Nero and Lenny were perfect for each other in every way possible. – Yep, you guessed it – Nothing! It’s brilliant! It was a typical Garret Leigh book with the scarred and tortured main characters (some more than others), a healthy dosage of angst and where the actual plot of the book is in focus – not steamy sex scenes. It draws you in, makes you feel like you are a part of their lives, their struggles, happiness and everything in-between. There’s something really special about this series, I love the atmosphere, the characters and their stories, and just everything about it. I loved how they just worked, for sure there were ups and downs but it made it all so much more real. From a reluctant truce grows a friendship, they start needing and depending on each other. Both find their safe haven in the Urban Soul kitchens. One is hiding and one is running, figuratively speaking. Strays follow Nero and Lenny, two scarred souls brought together by outside circumstances. Or can he? For the first time ever, happiness is there for the taking, and Nero must learn to embrace it before fate steps in and rips it away. Kitchen life proves heady and addictive, and it’s not long before he finds himself falling hard and fast for the man who has taken him in.įast-forward a month and a neither man can imagine life without the other, but one thing stands in their way: a lifetime of horrors Nero can’t bring himself to share with Lenny. Pursued by a stalker, he has nowhere left to run until Nero offers him a port in a storm-a job at the hottest restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush. Lenny Mitchell is living under a cloud of fear.

Despite his irritation and his lifelong ability to shut the world out, Nero is mesmerised by the vibrant stray, especially when he learns what drove him to seek sanctuary on Nero’s battered old couch. Nero’s lonely life suits him just fine until his best friend, Cass, asks him to take on a new apprentice-a beautiful young man who’s never set foot in a professional kitchen.

Strays by Garrett Leigh