Kindle Price: $2.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Audra North
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Midlife Crisis Kindle Edition

by Audra North (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
See all formats and editions
Cam McGhee grew up like any other small-town Texas farm boy: he played football, went to church every Sunday, and married his high school sweetheart. But thirty-five years after he said "I do," Cam finds himself nursing a beer in a gay bar, thinking about what might have been.

Dave Montoya is confident, self-assured, and cautiously single. But when he meets shy, uncertain, and clearly-still-not-out Cam in a coffee shop in Austin, his reservations about getting seriously involved again disappear. Cam is everything he’s looking for in a partner . . . almost, anyway.

No matter how much Dave wants him, and how good they are together, Cam can't bring himself to openly embrace the life he was meant to live. After all, when his secret finally gets out, he faces the very real possibility of losing everything that kept him going for the first fifty years of his life, just like he’s feared for so long. But with a little faith—and a lot of love—his dream of living fully, truly, as himself might finally be within reach.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    198 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    August 26, 2017
  5. File size
    1972 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Emotional, intense, and moving, Audra North's Midlife Crisis was one man's amazing journey into accepting his true identity and learning that happiness and love is worth the sacrifice." --Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
"Cam McGhee is going to break your heart. I'm pretty sure I felt mine crack several times while reading his story...I absolutely enjoyed this story and will be sure to look out for more books from this author in the future." --Love Bytes Reviews

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07562GGH2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riptide Publishing (August 26, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 26, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1972 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 198 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1626496684
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Audra North

Audra North

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Audra North is a contemporary romance author of more than twenty romances, including the Stanton Family series from Entangled Publishing, the Hard Driving series from St. Martin’s Press, and the Pushing the Boundaries series from Samhain Publishing. She is the owner and publisher of Pink Kayak Press, which focuses on the publication of diverse romance works. Winter Rain, a Pink Kayak Press anthology, won a gold medal in the 2015 Independent Publisher Awards.

Audra enjoys speaking to writing groups and at industry conferences. She is also an avid jogger and loves running marathons. She has three children and lives with her family outside of Boston.

For more about Audra, and to sign up for her newsletter, visit audranorth.com.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lori Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet Love Story
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2021
Verified Purchase
Sweet love story. Fairly typical involving 2 men, but it was a nice story of 2 men being friends than lovers. Easy read!
Helpful
 Report
Eleanor
4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful midlife coming of age romance.
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2018
Cam was born and raised, and lived for more than fifty years in a small all-black town in Texas. Cam knew he was attracted to boys ever since his school days, but in a religious town, there was no place or understanding for that kind of thing. Homosexuality was and still is, abhorred.

So Cam married and had children, he built up a successful business which he intended to pass on to his son, and just last year had lost his wife to sickle cell anemia. He loves his children more than anything, but had decided to take a few months off to clear his head in a sort of vacation, if you will.

Now, alone in a rental apartment in Austin, he walks the city and learns his surroundings. Trying to do something for himself, he finds himself one night at a gay club, being hit on by a younger man. An alien in the big city, completely new to the gay scene, Cam finds himself pressured into a situation he’s not comfortable with and flees, only to wind up the next day at a neighborhood café.

Dave, recently out of a long relationship, is cycling every Saturday with his friends, where they finish their round at a nice café, chatting and laughing. It’s clear he’s comfortable with himself and his friends, and when he crosses path with Cam, it’s immediately clear to him the other man is interested.

When Cam’s children enter the picture it is clear that Cam’s repressed past is catching up to him, and while his kids are pretty progressive, they’re also his children who loved their mother dearly, and his biggest fear is to lose them over his love for Dave.

The way Cam and Dave’s friendship-to-relationship is progressing is the sweetest thing. These are the parts that made me swoon. They tenderness, understanding, and growing affection the two men shared.

It’s not uncommon that midlife men will dare to live their desires for the first time at a late age, but it is uncommon (for me, anyway) to read about it in a romance. I loved it.

