Review: The Mighty Have Fallen by Bonnie Dee

Theatre headliner Trevor Rowland is at the peak of his career when disaster strikes. In one fell swoop, he loses his eyesight, his fame, and his boyfriend, who absconds with most of his money. Trevor must take on a flatmate, hardworking East Ender Jack Burrows, to afford the rent. Anger and bitterness have taken up residence in his heart—but Jack shines light into the shadowy corners with his relentlessly sunny disposition.

Jack introduces Trevor to a local drag club and convinces him he can enjoy the stage again. Trevor’s defences slowly come down as Jack becomes much more than a barely tolerated roommate. 

But will Trevor’s fragile trust be destroyed when it appears he’s been manipulated yet again by a man he’s come to care for? Will he reclaim his life or crawl back into a shell of defeat? Trevor must learn to trust not only a man, but himself, once more.

I’m a huge fan of Bonnie Dee’s words and have read her work across the genres. The Mighty Have Fallen is a great example of how she can bring a lot of elements to a story without becoming melodramatic just for the sake of it and keeping the focus on the evolution of the characters. Reading the blurb makes this story sound damn weighty, and while Trevor is going through a shitstorm in his life, the overall feeling is definitely more on the hopeful side and it was a much easier read than I expected. I was all geared up for some heavy angst and I was happy Trevor’s story didn’t go that direction.

Not that Trevor’s illness and adjustment to his new life is glossed over in any way, but the role his roomie Jack plays keeps the story heading to the positive and hopeful. We meet Trevor after he’s gone through occupational therapy and after his crappy boyfriend has hit the bricks. So, The Mighty Have Fallen is more about Trevor getting his independence and confidence back than about everything that led up to him losing so very much.

The only thing that I would have loved was to have Jack’s perspective as well. There was never a question as to his feelings for Trevor or his motives (at least to me, even if Trevor was a little clueless for a bit there), but I really loved his character and his attitude so more of him would have been a treat. This is definitely more of Trevor’s story though and adding more would have meant adding a lot more I think to get the right balance. Jack’s backstory would have to be there and so would more of Trevor’s detail, and again, I don’t think that’s what The Mighty Have Fallen was about, this was Trevor’s journey.

While I loved, loved, loved the evolution of the relationship between Trevor and Jack (who doesn’t love when roomies with bennies moves into all the feeeeeels???), I also really liked reading the interactions with the secondary characters. Trevor’s illness and all that he’s gone through has affected his perspective in so many ways and the conversations he had with his parents and old neighbor were well done and have more perspective on all that Trevor was learning about himself and his world.

I did get a bit fussy with Trevor when he had the clueless bit with Jack and questioned Jack’s motives, I couldn’t blame him given his past, but I also was feeling very protective of Jack by this point and all I wanted was for Trevor to make it right. Kudos to Trevor for pulling it together at the eleventh hour, conquering his fears and getting his HEA on with Jack.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**