"Boots"

Review - "Boots" by Angel Martinez

Fun and sexy, touching adult fairy tale

Highly Recommended

Willem is at a crossroads.  He has lost his job, his cheating lover, his home, and his father.  He was left $300 and the family cat, Puss.  Refusing to stay with his older brother, he is unsure what to do next.

Puss is really Yorukaze, a kasha, a cat demon.  Banished by one of the gods, he is sent from master to master to guide and assist.  Unable to return home, he is at the mercy of those who choose to take his service.  And he has been led to Willem and his family.

Pasha's job, it seems, it to find Willem a home a job and a man to love.  After that, Pasha will have to move on to his next assignment.  But what happens if he doesn't want to go?  Because Pasha, it seems, can assume a human form, and is the embodiment of what Willem is searching for.  When Kasha decides to set Willem up with a nice guy, get him a sponsor for his work, and a home, will he be able to put his feelings for Willem aside?

What follows is a fun, touching and fulfilling fantasy.  Willem is a sweet and strong young man, looking for love but getting used and discouraged instead.  And Pasha is a smart mouthed, sarcastic bad boy of a demon.  But underneath, he is like so many other hard guys - a vulnerable guy who wants someone for his own.

This is a very adult fairy tale.  The characters are drawn so well.  We feel how lost and sad Willem is, how much losing everything in his life has hurt him.  Especially his father; even though they had fought about his being gay, they were reconciling when Horst died.  And Pasha - how much loss and pain there has been in his existence.  And how much he has sacrificed over the years, and how much he is still willing to give up once he finds the man he has been searching for.

Ms. Martinez has crafted something special here.  This tale could be just a sex romp, or a farce.  Instead, she has made this a tale of love, sacrifice, tenderness and car.  I was enchanted.  And isn't that what a fairy tale is supposed to do?

Just wonderful.

Tom