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Book Review: Timothy by Greg Herren

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 I’ve read a few of Greg Herren’s short stories and enjoyed them, so when the opportunity to review Timothy I jumped at the chance. But ultimately I was to be very disappointed.

In Timothy the meek, uninteresting and Unnamed main character – whom I might add has had a tragic life so far – meets Carlo Romaniello. Carlo is a mega rich widower who instantly falls in love with the main character. After a week of bliss they get married.

Carlo has a huge mansion called Spindrift and takes his new husband to this home. The Unnamed main character is to take over the running of the household and its staff. Carlo is often away on business trips.

But Spindrift is filled with Timothy. Timothy was Carlo’s husband prior to his death. Timothy was a gorgeous-looking model, a talented photographer and had his own successful underwear range. Basically everything the unnamed main character isn’t.

As the main character adapts to his new life in Spindrift, he learns bits about Carlo & Timothy’s relationship. He fills in the blanks often wrongly. But the truth does eventually come out about Timothy and his death.

There were two fundamental problems with this novel for me. Firstly that every aspect of the novel felt like a cliché. The helpless and poor younger gay man meets a wealthy older good looking gay man. They get married after a week – I mean come on, who does that? and they move to a castle…whoops a mansion…and live happily ever after. Timothy read like a cliché fairytale with a gay slant.

Second was the main character. The unnamed main character lacked any realism and was essentially boring. He responded more emotionally to his perceived relationship problems than to the death of his father, whom was his only living relative.

The plot was predictable and not enough actually happened. Important plot points – like the first week where the two characters fell in love and their marriage were mentioned but not actually shown/told in the story. This inevitably effected the pacing negatively. Often the story gave little intrigue or hooks to encourage the reader to read on.

The description was reasonable. But because of the recurrent clichés it was hard to suspend reality and become absorbed within the story. Timothy is available to buy on Amazon if you’d like to. But I can’t honestly recommend it.

Review soon,

Antony



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Tuesday 28 November 2017

Book Review: Educating Simon by Robin Reardon

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
educating-simon-robin-reardon-book-cover Sixteen year old Simon’s life is turned upside down when his mother announces that she’s met and is marrying her new partner. Brian, Simon’s future step-father is from Boston, USA. Brian can’t move to England to because of his daughter Persie.

So Simon is forced to give up Tinkerbell, his cat and Graeme, his imaginary boyfriend. Moving to Boston puts the shared dream of Simon going to Oxford University at risk. The dream being shared by Simon and his deceased father.

In Boston, Simon’s new life is busy both with school work and socially. As part of his school work he is assigned Toby/Kay to Mentor for a Spelling Bee. Toby/Kay is an eleven year old trans, who feels like he was born in the wrong body and wants to start hormone replacement therapy before he hits puberty.

Educating Simon was an idea with a lot of potential, but unfortunately none of it’s potential was realised.

Main character Simon writes the story from his perspective in diary entries. His character is un-relatable and doesn’t cause the reader to care about him. The character was also inconsistent. Reardon sometimes getting the mentality, emotional maturity and behaviour of 16 year old Simon spot on and other times getting it completely wrong.

All the other characters felt two-dimensional. Toby/Kay’s storyline lacked depth and felt more like it was about having a trans representative than truly telling her story.

Educating Simon is overwritten with pacing that crawled along like a snail. The book doesn’t really get started until at least fifty pages in.

The sense of relief when the book finally ends was the main sense of enjoyment. It’s not the worse book I’ve ever read, but it’s pretty close. This isn’t Reardon’s first book and I would be willing read another one of his books, but would have low expectations and be wary.

Review soon,

Antony



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Saturday 24 October 2015

Book Review: Strange Bedfellows by Rob Byrnes

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
strange-bedfellows-rob-byrnes Strange Bedfellows by Rob Byrnes is a crime caper story that is an addictive read. Grant Lambert and Chase LaMarca are introduced on a job to rob a store. As the scene unfolds they have to pretend to be mannequins in the shop window as the Police have turned up, which is an hilarious scene and just the start of this fantastically funny book.

Grant & Chase are partners in life as well as crime, and when the offer of a well paid job comes along they can’t turn it down; even if it is from hustler Jamie Brock.

Austin Peebles is an adorable democratic congressional candidate who has sexted a rude photo of himself that has found it’s way into the hands of June Forteene a rightwing blogger.

