Ruby Slippers by Alexi Silversmith

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This short novella surprised me since it gave us an insight on a world that is not common in the M/M romance, that of the drag queens. I have to say that, after movies like Priscilla, or the US remake To Wong Foo, with an unforgettable Patrick Swayze, I’m maybe a little biased, well prepared to like the story of a flaming drag queen, Sterling Steele, that already from his given name, has a soul of a diva in a body of a trucker. Sterling was a chubby kid, not so tall and maybe a little too “round”; but appearance are deceptive and in the end, his inner diva came out and he is now a female impersonator in a night club. Problem is that he tends to attract “straight acting” men, i.e. those gay men who think lipstick and eyeshadow are a shame for the gay population, let alone wearing a dress.

Of course Mark, the straight acting gay man, has some issues of his own to resolve; first of all he is a cop, and even if he has moved in a gay friendly city to avoid the closet, he has still this idea that being a gay man makes him a lesser cop; second he is from an Italo-American family, and maybe he has the preconception that a man has to do a man work and the woman has to be at home waiting for him; and last but not least, Mark was in love with another straight acting man who left him for a woman: if he admits that anything womanly is attractive, he will give a reason to Bryan to what he has done, and now way he will do that. So only manly man for Mark, even when Sterling is obviously his soul mate.

The story has a less dramatic and angst tone that what it could have been, and Sterling is really a cute man, I really felt for the inner diva struggling to come out when he was a kid and now forced back in the closet to appease Mark’s expectation on what it means being gay. I think the purpose of the author was to give a message without being preachy, in the end what really matters is only love.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2776

Amazon Kindle: Ruby Slippers
Publisher: Torquere Press, Inc. (August 28, 2010)

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