The Other Man edited by Paul Fahey

The Other Man

An Anthology of Essays on Infidelity collected by Alan Fahey
review by A.B. Gayle
Gay non-fiction

To say that “The Other Man” is all about infidelity is short-changing the subject and defining the concept by very narrow values. While it’s true that for many readers and reviewers, infidelity is a deal breaker, the fact that these essays are all based on actual experiences makes them an intriguing study of this taboo topic.

Each essay shows a different aspect of the picture, making the issue less black and white and much more complex.

Firstly, Jeffrey Ricker details how while young, single and desperate he often found himself hooking up with married men when he used online dating services.

Glen Retief discovered while living in a country where gay men were forced to remain in the closet, that his rival was not a single person but many.

The more traditional concept is explored in the next story by Jason Schneiderman. After being cuckolded by his last boyfriend the author had been determined to ease his way into his next relationship: “no longer falling into bed on first dates” only to discover that the man he is platonically dating already has a boyfriend who lives in another city. Unwittingly, he has become “The Other Man.” They decide to make it “just sex” and the person he is with is candid about their relationship with his current boyfriend. The strange thing is, that by eliminating the pressure of forming a committed relationship and worrying about love, the author relaxes and finds he really enjoys the time they spend together as well as the great sex. Time doesn’t stand still though and gradually things change.

The next two stories, by Austin Bunn and Tom Mendicino also involve straying husbands but are totally different.

Some of the contributors to the anthology are authors, others have blogs. This was how I discovered Jeff Mann whose story visits an experience he drew on for a few of his stories.

The strength of the anthology rests in the variety of slants each author contributes to the topic. The writing style is varied and the prose flows smoothly. No single story stands out or drags the others down by being inferior. I only found one typo: palette for palate.

I found the book an intriguing study of a subject that is instantly dismissed in MM romance as a deal breaker. Infidelity or just Open Relationships are a lot more than that. For many gay men, it is precisely this narrow view of the subject that turns them off reading MM romance. Perhaps if more females read this anthology they would see why.

It is a testament to the ability of the writers that these essays are as entertaining as well as informative. We are privileged to see honest glimpses of their lives.

There is a longer version of this review on my Goodreads shelf.

Tinseltown by Barry Brennessel

And now for something different... This is not your typical romance, and is not explicit, but it's one heck of an example of fine storytelling.

OMG! I love Barry Brennessel's voice, and Tinseltown is one incredible read. Micah is an adorable character who makes me feel downright sane! My quirks are nothing compared to his. He is an average guy, deliciously flawed, looking for love, and totally captivating.

The first time I saw the title for this book, I assumed it would be about Hollywood. It's not, although the protagonist is studying film. Loved finding out about "Tinseltown" though, and Micah's adventures there.

I found it really clever how the author used film and television devices to gently push the story along. Micah's life definitely has it's ups and downs, aided and abetted by his own personal Greek chorus and other narrative voices, which I absolutely adored.

The story tells of Micah's journey, how he matures (as much as he can), until he finally reaches a place in his life that is right, though far removed where he'd once thought he'd be. Lot's of TV and movie trivia here, and some references brought back memories. All the characters, no matter how small a role they played, were fully realized--some you may even think you know. All in all, Tinseltown is a delightful, if occasionally sad tale about those who enter Micah's life for a reason, a season, or forever.

I cannot recommend this novel highly enough, and it's very easy to see why it won a Lambda Literary nomination and a Rainbow Award.

And who knew three little words could be so funny? "We do that."

The Billabong by Jack Byrne

The Billabong by Jack Byrne – four out of five stars

Jim Kelly has lost his family and now fights to eke out a living in the Outback of the late 1800’s. It’s backbreaking work in a less than hospitable environment. The multitude of deadly wildlife is only one of the hazards he faces.

When one of those dangers nearly takes his life, Mark Turner comes to his aid. Mark is a man of secrets and contradictions. Jim knows the man is hiding something. But since Mark saved his life, he’s willing to overlook that, especially as he finds himself drawn closer and closer to him.

When Mark finds himself in danger, Jim must decide if he is willing to risk everything to help the other man.

I very much enjoyed the descriptions of life in the Outback, and of the land itself. It’s fairly obvious that the author knows what he is talking about as far as animal handling and ranching practices are concerned.

Even though The Billabong is not the author’s first work, Mr Byrne is still new to the scene. I’m glad to report that with a few minor exceptions, the writing style is well developed.

The Billabong is a classic slow burn, with aspects of hurt/comfort and gay for you.

