Top 100 Gay Novel: He's The One by Timothy James Beck

Adam is a gay country boy... I don't know but gay and country boy in the same sentence sounds strange, maybe since I'm used to read stories about young gay men who escape their little country town for the big city to finally be who they really want to be. Instead Adam went to discover the world and found that he prefers Eau Claire, Wisconsin. And why not? He has a thriving business in the high tech world he can lead by home, a old fashion farmhouse he restored all for his own, a supporting family who love him unconditionally (it seems that his mother only waited for him to come out so she could rightfully join the PFLAG association...). At this point Adam seems the perfect man and maybe he is single since he can't find another perfect man like him to much such perfection... but sincerely I think that Adam is a rather spoiled son. Thanks to his look and his fine mind, and a big dose of fortune, always went right in his life, he has never seriously fought for anything.

Lucky for him, his mother has a long sight, and convinces him to temporarily move to New York City... maybe in the Big Apple he will have more chance to meet new people, and maybe, his mother think, he will have more challenges to face than in small town Eau Claire, and the challenges will serve him to grew a bit. And instead, according to the rule of the six degrees of separation, Adam manages to rebuild the little circle he had in his small town even in New York. First he meets Blythe, a struggling young artist, then Sheila, the sister of one of his hometown friends, who is roommate with Blaine, another hometown boy moved to NYC. Blaine is boyfriend with Daniel, who went to high school together with Adam, and whom Adam pursued with stupid jock jokes when they were young. Daniel is also the ex boyfriend of Jeremy, a man Adam briefly met in a coffe shop and who is become his obsession. Adam will do anything to meet the man since he is finally fallen in love... but really, to my opinion, Adam is more in love with the idea to be in love than with Jeremy himself.

And my idea is confirmed by the fact that, for almost all the book, Jeremy is a distant figure, like a haunting ghost who appears and disappears; Adam has never really the chance to be with him, even if he manages to meet all the people around him and to frequent all the same places. And more he pursues his "love" more people are telling him how awful and absolutely no boyfriend material Jeremy is. Strange to say, the only one who doesn't talk badly of him is his ex boyfriend Daniel, the man Jeremy cheated on.. (Daniel's story with Jeremy and then Blaine is told in It Had to Be You, I didn't know the two books were related, and I mistakenly bought the second book).

Anyway, while chasing his love dream, Adam has the chance to finally come out from his mother's egg nest: even if Adam came out to his parents when he was 18 years old, he for real never come out from their protective range. But Adam confirms his luck, and even in the big city, and alone from his family, he always manages to obtain what or who he wants.

Amazon: He's The One
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Kensington (December 1, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0758203241
ISBN-13: 978-0758203243

Timothy James Beck's In the Spotlight post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1337317.html

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

The Happy Onion by Ally Blue

Ally Blue is usually known as the Queen of Angst (Forgotten Song, Easy, but also the more recent Untamed Hearts). Here she takes a detour from her usual path and writes a funny comedy.

Thom is a pretty boy with an angelic face and a devilish behavior; long blond hair, blue eyes and lithe body hide a very strong character and dom tendency. Probably since he is tired to always been considered weak only due to his look, Thom has developed a very bad boy attitude, arriving even to be forceful with his partners.

On the other hand, Phil is a big boy with a uber tender heart. At six feet and three inches, he likes the pretty boy type, but he also like to be dominated. Nothing excite him more than a little thing that can order him around. So he is the perfect partner for Thom, if not that they are at totally opposite, not only physically but also in expectations: Phil is a flower-child type who runs a own business like a charity project... if he has enough to eat and dress, it is all right. Instead Thom is more the business man type, with the right degree and the dream to go far from where he started. Plus he had a very bad experience with a former lover, and so he is pretty skittish when it arrives to commitment.

