"In From the Cold"

Review - "In From the Cold" by Mercy Celeste

Like a storm waiting to erupt

Highly Recommended

Tension. This book is all about tension.

Quinn is a country singer who has hit the big time. Since leaving his Tennessee hometown, he has battled drug and alcohol addiction, hard times, family fights and an attraction to his best friend that broke that friendship.

Nathan is a deputy in the same small town he and Quinn are from. Twice divorced, former Marine Corp, from a wealthy family, Nate is happy enough. As long as he can keep ignoring Quinn.

When a crisis involving Quinn's father, the sheriff of the town they both grew up in, forces Nate to call Quinn back home, the old pains and attractions boils back up. The tension between these two men is intense - can they find some common ground to get through this tragedy?

Ms. Celeste has created a tale that crackles with tension here. The tension between two old friends who became more than that. Between fathers and sons. Family. And when the worst happens, all that grief and old hurt and love and anger and lust and history spills out and over and consumes these two hurting men.

But the tension doesn't stop there. As the search for the man responsible for this crime intensifies, additional players come onto the scene and make Nate and Quinn even more tense. Because Quinn has been keeping secrets from everyone. Secrets that hurt Nate, bringing back all his hurts and wants. And when a TBI agent questions both men, they realize their secrets are anything but hidden.

And the tension builds.

What I appreciated most about this hot, intense and very very satisfying book was the tense interplay between Nate and Quinn, and how it relates to the reason why Quinn's father was shot. As the two lovers get closer to each other, the danger gets more real and closer to home. And when it overtakes them and one of the guys is in danger, we feel how close to the line both men are.

And just when we thought it couldn't get any harder to breathe, something even worse happens. I swear, I thought I was going to grind my teeth to powder, and the tension in my shoulders gave me a headache. Because I came to care about these two characters - their wasted years, the circumstances they let come between them, the stupid misunderstandings, the wasted pride. It is like when the air gets heavy and your lungs fill with humidity and something has to give right before a huge summer storm rolls in. All that potential and energy and you know it's going to erupt and you wait and you wait and you hope it will happen and it just keeps building and you need it to just BURST or you will.

Only when the lightening starts and the rains falls, it frees you up. Here, we just gasp and bleed and hope these two can put the pieces back together and that they will be alright again.

And hellfire, when I got to the last page, only then could I relax a little. But the tension is still there. And damn it, it's GOOD. And DAMN IT I WANT MORE.

So Ms. Celeste did her job. Left me wanting. And I really can't ask for more than that, can I?

Tom

"Desert Run"

Review - "Desert Run" by Marshall Thornton

Good, gritty nontraditional m/m story

Highly Recommended

Don is an entertainer in a third rate cocktail bar in Palm Springs circa 1973.  He's out of the army, single, and doesn't mind picking up the occasional hot woman and having a good time.

When Shelly walks in to the lounge, she is a hot looking blonde, in town for a convention and hot to trot.  That she looks oddly familiar raises his red flags, but not enough to keep him from hooking up.  After a brief few days and a lot of fun and sex, Don's past shows back up to cause a LOT of trouble.

Seems Don is really Ricky D'Amico from Chicago, ex-army, and on the run from a terrible situation that has him changing his identity and laying low, unable to contact family or friends.  Shelly's revelation of who she is and that she recognizes him stuns and worries him, and then, quickly has him in the run yet again.  Then, what starts as Don pool sharking to get money to stay on the run from the troubles chasing him leads to his meeting and falling into a friendship with Harlan, a young man being kept by a middle aged movie start.  A male star.  And what follows is an action packed, thrill ride of mobsters, movie stars, murder and memories. 

This is NOT your average m/m story, and that is a VERY good thing!

This is first and foremost a story about an average guy trapped in a situation anything but average, but out of his control.  What happened in Chicago starts a chain of events that has Don constantly looking over his shoulder, reacting and on edge.  Shelly's stumbling across him by accident brings all that he has tried to put behind him right back in his face, and drives the action throughout the book.

And this is a great ride of a book.  The action fast paced, the fear palpable and Don propelled into reactions designed to keep him safe for one more day.  Mr. Thornton has crafted a very believable character in Don - a Vietnam era veteran (this is 1973) who suffers from light PTSD and flashbacks.  He is brutally adaptable, able to make quick decisions, but is a man with a conscience.  He is used to doing what is necessary to survive, and all of the actions he takes in this well written, excellently paced roller coaster of a book are consistent and believable.