Hourglass by Jane Davitt

Hourglass by Jane Davitt
review by A.B. Gayle

Have you ever picked up a book, started reading it and gone WTF? Hourglass did that for me.

I bought it purely because I love Jane Davitt's writing. I didn't read the blurb first and found Ben - the guy whose POV the first chapter is written in - frankly obnoxious. Then Samantha his daughter arrived on the scene....

Now, I'm not one to stop reading because of unlikeable characters and have even rated books higher if the author can sell me a story where the main protagonists are less than perfect (Bad Company), but when I first picked up "Hourglass", it didn't grab me.

Once I got the hang of what was going on though, I enjoyed the structure. The characters and their romance is one level, but the underlying circumstances with the real life parallels to shows like Torchwood and the little digs at the movie industry and the workers in it are worth reading for their own sake.

Ben grew on me as an interrupting narrator and even the presence of the daughter became more than an eye-rolling diversion. In fact, seeing the couple from Ben's POV adds another dimension to the story. The cynical onlooker. Part of the "problem" people have with the book is the amount of "telling" versus "showing" there is, particularly bits from Ben's POV where we gets lines like this:
"The read-through a week earlier had been a disaster. Morden and Simons had sat as far apart as was humanly possible at a round table and said their lines to each other with an icy politeness that robbed them of meaning, or a bored mumble. Sure, no one expected a cold reading to be Oscar-material, but the tension had been palpable. The only time they'd behaved like professionals was when the script called for them to talk to someone else. For those scenes, they'd taken their heads out of their asses and actually given him something resembling a glimmer of hope that this movie would be halfway watchable."

Now, in most m/m romances you would get this scene "shown", but then it would have to be in one of the character's heads, so it would have been uneven as neither would ever admit to themselves they were being pig-headed. So, by telling it from Ben's perspective, we are able to picture the scene ourselves simply because we already know the characters so well. Sure, we're not spoon-fed with it by seeing it in detail, but I could still picture everything that happened.

Perhaps that's why I enjoyed the book so much. There was freedom for me to fill in the gaps.

(There is a longer version of this review on Goodreads)

But to sum up. If you’re reading m/m romances to get a quick sexual titillation, then maybe this isn’t for you. (The sex/romance is there. I can point out the page numbers if you like!) If you’re looking for your standard boy meets boy, they have a bit of conflict but get together in the end, well that’s also there but that’s not all that’s there. If you’re looking for a story about two men in love presented in a way that suits that love, then that’s there in spades.

If you’re sick of the same old, same old and despair of the standard of m/m romances, then give “Hourglass” a burl, but first lose the expectations, lose the preconceptions about how m/m romances should be written. Love the characters for who they are, enjoy watching them connect and discover that there is a relationship beyond the sex. Savor the carefully crafted touches that make this book stand out far above the crowd.

It could have been written as a straight gay romance, but by “wrapping” up a simple love story and presenting it in a box, interleaved with sheets of “tissue paper” Jane has given me, at least, an unforgettable ride of a read.

Or, in this case, in the words of Samantha who by now I liked nearly as much as her Dad: "That was just perfect," she declared.

5.5 stars rounding down to 5.

Pop Goes the Weasel by Stephen Osborne

Pop Goes the Weasel by Stephen Osborne 

This was a really fun story. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel Rat Bastard.

Weasel is one of those people who things just happen to. Good things, strange things, and funny things...

I cracked up multiple times and was hoping my coworkers wouldn't want to know why I found it funny when Weasel got mistaken for his nonexistent female cousin.

It is very well written, with an eye for the outrageous.

If you like a sweet romance with some humor, this is definitely for you.

Better than New by Charley Descoteaux

Better than New by Charley Descoteaux is one of the hundreds of free stories written for the Goodreads MM Romance Group.

This is only a short story – it comes in at just over 8000 words, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful. I love it when a writer can do so much with so few words.

Better than New is the story of Theo and Ben. Theo is a college student, still recovering from an accident in which he lost part of a leg. Ben is the owner of his local coffee shop, The Broken Cup, and Theo has been working up the courage to approach him for months.

This is a story full of broken cups and broken people and how, sometimes, putting them together again and making their flaws shine can be a magical process.

This really is a very simple story, but it’s beautifully written and the characters just come alive. You know that feeling you get when people on the page seem real? This story had that in spades.

And it's moving, and lovely, and made me wish I drank coffee.

Read it.

The Worst Best Luck by Brad Vance

The Worst Best Luck by Brad Vance
review by A.B. Gayle

Wow! What a delightful surprise “The Worst Best Luck” is. All I knew of Brad Vance was that he’d had a book, “Luke's Brutal Abduction”, banned by Amazon. That was pure raunchy gay erotica kink, but this book is totally different.