When Thom goes to work for a company with a very bad reputation in civil rights and fair play, the relationship with Phil is at risk. But what I really like of this couple is that they manage to understand that one thing is work and another thing is love: they can disagree on the first and still be very hot and deeply involved by the other. And then the diversity in their point of view is not so huge as they think; Thom's disagreement is more a question of stubbornness, something he needs to defend to not have to admit that he is wrong. Stubbornness is maybe the worst fault of Thom.

This is exactly the case where opposite attract in a very good way: Phil's simple and quite behavior is the perfect balance for the little hell cat that is Thom. There is also a lot of sex, funny and light, but not too much to overwhelming the story: for example (little spoiler), Ally Blue decided to not completely tell us Thom and Phil's first sex encounter: she leads us till a point, with a lot of expectation, to then, like a trick, leave us suspending, and maybe drooling. But don't worry, soon after she makes amend, and Thom and Phil will experiment every possible position and place...

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/the-happy-onion

Amazon Kindle: The Happy Onion

Amazon: The Happy Onion

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain

The Happy Onion by Ally Blue

Ally Blue is usually known as the Queen of Angst (Forgotten Song, Easy, but also the more recent Untamed Hearts). Here she takes a detour from her usual path and writes a funny comedy.

Thom is a pretty boy with an angelic face and a devilish behavior; long blond hair, blue eyes and lithe body hide a very strong character and dom tendency. Probably since he is tired to always been considered weak only due to his look, Thom has developed a very bad boy attitude, arriving even to be forceful with his partners.

On the other hand, Phil is a big boy with a uber tender heart. At six feet and three inches, he likes the pretty boy type, but he also like to be dominated. Nothing excite him more than a little thing that can order him around. So he is the perfect partner for Thom, if not that they are at totally opposite, not only physically but also in expectations: Phil is a flower-child type who runs a own business like a charity project... if he has enough to eat and dress, it is all right. Instead Thom is more the business man type, with the right degree and the dream to go far from where he started. Plus he had a very bad experience with a former lover, and so he is pretty skittish when it arrives to commitment.

When Thom goes to work for a company with a very bad reputation in civil rights and fair play, the relationship with Phil is at risk. But what I really like of this couple is that they manage to understand that one thing is work and another thing is love: they can disagree on the first and still be very hot and deeply involved by the other. And then the diversity in their point of view is not so huge as they think; Thom's disagreement is more a question of stubbornness, something he needs to defend to not have to admit that he is wrong. Stubbornness is maybe the worst fault of Thom.

This is exactly the case where opposite attract in a very good way: Phil's simple and quite behavior is the perfect balance for the little hell cat that is Thom. There is also a lot of sex, funny and light, but not too much to overwhelming the story: for example (little spoiler), Ally Blue decided to not completely tell us Thom and Phil's first sex encounter: she leads us till a point, with a lot of expectation, to then, like a trick, leave us suspending, and maybe drooling. But don't worry, soon after she makes amend, and Thom and Phil will experiment every possible position and place...

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/the-happy-onion

Amazon Kindle: The Happy Onion

Amazon: The Happy Onion

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain

For the Love of Books: Elisa Rolle

Wave from "Review by JesseWave" interviewed me for her series "For the Love of Books":

http://reviewsbyjessewave.blogspot.com/2009/04/for-love-of-books.html

I think that this interview came out a bit more personal than usual, but well, when I answered to the question I was in mood to be so. And a warning: the pic of me is 10 years older, but it's the only one I feel confident to post, since no one will recognize me now, years and weight made the change ;-)

For the Love of Books: Elisa Rolle

Wave from "Review by JesseWave" interviewed me for her series "For the Love of Books":

http://reviewsbyjessewave.blogspot.com/2009/04/for-love-of-books.html

I think that this interview came out a bit more personal than usual, but well, when I answered to the question I was in mood to be so. And a warning: the pic of me is 10 years older, but it's the only one I feel confident to post, since no one will recognize me now, years and weight made the change ;-)