The Drifter

by Kathy Coopmans

I liked this story, it was a switch up from the previous Kathy Coopmans books that I have read and in my opinion that is never a bad thing.

Kray had a childhood that could almost be described as desolate, his father has been unforgiving in his insistence that he following his footsteps and his mother has exhibited nothing more than a cold ambivalence towards the him that was so heart breaking to read that I wasn’t shocked when he skipped town as soon as he could.

But his decision to leave might have been the right choice for him, but it meant that he was leaving behind the only person that not only truly cared about him but that he honestly loved.

Rori was completely distraught when Kray left and it was against a backdrop of almost unfettered hatred from Kray’s father that she and her mother suffered his wrath. Rori’s future plans cruelly taken from her by him but his behaviour only succeeded in making her more determined to succeed.

The story picks up 13 years later and Rori is in Las Vegas setting up a new venture with her business partner. But little does she know that the man that she has never been able to move past is the guy she passes on the sidewalk while he is busking.

The story that then begins to take shape, the journey that unfolds as they find their way back to each other was what I can only describe as a beautiful love story. The way Rori worked to bring a future to Kray, without him feeling as if she was patronising him.

They had to learn to not only love each other again but they also had to work their way through the cycle of regret, pain and forgiveness for the events that had torn them apart in order to have a future they so richly deserve.
I longed for Kray to forgive himself, to learn that he was not to blame for the decisions he had foisted upon him.

His life on the street almost was not one that any sane person would have ever have elected but with Rori he has a chance to get the life he had always dreamt of and I was reading much of the story with my fingers crossed and my heart in my mouth.