What sets this book apart from merely being a well written action story, however, is the addition of the m/m element to the mix.  While on the run, Don is thrown into a situation where he meets Harlan, a young gay man.  Don's initial intention is to use him for a place to stay, never intending for anything sexual to occur.  Don discovers that he has an initial connection with the guy - or at least to getting off.  As he gets to know Harlan, however, he has to question himself as to whether there is something more to his attraction than Harlan's being just an easy way to get off, or if there is an emotional connection.

And that is what makes this such a relevant and exciting book for me.  Don is on the run, fighting for his life.  And Mr. Thornton works in a nicely told interlude where Don contemplates his sexuality.  It fits seamlessly into the tale, and adds texture and depth to the character.  I never questioned where Mr. Thornton was taking me or how we were getting there - I just sat back and let this masterful storyteller take me along for a fun, exciting and ultimately satisfying ride.

I wish we had more of this in the genre to choose from - action driven stories where the m/m element was secondary but important.  I love me some HEA and hot sex, but there is a place for this type of book in the genre also.

Good work!

Tom

"Bear, Otter and the Kid"

Review - "Bear, Otter and the Kid" by TJ Klune

They don't get much better than this

Very Highly Recommended

"This is the way my world ends." 

With this opening sentence, we meet Derrick (Bear, to those who know him), and discover that, one day short of his 18th birthday, three days shy of his high school graduation, and three months away from his leaving to start college, his mother has left.  Left him alone and in charge of his five your old brother Tyson (Kid).  With the help of his girlfriend Anna, his best friend Creed and Creed's brother Oliver (Otter), Bear picks himself up and gets on with the business of making sure the Kid is cared for and loved.

Over the course of the three or four years covered here, we see love.  Love between two brothers, between friends, between a man and a woman, and between a man and another man.  We see love end, love begin, and love transformed.  We see love used as a weapon, love as an excuse, and love as a means of control.

We get the Kid's definition of love.  "I think it's when you can't go on another day without the other person.  That they make you feel like your stomach is on fire but in a good way." 

We see it when a heart is broken and love ends.  "You've broken my heart, but it was mine to give."

And we have our hearts broken when Bear tells the Kid their mom deserted them.  "I heard the first gasping breath come out of his little body. 'Bear!' he cried into my ear. 'What's going to happen to me?  I'm not big like you!  What's going to happen to me?'"  And Holy Hell, didn't I choke up at that...

What happens is...I almost don't have words for it...a glorious, imaginative, sprawling, touching, living heart of a book.  TJ Klune has taken these characters and built a tale of family and love.  We follow Bear's story, as he deals with his mother's leaving, raising the Kid, his on and off again relationship with Anna, and his struggle with whatever it is that exists between him and Otter. 

Because at heart, this book IS about Bear and Otter.  How love can start and stall and transform and be something that brings two people together and yet keep them apart and take you by surprise.  The question that looms over the entirety of the book is, will Bear allow himself to trust and love, and will he allow it to be Otter?

Mr. Klune has crafted this story so lovingly and so completely, and invested his characters with so much personality and life that I found myself yelling at them one moment, so angry at their denseness and stubbornness, then gasping and swallowing against the lump in my throat and fighting the prickling of tears in my eyes as their care and concern and love for one another shone through.  And marveling at how true to life the feelings and reactions were. 

I forgot, sometimes, in my frustration with Bear that he is still a very young man.  His shouldering of the responsibility of being mother, father and brother to the Kid in many ways froze him emotionally, and didn't grant him the time to grieve and get angry and be a normal young man.  I found myself aching to give this young man a hug while at the same time wanting to shake the stuffing out of him.  And that is where I think Mr. Klune's genius shines through.  It is almost impossible to NOT react to Bear; he is all elbows and knees and sharp corners, and they stick out and poke the reader to react with and to him.  I found myself drawn again and again to the Staind song "Epiphany" when pondering him.


"I am nothing more than a little boy inside
That cries out for attention
though I always try to hide
'Cause I talk to you like children,
Though I don't know how I feel
But I know I'll do the right thing
If the right thing is revealed
'Cause its always raining in my head
Forget all the things I should have said"

He is a little boy, hurt inside, and I want to just grab him and make it all right for him.

