everyone but can't trust himself to feel how he should. 110% Angst!

I love a good age difference story. It's a very real thing in our community and the judgment and side-eye you get. These two had my support from the beginning, I just wished the burned slower for a better effect. It came across as being taken advantage and/or people pleasing.

It was another sexually dry edition.

I did like that there was a bit of tension and fear for Seany having to look over his shoulder. I just wished the climax was a bigger bang than what we got.

Vann and Toby are in this one again, and a lot more of them! Adrian makes a couple of appearances. I started to see some hints that a couple that were already established in IN TOO DEEP maybe on the rocks, which may lead to one of them in the future as the main love interest of his own. Looking at you, Finn.

My 700th book!!

[M's ☆~HEA~☆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just awkward and I kept waiting for something to happen but it never did. Cooper, bar owner pushing 40, essentially adopts a homeless 18 yr old. I don't care about the age gap. I care how wildly awkward their relationship sounds. Cooper literally says they have fallen into a FWB dynamic while living as roomies which is far f*cking creepier than them actually forming real normal feelings for each other while living together.

I don't understand how they didn't begin a real relationship in that close proximity. It honestly felt like they had zero chemistry at all so at the literal last page of the book when they claimed each other as boyfriends it made no sense.

The side characters were all highly unlikable as well as the MCs. What a weird book! No steam either, all closed door sex, except maybe a mention of a bj at the beginning idk. Super weird book.

If you want a fantastic book with older guy/homeless younger guy read Getting Lucky.

[Robert Fontenot · Rating 2 out of 5]

No, I like Banner’s work. I feel like I’ve heard a lot of his books at this point and while I see what he’s going for with this one, I feel like it’s a little out of his wheelhouse. Part of that is the age gap, not something he writes about often, and tricky to pull off well. In this book one character is more than twice the other character’s age, which I would probably be fine with, but when it turns out that that character seems to only date 18-year-olds, it starts to get a little queasy. When you add in a homeless plot, things go off the rails pretty quickly. All of this could work given enough time, but the characters go from 0 to 60 super fast and a huge chunk of the novel takes place over the course of a week or so. The balance is just way off. A lot of the side characters feel off as well and some of the conversations feel more like they were written by AI then a living human being. Toby and Drake in particular have just bizarre interactions with the main characters. This whole book feels like a misfire.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An older guy and a young man. Seany was a runaway, but had managed to survive to the ripe old age of eighteen. He had witnessed and been in tough situations as a homeless teen survivor, then getting out of San Antonio, he hopped a bus that took him to Dreamwood Isle, the gay mecca on the Gulf Coast. Stealing to survive, he kept his eye on Cooper, the owner of the Easy Breezy bar. Cooper knew that cans of peanuts were missing from his inventory and one night saw who was taking them - Seany.

He chased the boy and finally caught up with him, but didn't press charges. Cooper always was the one person on the island that was there to help others. He saw that Sean needed help and reluctantly, Sean took that help.

It bothered Cooper and Sean for different reasons that they were connected and found a connection and even though they were almost eighteen years apart in age . . . neither took advantage of the other and feelings blossomed.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrative in this book reveals slowly the story of a tragically lost young man whose survival requires a life where he knows he's done bad things, but bad things have been done against him.

I've now read all of Daryl Banner's Spruce Texas series, Dreamwood Isle series, and several 'episodes' of Boys & Toys. For a guy with theater and psychology degrees, a composer and performer, he hits the right notes in the books. The Spruce Texas series is the perfect MM romance with little angst, and some surprising topics, but the biggest surprise is the wonderfully accepting community he has built with the books. That community, with sand and beach, is in the Dreamwood Isle series.

His writing is great, there's no tropes or tricks of angst and as in this edition, there are several unexpected twists, but most warm and endear our author even more. Five stars, all the way.

[Lilpapa75 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially I had low expectations for this book. While I enjoy reading MM Romance, the subject matter here was unsettling - homeless 18 year old man, and an older man (in his 30s if i recall) fall in love. Nonetheless, I was taken aback by the incredible journey these two men shared on their path together. To be clear, this kind of relationship isn’t my cup of tea, but love is love right ? What moved me the most about this book was the insights. There is so much that we take for granted. And no one deserves to be a prisoner of one’s past. I finished this book gaining some least expected wisdom. Very thought provoking indeed. I’m so glad I kept an open mind for this read. I encourage everyone else to do the same - and if anything, just enjoy a little visit to paradise.

[A. Gaitan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed

Normally, I enjoy Banner's mini novellas but this time I was a bit disappointed with this offering. The workings of the young man's mind seem unreal. Maybe as one ages Daddy issues become more
important in a man's life this theme is prioritized. First time I heard San Antonio mentioned and given quite a negative portrayal. I've been mugged in Cambridge MA, held at gunpoint in Philly. No problems, in Sanantone. Though pretty much a Bostonian now, SA is my birthplace. And typically yep I bear a Spanish name. I do enjoy Darylito's stories of Anglo gay boys in Tejas but this one was a bit unreal. An unfortunate waste of the little time I have left. A. Eagan Gaitan

[Christie Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far From Paradise

I started out this book bawling. My sympathy levels bursting through the roof. Seany is a sweet guy, down on his luck and homeless, looking for a place to belong. Cooper finds him stealing food from his bar and he takes him home with him, after trying to find him a place to stay, but all the hotels were full and he was left with no choice. He wasn't looking for romance, but despite the age difference they fit. Anyway I thought it was a sweet story. I love all of Daryl's books. Highly recommend.

[Gmassing · Rating 3 out of 5]

May -September romance with a lot of soul searching.

I enjoy this author's work but this one just didn't click for me. It may be that I've never been in homeless situation but for whatever reason I just couldn't get into this book. Too much soul searching and inner dialog and not enough plot. It also seemed like most of the secondary characters were only half drawn. I will try Banners next book though.

[Golden Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cooper & Sean

I had read the short of this story in Daddies Pride 2022 and enjoyed it. This expanded story adds more angst for both. They both were back and forth over whether they should be together. I’ve enjoyed this series, a spin off on the Spruce TX series. I’ll be waiting on sweet Chase’s story.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm such a huge Daryl Banner fan, so I was excited for the next Beach Town Romance. I am so disappointed that I had to DNF this book after quite a few tries to get through it. It just did not work for me. The story was not plausible. He ranked high on the ICK scale. I gave it two stars because...Daryl...but it was not his best work, IMHO.

[DLB2572 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep the Tissues Handy

I loved this story but it did have me tearing up a bit. This is a great age gap, hurt/comfort story that is really worth reading. I can see myself going back to read this one again.

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

[Laurie Furrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of my absolutely favorite characters

Have been brought to me by Mr. Banner.
Sean and Cooper's story is another example of his amazing ability to tell a story with everything I could want: laughter, heat, tears and even some tension to keep me on my toes. ❤️

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story did not transition well from short novella to novel. I enjoyed the novella when I previously read it. But that made the first part of the book be very fast paced here and then the rest of the book felt disjointed and at a much slower pace. The expansion just didn’t work for me.

[David Durkit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

Book three is well written and scripted. The characters are well rounded and very relatable. How all the side characters have a final come around was nicely done.

[Ron-Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Erth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book in the series. Would recommend you read in sequence.

[Peter Edick · Rating 5 out of 5]

engaging

I was drawn to it by empathy for, and magical whimsy towards the main two characters. Tada that is all folks

[Debby Quick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Island Life

Sweet story. Love Coopy and Seany! They fit like a hand in a glove. I have really enjoyed this magical paradise!