Grant & Chase’s job is simple: steal the photo (as well as any copies) off June before she exposes it on her blog and ruins Austin’s political prospects. They complete the job; but enraged June soon posts a cropped version of the rude photo along with an ultimatum: the unnamed political candidate must withdraw himself as a candidate and provide her with compensation. Austin’s campaign manager Kevin Wunder refuses to pay Grant & Chase as they haven’t have completed their job correctly.

Grant & Chase are convinced that they completed their job and that there’s something more going on. So they hatch a plan, recruit a team and set about making everything right. Along the way we get to know grumpy Grant and likeable Chase. Both characters were multifaceted like real people and the use of description by Byrnes gave a strong sense of the different characters.

Byrnes used a number of close calls and twists to weave a fascinating plot that is perfectly paced. He used his unique writing style to engage the reader and packed the story full of funny, believable and entertaining scenes. Byrnes got the balance between showing and telling the story spot on for the reader. Strange Bedfellows had a satisfying conclusion that will leave the reader wistful for another of Byrnes‘ stories.

What let’s Strange Bedfellows down was it’s cover. The topless man gives a misleading impression, as does the image of the Whitehouse. The topless man is like none of the characters described in the book; and implies some sexual scenes of which there were none. The Whitehouse gives the impression of a political story; but even non-Americans will fully understand the story as Byrnes explained what the reader needs to know and besides the story isn’t really about politics.

Please don’t be put off by the cover, Strange Bedfellows by Rob Byrnes is a captivating read that will have you craving more of Rob Byrnes stories. I’d like to thank the generous Publishers Group UK for sending me out Strange Bedfellows by Rob Byrnes which is available to buy on Amazon.

Write soon,

Antony

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Tuesday 9 April 2013

Book Review: Franky Gets Real by Mel Bossa

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
franky-gets-real-book-cover In Franky Gets Real by Mel Bossa Franky is having a hard time; he’s unhappy at work as a Salesman, stressed by Geena his Boss and dominating girlfriend, he feels like he’s lost his way in life. Franky’s only saving grace is that this weekend he’s going camping with old friends, an opportunity to escape his stresses and reconnect with these old friends.

The first of Franky’s old friends is Wyatt, once the coolest of the gang now married with three children. Wyatt likes a drink, but why can’t he seem to say No to a beer?

Wyatt’s brother Alek and Franky used to be close, but now to Franky it there feels to be more distance between them than ever before. Alek seems to have something on his mind, but what is it? Franky notices every detail about Alek and has feelings deep inside of him about Alek, but ever since that moment fifteen years ago Alek hasn’t ever expressed an interest since.

Holly is a feminist, law student whose recently got into a relationship with Joe a Mechanic. Holly is the diplomat in the group. Nevin works as a Network Engineer and is undoubtably the brains of the group; but he’s quiet and you know what they say about needing to watch the quiet ones.

When Franky, Wyatt, Alek, Holly & Nevin arrive at the campsite they meet their neighbours Eli & Vlad a gay couple from Toronto with their dog. The disclosure of secrets start among the characters; somewhat dramatic at times – but what could I expect with at least three gay men as main characters?

Poor Franky went away to escape his life, the responsibilities and realises that this trip will be the opposite of what he hoped for. Within Franky doors are opening that he closed long ago leading to some self-revelations and for the first time in a long time he will have to make a choice. Franky needs to get real with himself and the one he loves or risks losing him forever.

Early on there are sexual undertones that continue throughout the book; but they complement the storyline rather than being the storyline or distracting from it. The description was bland with every character seemingly looking the same, but despite this lack of descriptive diversity Bossa should be given full credit for her clever writing style and storytelling ability which made each character distinct in my mind.

Bossa’s smart use of implied secrets gives the reader an idea as to what the secrets might be and encouraging the reader to read on to expose the truth. I particularly liked Bossa’s use of memory flash backs to show the reader how Franky’s and Alek’s friendship started developing fifteen years ago.

Franky Gets Real is essentially a story about love and self-discovery, chasing love and not giving up on the chase; a story which I will reread when I need to believe in love and that love prevails above all else. It is sometimes witty, sometimes deep and demonstrates Bossa’s ability to relate to a gay male audience, which is a fantastic achievement for a female writer.

It is easily the best gay fictional literature about gay love I’ve ever read. I can’t recommend Franky Gets Real enough and have already recommended it to some of my gay, bisexual and bi-curious male friends.

I am so glad that I read Franky Gets Real and would like to thank the kind people at Publishers Group UK for sending it out to me. Franky Gets Real by Mel Bossa is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Tuesday 8 January 2013
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