And as much as I love Bear, I love Otter and how he fits with Bear so well.  He could very well be a caricature of a gay man, but he is so shaded, so colored with depth.  Sometimes the sorrow is almost palpable, and then the light shines through, and I think, God, I want a man like this for myself.

And the Kid - I hate precocious children in movies and television.  But this young boy is so three dimensional, there is never a wrong or sour note struck.  He is the younger brother we would all love to have - wise but so very young and so flawed and just one more heartbreak away from a catastrophe.  And yet, never a misstep.  Held together by Bear and Otter and Anna and Creed.  Just a wonderfully conceived and executed young man.

This book is one of my favorites of any genre I have read.  I adore Amy Lane's "Promise Rock" books and place this in the same category as "All time favorite if I were trapped on a deserted island and could only take one book" books, because of the shared theme of family being what you make it, not what you are born with.

Mr. Klune, you have created a fine, fine work here that will be one of my favorites for years to come.  You must have a huge heart to have created such warm, alive and meaningful characters, and I bless you for it.  I wish I had the skill and words and talent, as you do, to do your beautiful book justice.

Tom

"The Time of the Singing"

Review - "The Time of the Singing" by Louise Blaydon

Lovingly crafted take of being true to oneself

Highly Recommended

Israfel Vacek, at an early age, learned he was different.  Reserved even as a kid, with a love of learning and books and dead languages.  Introspective.  Attracted to other boys.  His twin brother Micheal, athletic and outgoing, straight, the perfect son.  When Michael discovers his twin's "perversion", worried for his soul, he sets in motion a series of events that leads to Israfel's joining the priesthood.  After all,  it's not a sin to be gay, just to act on it, so Rafe will be safe there, learning the self control to fight his demons.

His posting at a church in a smaller town seems like just the place to minister to his flock.  Peaceful and quiet.  Until he spies Nate Mulligan.

Nate, teenage son of pious parents, and his younger brother Tom serve as altar boys for the Padre.  He is cocky yet devout.  A believer who also is a sinner in the eyes of the church.  A beautiful young man, full of life and hope and spirit, he looks at Israfel first as a man, not a priest.

And God, how Israfel wants him. 

When Nate notices the interest and returns it, Israfel's buried desires surface and threaten to explode.  Will his devotion be enough, or will he sin with this beautiful young man?

What follows is a startlingly well developed, well thought out and beautifully crafted crisis of faith and conscience.  The pacing of this gem of a book is slow and steady, but so perfect for the issues being examined here.  Not only are Istafel's reasons for becoming a priest in the first place in question, but his attraction, perhaps inappropriate, for a member of his congregation.  And a much younger man - 17 years old to his 29.

I found the dynamics of his relationship with his twin to be fascinating, his willingness to defer to Michael's supposed wisdom a response to his discomfort with his homosexuality, and to how the Catholic Church views it.  Israfel's innate goodness is at war with a faith that demands that he not act on his feelings - I can understand his brother's need to protect but still have a little bitterness towards him for pushing his brother into a vocation that hides his feelings rather than deals with them in any constructive way.  By protecting him, he stifles him and condemns him to a future bereft of love.

The last quarter of the book really soars.  The slow build to Israfel's realizations about himself, his orientation, the guilt and pain and self denial, and then the dawning of his realization that God's desire and plan for him doesn't preclude love was so lovingly laid out.  His spiritual growth mirrored his growth in his personal power and confidence, and was a wonderful sight.

The last chapter, as we see his future laid out, warmed my heart.  How can one not love a man like Israfel?  I certainly came to love him, and his Nate.  I do wish he had had one last scene with his brother Michael, but it in no way detracted from the story.

Ms. Blaydon has told a deep and rich story of love, growth and destiny while being true to oneself spiritually and emotionally.  Difficult and touchy subjects, but handled oh so very well.

Nicely done.  Worth the read - do not be worried by the seemingly slow start.  This book build and then flies like a dove.

Tom

"Dawn in the Orchard"

Review - "Dawn in the Orchard" by Coooper West

Nice slow build to a satisfying romance

Highly Recommended

Gary is a professional musician originally from a small town in the South but living in Chicago now.  Not much holding him in Chicago - his closeted lover is dating women to make his family happy, he is sleeping on friends' couches, and his career is stalled since he suffers from crippling stage fright.  So when his aunt dies and leaves him a farm back in North Carolina, he packs up and moves back home. 