If there are more tropes like this one, please let me know in comments.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Clare
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this! A really sweet read which had me ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
Loved this! A really sweet read which had me in tears just before a lovely HEA. Not sure why so few have chosen to review this. Really like romances with older characters. Story well written and easy to read. Will be looking out for other books by this author.
Helpful
 Report
Lori A Tritto
5.0 out of 5 stars Ageless
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
This was a beautiful story. Heartache and sadness and finally finding your true self. Imagine this happens every day.. Life way to short. Great story well developed characters. First time reading a book by this author and will definitely buy more of her books.
Helpful
 Report
M Marshall
5.0 out of 5 stars Very highly recommended - So Delighted to Find Such a Great New Author!
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2017
A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Review (A Caryn Review)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This is the first book I've read by this author, and I'm so happy to have discovered her.  The book was everything I hoped it would be, and then some.

There is something so special about finding love when you're older – whether you've lost a partner, or never had one, it always, to me anyway, feels like getting more than you thought you could expect.  I think when we're young, there is a part of us that feels life owes us true love, but by the time we hit middle age, we realize life doesn't really work that way, and finding it then is a true gift.  Which is why I love these older men!

Cam McGhee is 54 years old, and has left his home town of Bitter, Texas, for basically the first time in his life.  Bitter is an all-black farming town that's existed for generations.  The community has learned to survive the Southern racism surrounding it by being self-sufficient, trusting and relying on each other, which has always meant behaving within a certain set of unspoken rules.  Following those rules kept them safe, and if it restricted the denizen's freedom a little bit, well, it was worth it.  Cam grew up in this town of very conservative ideals, and though he knew he was gay from the time he was a young teenager, he also knew that he couldn't ever admit it and still be accepted.  He started dating LaVerne in high school as a cover, but with small town expectations being what they were, he ended up marrying her, having two children, and staying with her faithfully until she died.  He left his successful feed and grain business in Bitter in his son's hands, and moved to Austin, Texas, for 6 months, where he hoped to finally experience life as a gay man, at least temporarily, before he buried it all again and moved back to Bitter.

Cam met Dave Montoya at a coffee shop.  Cam had no idea how to approach a man, and his shyness was almost crippling, but Dave made things easy for him.  Dave is a successful, independent man from Connecticut who found his home in Austin, and who has lived his entire life as an out gay man.  Dave had his own reasons for not wanting to jump into casual hookups, and so moving slowly with Cam was natural and easy.  Almost without realizing it was happening, and certainly not intending for it to happen, they fell in love.  Which would have been wonderful, but Cam's stay in Austin had an expiration date.

The story is told with alternating scenes from Cam's present in Austin, and flashbacks to his life in Bitter.  I know flashbacks get a bad rap, but in this case, they were the perfect vehicle to show the stark differences between who Cam was, and who he wanted to be, and why he struggled so hard to reconcile these parts of himself.  As Cam and Dave meet and start dating, the story flashed back to Cam and LaVerne's meeting, and Cam's conscious decision to use LaVerne as a beard.  When Cam kissed Dave for the first time, he inevitably compared his physical response – as amazing as he'd always hoped kissing a man would be – to his sexual life with LaVerne.  As he started falling in love with Dave, Cam thought of the love he had for LaVerne – platonic, but strong despite the continual guilt he felt for not loving her the way a man should love his wife.  Cam was faithful, generous, and had a strong sense of responsibility and duty – attributes which kept him in Bitter for over 50 years, and when he saw the opportunity to have a different type of life with Dave, he still struggled with the choice:  could he stay in Austin with the man he loved, and life the life he'd always wanted, when doing so meant abandoning his friends and family in Bitter?

Another aspect of the book that I really appreciated was that racism was not front and center.  While it certainly made Bitter into the community it was (and what an interesting choice of name for the town!), once Cam came to Austin, he was just another man, not primarily a man of color.  There was a lot more homophobia mentioned than racism, but again, Dave's friends and family showed Cam that homophobia wasn't ubiquitous, and a full life as an out gay man was indeed possible.

Very highly recommended!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report