The sex scene at the start was hot, but even better was the banter at the advertising agency where Peter worked. There were enough cracks at the fakeness of the industry and the people in it to really show the viewpoint character and the world he lived in.

Okay I thought, so far so good.

But then came a couple of fantastic flashbacks that wove beautiful pictures of children growing up in radically different circumstances.

The clichéd poor kid with the sick mother and the rich kid with helicopter parents trying to ensure he got into Harvard.

Now the author can’t have experienced both childhoods, so the fact that both these felt so real shows ME that he can do his research and does it well. We’ve all seen these clichés on shows, but what I like is that he sees these from a fresh angle. This was also demonstrated in “Luke’s Brutal Abduction”. The clichés are there but so are some wonderful different snippets that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Eg Matt’s mother giving him a hard time because he played the guitar instead of the cello and he preferred Galbraith to Segovia. (Not that she would have known who either of these people were)

I suspect from blog comments and things he said in the podcast that he either doesn’t write fiction for a living or he has had some exposure to traditional New York publishing. I don’t for a minute buy his Amazon profile: “Brad is a college student in Reno, Nevada who enjoys hiking, snowboarding, theater, and writing hot man-on-man action.” Unless he’s a mature age college student. But that doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is that this guy can write. And through writing he is able to make some pretty heavy statements on the state of the world around him.

On the surface it’s hot man on man action, but hiding beneath that hot sex is a decent story, well rounded characters, interesting secondary character, eg Lydia the Worthington Admissions Counsellor who tries to help Matt cope with his ambitious mother.

None of these things get in the way of the plot. Flashbacks can often be annoying, but in this case, the introduction of this backstory AFTER the gun has been placed on the wall, turns it from a Colt 45 into a double barrel shotgun.
I had a few little niggles, minor formatting problems. Two people called Lydia. And the author himself expressed dissatisfaction in his blog, claiming he rushed it and it could be better. Any book can. However, it still stands head and shoulders alongside a lot of mediocre efforts I'm reading these days.

Definitely worth a read, and if you enjoyed this, then check out “A Little Too Broken” which is even better!

As for the Banned Book? Luke’s Brutal Abduction was all about a porn star who had a side business kidnapping people at their own request. It is also well written, the characters are eventually likable and believable and the kink being more inventive and therefore real.

Brad self publishes and his stories cover a wide scope of the genre. I suspect he’s trying to work out what sells best. At least that’s the impression I got reading through his blog bradvanceerotica.wordpress.com
I found a podcast with him here: http://youtu.be/ubdLtUSkxKY
and when he does manage to get a word in edgewise, his intelligence shines through (as it does in his books). Plus he has a real sexy voice!

August Ice by Dev Bentham

August Ice by Dev Bentham – four out of five stars

August Ice by Dev Bentham takes place in the Antarctic. You don't find many books in this setting. I really enjoyed the descriptions of life in the harsh environment. I felt the story was well-written, with a mature feel to the prose. The story covers a closeted lifestyle and alcoholism. Focusing on why someone would be driven to either, and still find redemption on the other side.

Our hero, Max Conway is a former Navy Seal and the lead safety diver at McMurdo Station. He spends half his year as a commercial diver, drinking and hitting the gay bars. But he's really just making time until he can return to his one true love, the beauty and peace that lies under the Antarctic ice.

He wakes up his last day in Christchurch, New Zealand, in a gorgeous man's bed. Too bad he can't remember the night before and the hunk takes exception to this. But that doesn't really matter, because in less than 24 hours he will be where he really wants to be and nothing else matters.

At the bottom of the world, Max keeps a lid on his vices. He drinks, but has to keep a handle on it. And there's no way in hell he can indulge his interest in men. Not with the rest of the tough, hard-drinking, homophobic divers he calls friends. But that's a price he's willing to pay.

Too bad that nameless hunk shows up for his exclusive one-way flight to the icy continent. A glare and a snub later, Max is hoping the sanctimonious asshole is headed for one of the other Antarctic stations. Because no matter how hot the guy, someone somewhere is sick of his shit—and Max is that guy.

Professor Andre Dubois isn't only gorgeous, he's out and proud. Oh, and he doesn't touch a drop, looking down his nose every time Max does. But Max just can't seem to stay away from the man who is so dangerous for his job and his peace of mind.

Max has to fight himself and the deadly Antarctic ice sheets, if he wants more than just a piece of the hot French scientist.

This story was previously published with LooseId in 2012 and appears to have been extensively rewritten. So if you read it then, you may want to give it a second go.