Chuck moved back home to North Carolina from Atlanta after college to help out his father.  Oldest son, family expectations and needs keep Chuck firmly at home, raising his two children, running his antique store and overseeing the family businesses.  And him firmly in the closet.  His outlet for fun is playing fiddle at the Thursday night jam sessions at the local bar.

When Chuck and his father pay a call on Gary to make sure the agreement they have with Gary's aunt to harvest the pecans from the orchard on the farm still stands, the chemistry between the two sparks. 

There are all sorts of reasons for something between the two men not to work.  Family pressures.  Small town narrow mindedness.  Past failed relationships.  Gary's music career in Chicago.  Living closeted.  Are there enough reasons, then, to try?

These are two men who have real life issues that must be addressed before anything real can develop between them.  Gary's uncertainty about his career, then his refocused energy when his muse comes calling again.  His fear of performing live. His lingering anger about his ex-partner jerking him in and out of the closet, then his hurt when the man dated a woman to keep his family happy.  His ambivalence about staying in North Carolina.  And most importantly, his fear Chuck would never acknowledge their relationship in public.

And Chuck.  Divorced with two children to raise.  A family business for which he has responsibility.  A father and family who will not tolerate his being gay.  And his unwillingness to step out and be what Gary needs.  And have what he really wants.

Being a native Southerner, I can appreciate the sensibilities at play here, and the pressures to remain quiet about any gay relationship.  The slow pace of life in the South was captured to a "T".  What I appreciated was how Ms. West used our slower pacing to draw out the relationship building between the two men.  So many writers have the main characters have an immediate spark which leads them into the bed and then madly in love within the first 20 pages.  Not so here - we are treated to a nice slow build.

Perhaps most impressive, to me, was the realistic reactions these two men had to the pressures that wore on them.  Anger, both at the circumstances and with each other.  Fear, that the fragile bond they were developing would snap because of Chuck's family.  Joy, at the connection their music gave them. 

And then, love, slowly and gently acknowledged, a quiet surprise for both men.  Ms. West used a deft hand here - these are two men I have met and known many times in my life. She got them right, and really, that is the highest best-est thing we can hope for, isn't it?  That a writer shows us, as gay men, how we are, not how they think we should be.  That takes love, and trust. 

It's as sweet as the tea we so love here in the South.  Job well done.  Bravo, Ms. West.

Tom

"The End of the Beginning"

Review – “The End of the Beginning” by John Goode

Hugely successful follow up to “Maybe with a Chance of Certainty

Very Highly Recommended

If you haven’t read “Maybe…” – GO READ IT AND COME BACK!  If you have, or don’t mind some minor spoilers, read on…

Brad and Kyle are students at Foster High School in Tyler, Texas.  Brad, the star player of the baseball team, is popular, from a wealthy family, and has the run of the school.  Kyle, from the wrong side of the tracks, is quietly intelligent and invisible, not even registering on the popularity scale.  Somehow, improbably, these two have discovered each other and found common ground.  Both from horribly dysfunctional families, both hiding, both tough on the outside but fragile on the inside, battered on the inside and out.  Both gay.

This fine book picks up where “Maybe with a Chance of Certainty” left off.   Responding to Kyle’s being bullied, Brad has outed himself to his classmates to protect Kyle.  We find Brad the next day, contemplating what he has done, and doing some soul searching.  Did he do the right thing?  Can he take it back?  What will his friends thinks?  His family?  Teammates?  Can it be undone? 

In the course of dealing with all this fear, which is ultimately what this book is about – fear, and will Brad master it – he meets a kindred spirit.  Tyler, an older and hopefully wiser version of Brad, helps him in a weak moment.  He recognizes himself in Brad, and gives him the best advice of his young life - “Trust me, living with a life full of regrets is just about the shittiest way I can think of existing.”  God, where was my Tyler when was 16, 17, 18?

“I promise you the only thing worse than being a rat trapped in a maze is being aware that you were that rat.”  With one simple observation, Brad’s soul is bared to us.

