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reviews_and_ramblings
So I think this is big enough to mention, especially after a year where people discussed a lot on the different between Gay Fiction and M/M romance: yesterday night, Andy Cohen during a chat with Joe Gorga (or better during a flirting session with Joe Gorga) on his night show WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE mentioned Damon Suede's debut novel Hot Head, in the contest of a discussion about Gay Erotica (http://www.bravotv.com/watch-what-happens-live) And just the other day, a well-known name in the Gay Fiction world, Michael Thomas Ford, had a review of his last book, The Road Home (recently re-released in paperback) on USA Today, one of the 4 romance books in that article (http://wap.usatoday.com/article/life/books/49159862?preferredArticleViewMode=single)
And I'm even more happy since not only Hot Head was one of the best gay romance I read lately (as I said in my review) but my review of The Road Home was also the one picked by another literary magazine (yes LITERARY) for their July issue. So I cannot be more happy that both books received such attention also outside the tight circle made by reviewers and readers of Gay Romance.
Of course, Hot Head and The Road Home cannot be more different, one more a Romance leaning towards Erotica and the other more pointing towards mainstream literature, but they are both Romance, no doubt about that. Well, aside from my most sincere congratulations to both authors, I think this is yet another proof that Gay Fiction, and ABOVE ALL Gay Romance is getting the deserved attention from the mainstream public. True, apparently Andy Cohen is a gay celebrity, but reviewer of USA Today was reviewing Romance (and NOT gay romance).
Hot Head by Damon Suede
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (June 17, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1615819487
ISBN-13: 978-1615819485
Amazon: Hot Head
Where there's smoke, there's fire... Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies' man, and the FDNY isn't exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish. Griff's caution and Dante's cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there's nothing Griff wouldn't do... until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there-together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?
The Road Home by Michael Thomas Ford Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Kensington; Reprint edition (May 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0758218540
ISBN-13: 978-0758218544
Amazon: The Road Home
Bestselling author Michael Thomas Ford demonstrates once again why he is the master of portraying the contemporary gay experience, in this moving, beautifully told story of love, family, and finding one's place in the world. When a car accident leaves photographer Burke Crenshaw in need of temporary full-time care, he finds himself back in the one place no forty-year-old chooses to be--his childhood bedroom. There, in the Vermont home where he grew up, Burke begins the long process of recuperation, and watches as his widowed father finds happiness in a new relationship that's a constant reminder of everything Burke wants and lacks. Meeting Will Janks is an unexpected complication. Will is the twenty-year-old son of Burke's high school best friend, Mars. After what transpired between them one summer long ago, Burke had hoped he and Mars might become more than friends, but Mars has always pretended that night never happened. Will, in contrast, makes no secret of his interest in Burke, who can't resist his attraction to the handsome young man. The burgeoning relationship draws Burke out of himself and into the community he left behind. Exploring local history, he discovers an intriguing series of letters from a Civil War soldier to his fiancé. With the help of librarian Sam Guffrey, he begins to research a 125-year-old mystery that seems to be reaching into the present day. The more Burke delves into the past, the more he's forced to confront the person he has become: the choices he made and those he avoided, his ideas of what it takes to be a successful gay man, his feelings about his mother's death, and the suppressed tension that simmers between himself and his father. Compelling, frankly funny, and often wise, The Road Home is the story of one man's coming to terms with who he is, what he wants out of life, and where he belongs--and the complex, surprising path that finally takes him there.
