Only Love Lasts (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798218279400)

Only Love Lasts is a work of fiction that highlights multi-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-family stories about love and disappointments. Six decades of life experiences began in the mid-1960s, just before two high school students, Randy Jensen and Stephen Porter, graduated from their respective schools 150 miles apart. They independently acknowledged their sexual orientation and moved to attend different universities in the Boston area. They met at a private cocktail party hosted by a popular Boston gay couple, fell in love, and experienced a healthy, active, open relationship. Their explicit sexual encounters with others, some of them anonymous, during their college days in the Boston area and in Connecticut after graduation became the topic of conversations between each other and their friends. Randy and Stephen loved to share their detailed stories of random sex with strangers, and their friends loved to listen. Unbeknownst to the two lovers, a forced sexual experience between a young female classmate and Randy Jensen shortly before high school graduation resulted in a pregnancy. Twenty-five years later, they were informed that Randy was the father of a baby girl, Alice, who was now close to 25 years old. They are faced with a difficult decision - reach out to Alice or ignore a new relationship.

Love, sex, drugs, death, incarceration, and happiness are just some of the experiences intertwined with multiple families in search of a better life. The story introduces us to the Sanchez family, who were forced into a dangerous and devastating border crossing in pursuit of safety and a home to raise a family. We learned about Louise McCawley, an Irish immigrant who witnessed the loss of coworkers to the horrors of terrorism. Then there was Linda Peterson's quest to return home with an old boyfriend, which cost them their lives while her girlfriend, Sandra Brooks and her boyfriend are sentenced to ten years in prison for kidnapping and robbery. The lessons learned from mistakes, personal tragedies, and accomplishments define the characters in the story. Nobody is exempted.

A new generation surfaces with the love affair of two young gay men, Max Edwards, and Enrique Sanchez, who look to emulate the love, dedication, and open relationship Stephen and Randy shared during their lifetime. Everyone looks for answers they hope to find in front of their eyes. Max and Enrique seek guidance from the life Randy and Stephen experienced. They contemplate and observe the outside world from the safety of their homes as they search for answers. All of them are looking at the ever-changing landscape they see from their window. Some realize that, contrary to a changing landscape, only love lasts beyond their lifetime.