Where “Maybe…” was more about Kyle, this is definitely Brad’s story.  We find out much more about what makes Brad tick, his fears, his hopes, his family, and most importantly, what he wants out of life.  And we see, though his eyes, how very tough it is to be young and gay in a small town.  How love can make us vulnerable when nothing else can touch us, and how fear can grab even the toughest of us by the throat and the heart and shake us until we are weak.  How even knowing the right thing to do can scare us so badly, we will give up on ourselves and the ones we love to protect what is.  Because what might be – no guarantees there, are there?

And that, in turn, makes us take a hard look inside.  And makes me wonder, if I were in Brad’s position, what would I do?  And that, my friends, is the sign of a great writer.  Most anyone who writes can tell a competent tale – it takes an artist to make us stop and think.  To hold up a mirror and invite us to look, think, feel.  And make no mistake, with this book, Mr. Goode is an artist.

“At that moment I knew I’d follow him anywhere he took me.”

I feel the same way, Mr. Goode.  Keep writing like this and take me with you.

Tom

"The Boy Behind the Red Door"

Review – “The Boy Behind the Red Door” by John Goode

Just A GREAT Christmas Story

Very Highly Recommended

Ten Reasons John Goode Rules the World

1.  He creates memorable characters that experience real emotions, talk like real people talk, and worry about those things real gay guys worry about.  They may live in North Texas, but the guys could really be in any small town in the United States.

2.  He knows the difference between being alone and being lonely.  One a guy can live with, the other sucks really really bad.

3.  He knows there are three types of gay guys – virgins, sluts, and the rest of us.  Virgins don’t know the difference between being a slut and being a regular guy yet.  Sluts want Mr. Right now.  And regular guys, we want Mr. Right, and will go through periods of voluntary celibacy in order to be true to our hearts.

4.  He believes in true love.  Or Twu Wuv, Buttercup.

5.  He isn’t afraid to make his characters afraid.  His gay men know it isn’t easy to be vilified as evil and perverted, loved (falsely) as icons a la Queer as Folk or something out of Sex in the City, or to be a young guy who knows he is different and thinks he is the only one in the world who feels that way.

6.  He focuses on the main characters, and doesn’t waste energy creating characters who don’t serve any purpose than as window dressing.  His guys have lives, people in them, and have things to do, but the focus never shifts off of where it needs to be – with the two guys who matter.

7.   He doesn’t shy away from making his men unlikable in some ways.  They are real, and have feet of clay sometimes.  Not all of us can be super heroes every day; sometimes, we need to be saved.  Or slapped silly.  And he does both.

8.  He gets that the moment when a gay boy discovers “the gay”, it can scare the pants off of you, fill you with no small amount of self-loathing, and can go a couple of ways.  Denial and to the nearest girl, or eventually to quiet self acceptance.  Sometimes step two follows a good long period of step one.

9.  He writes stories that are just the right length.  And friggin leave me wanting more more more, but gets the value of tying the story up in a way that leaves the reader satisfied without being stuffed.

10.  Have you seen the boy?  I mean, SERIOUSLY adorable.

Now, for the real review.

Matt is a North Texas transplant, living in San Francisco.  A former high school jock, now he is the technical editor for a high tech blog.  Single, frustrated, he hasn’t met anyone who can live up to his teen obsession, the teen who lived down the street from him, beautiful and unapproachable.  He couldn’t wait to get the hell out of Dodge (well, Texas) and get on with his life.

Reluctantly making his annual Christmas trip home, alone again, Matt is restless as he sees his brothers, all married with children.  A quick trip to the local electronics store to pull his brother’s fat from the fire, he runs into Tyler, the mysterious boy who lived in the house with the red back door.  Will the meeting, a long time in coming, live up to his long held fantasies or will the boy behind the red door be just that – a fantasy?

Mr. Goode has revisited the town of Foster, Texas, setting of “Maybe With a Chance of Certainty”, and introduced us to two more wonderful teens who grew into fine adults.  His strength is in his characters – the men in his stories are nice guys who happen to be gay and looking for love.  They are also unfailingly charming in their own way, blundering through their lives unaware of their real charm and looking for a man to love who wants them for their one-and-only. 

This charming short story sits just right for a cold winter evening, warming the heart and satisfying the hopeless romantic that, let’s face it, we all become at this time of year.  Merry Christmas, Mr. Goode – I just hope you have something as wonderful under your tree this year.

Tom