When Carter White returns to Flagstaff for his sister’s wedding, the last person he expects to find on the mountain trail is Christian Reyes—the childhood best friend and first love who shattered him two years earlier. Carter has a new life now, a new boyfriend beside him, and every reason to keep walking.
Then the mountain erupts.
Trapped above Flagstaff as ash, earthquakes, and mudflows tear through the city below, Carter, Christian, and Alton are forced into a brutal fight down a collapsing volcano while two families abandon the wedding and race toward the disaster zone to save them. But survival means more than outrunning the eruption. It means facing the love Carter never buried, the future he was trying to choose, and the terrible cost of making it home alive.
A queer disaster thriller about first love, second chances, and the people we run back into fire for.
When Carter White returns to Flagstaff for his sister’s wedding, the last person he expects to find on the mountain trail is Christian Reyes—the childhood best friend and first love who shattered him two years earlier. Carter has a new life now, a new boyfriend beside him, and every reason to keep walking.
Then the mountain erupts.
Trapped above Flagstaff as ash, earthquakes, and mudflows tear through the city below, Carter, Christian, and Alton are forced into a brutal fight down a collapsing volcano while two families abandon the wedding and race toward the disaster zone to save them. But survival means more than outrunning the eruption. It means facing the love Carter never buried, the future he was trying to choose, and the terrible cost of making it home alive.
A queer disaster thriller about first love, second chances, and the people we run back into fire for.
By seven forty-two, Alton had stopped pretending the shoes were fine.
The trailhead parking lot was still half in shadow, the morning cold enough to fog their breath, though the ash falling steadily from a clear sky said the day would not stay ordinary for long. Flagstaff sat spread out below the switchbacks in its usual quiet, red rock and green pine and a sky that most mornings belonged only to hikers and delivery trucks. Carter had grown up trusting that sky.
He did not complain. That was the thing about him. He adjusted. He retied one lace at the trailhead, tested the grip on a flat rock, looked at the slope as if it were a legal problem with weather attached to it, and started up behind Carter without making it Carter’s responsibility.
Carter liked him for that.
He hated that he noticed liking him for that.
The trail climbed fast out of the lower trees, dirt packed hard from years of boots and weekend families and NAU students who underestimated elevation because the first ten minutes looked harmless. Ash lay over the path in a thin gray film. It gathered in the edges of footprints and made the dark stones look pale.
Every few steps the powder lifted around their ankles and settled again.
Alton looked at the ground. “This is the light ash they told people to avoid breathing?”
“Only if you stand in it all day.”
“Carter, we are hiking through it by choice.”
Tectonic
By Will Haddad
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: August 2026
ASIN: B0H8R59SFK
Page Count: 331
Triggers: Disaster, loss, injury, relationship conflict, grief, family obligations
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Skull Dread Rating: 💀💀💀💀
What Did I Just Walk Into?
Imagine going back to your hometown for a happy occasion and discovering the universe has scheduled emotional chaos, bad timing, questionable decisions, and a giant helping of danger for the exact same weekend.
Carter arrives intending to keep things civilized. He has a new relationship, a different routine, and absolutely no reason to reopen old chapters.
Sure.
That plan lasts roughly five minutes.
Seeing Christian again brings back everything Carter would rather leave locked away. There are uncomfortable glances, conversations loaded with things nobody is saying, and enough tension floating around to make everyone nearby reconsider their seating arrangements.
Then nature decides the humans are taking too long and joins the drama.
Here’s What Slapped:
The combination of romance and disaster works ridiculously well. The personal mess never feels separate from the physical danger. As circumstances become more threatening, all the carefully avoided feelings start demanding attention too.
Carter and Christian have the kind of chemistry that makes you want them to either kiss or argue somewhere far away from innocent bystanders.
Preferably both.
Alton also deserves far more credit than he probably wants. He walks into a situation where there is clearly history everywhere, and slowly realizes he may have volunteered for a trip nobody properly explained.
The survival scenes add real urgency. Once things start going wrong, they keep going wrong. There is very little room for anyone to stop, regroup, or pretend their choices have no consequences.
What Could’ve Been Better:
Certain characters desperately needed to communicate sooner.
Not hints.
Not meaningful staring.
Not heroic silence.
Actual words.
A few issues could have been handled very differently if someone had simply decided honesty was worth trying before everything became significantly more complicated.
That frustration works, though, because it makes the eventual revelations hit harder.
Perfect for Readers Who Love:
MM romance, complicated exes, second chances, survival stories, dangerous settings, emotional baggage, family entanglements, and people realizing that avoiding a problem does not magically make it disappear.
Tectonic is tense, emotional, messy, and occasionally brutal. It delivers romance alongside genuine peril without letting either side overpower the other.
Basically, come for the reunion drama and stay because getting off the mountain suddenly becomes everyone’s biggest problem.
Book Series:
Tectonic: Foreshock: A Prequel Novella
Tectonic
Tectonic: Faultline
Reviewed by Robin for Robin’s Review