Maybe
I’m just tired and emotional near the end of this year. But I really got
involved in this romance novel. I cared about what happened to these
characters, and hoped that everything was going to turn out right.
R
J Scott is a new author to me – and one of those who specialize in gay male
romantic fiction. This is a genre to subdivides into all kinds of amazingly
specific genres and tastes, but I guess what we have here is a fairly
straightforward and only mildly erotic love story. To use imagery from the
coffee shop where Chris works, it’s probably a vanilla latte laced with some
kind of spicy syrup, and topped with a squirt of something Christmassy.
There
was something about the small, snowy, intense world that Chris and Daniel
occupy and the day-by-day charting of their early encounters that really drew me in.
The book is set almost entirely within coffee shops and apartments around
Midtown Manhattan, and we’re focused most of the time on Chris’s neuroses about
rekindling this flirtatious relationship with a friend from ten years ago. Now
they’re reunited in the days before Christmas, and will they be able to pick up
where they left off?
The
other character is Daniel – a city cop from a very rich background. I loved the
fact that there was no mystery to him. There was no game-playing on his part,
or the author’s, about what his intentions were. The two of them are determined
to go for it this time. The difficulties and stumbling blocks all come from
outside their control – and these are what give the story its momentum and
worrying twists and turns. Chris is engaged in a terrible case of unfair
dismissal from his fancy teaching job, and is demoralized and licking his
wounds. It seems to him like an insurmountable problem – but Daniel tackles it
for him. But then, just as it seems a happy ending is on the cards something
dreadful happens. Daniel is called with his partner to an horrific crime scene
and it seems that things are never going to be the same again.
These
two men and their courtship and predicament seemed very real to me. Their
awkwardness and hesitations, and then the very exciting moments of shared
communication and passion rang very true. This is a classy romance, full of
atmosphere. And maybe I’m going soft and sentimental – but I loved it, and
wanted more of this kind of gay romance.
wow, this is an awesome review... thank you SO Much... HUGS XXXXX
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