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Items of interest concerning Hawthorne Books and its authors

I Loved You More: love, sex and hope for true belonging, by Barbara Lloyd McMichael for The Seattle Times

21 Apr 2014|

In his new novel “I Loved You More,” Portland author Tom Spanbauer follows one man’s entanglements with love, sexuality and relationships.

I Loved You More is breathtaking for its audacity. Spanbauer is unflinching as he looks at physical need and carnal desire. The book is punctuated with graphic sex and disturbing hallucinogenic trips. It is laced with frustration and profanity — including some truly crackerjack lines that cannot be repeated in this newspaper.

On the other hand, the author also conveys the simplicity of kindness and the wistfulness of emotional want — the “broken voice saying it is I who am broken, and it is human to be broken, and we are all broken….” Spanbauer captures the flutter of first attraction, and he nails the heartbreak of final rejection.

To read the entire review go to The Seattle Times.