Event: A Reading with Gregory G. Allen

Date: 11/05/2011
Time: 5:30 pm
Place: At 12th & Pine Streets in Philly's "Gayborhood" in Center City
345 South 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Gregory G. Allen is the author of Well with My Soul (ASD Publishing, $13.95), a novel about the bonds of blood being tested by two brothers who have spent the first part of their adult lives drifting away from each other, closing the door to engagement and emotional connection. The older brother, Jacob, flees his small Tennessee hometown by seeking freedom in New York City, where he travels deep into a labyrinth of sex and drugs while fighting the fear over his homosexuality. The younger conservative brother, Noah, stays behind feeling shackled by familial duties for their aging mother, but finds courage in the sorrow of the past and a new way at looking at life that he never believed he possessed. Spanning the unbridled times of the 1970s and the restraint of the Reagan years, one brother ends up becoming a minister and preaching his doctrine while the other believes there are some things people are born with and not meant to change. Each brother’s story becomes an unflinching exploration of the way that we deal with what most unsettles us and the families we inherit and build along the journey.

Well With My Soul by Gregory G. Allen
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: ASD Publishing (October 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0983604908
ISBN-13: 978-0983604907
Amazon: Well With My Soul

Event: A Reading with Gregory G. Allen

Date: 11/05/2011
Time: 5:30 pm
Place: At 12th & Pine Streets in Philly's "Gayborhood" in Center City
345 South 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Gregory G. Allen is the author of Well with My Soul (ASD Publishing, $13.95), a novel about the bonds of blood being tested by two brothers who have spent the first part of their adult lives drifting away from each other, closing the door to engagement and emotional connection. The older brother, Jacob, flees his small Tennessee hometown by seeking freedom in New York City, where he travels deep into a labyrinth of sex and drugs while fighting the fear over his homosexuality. The younger conservative brother, Noah, stays behind feeling shackled by familial duties for their aging mother, but finds courage in the sorrow of the past and a new way at looking at life that he never believed he possessed. Spanning the unbridled times of the 1970s and the restraint of the Reagan years, one brother ends up becoming a minister and preaching his doctrine while the other believes there are some things people are born with and not meant to change. Each brother’s story becomes an unflinching exploration of the way that we deal with what most unsettles us and the families we inherit and build along the journey.

Well With My Soul by Gregory G. Allen
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: ASD Publishing (October 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0983604908
ISBN-13: 978-0983604907
Amazon: Well With My Soul

Discreet Young Gentleman by M.J. Pearson

Yet again an gay historical romance that allow me a jump in the past, to my teenager years when I spent hours and hours reading naïve Regency romances; they were more or less innocent, to abide to the famous Regency rules no sex had to be part of the story, but late in the ’80 and ’90 some author like Mary Balogh started to write more adventurous heroine, and sometime they were “dirty” dove, i.e. women from good upbringing who found themselves force to sell their only asset, their virtue. Maybe the main difference between those Regency romance and this gay romance is that the dirty dove, Rob, is not as helpless as those women were, and even if he is forced to sell his body, he has a strong will and a well-planned path ahead of him; plus Rob is also very good in “managing” his assets, and so he can be picky on whom will share his bed.

In the previous gay historical romance by M.J. Pearson, she used the well-known plot of having the wealthy aristocrat falling in love for the poor, and naïve, middle-class man; usually this imply the aristocrat is also a scoundrel and he will take advantage of the poor innocent guy. Here instead Dean, earl of Carwick, is just a step above the naïve level; he is not exactly “dumb”, but he has not even had to fight for anything in his life; not really wealthy, more comfortable, he spent all his life between school and parties, and now is approaching his old age with a bit of lassitude; if not for an unforeseeable event, I don’t think he would have chosen to marry, but when he has to, he finds a suitable wife, Minerva. Only that someone apparently doesn’t want for him to marry the girl and they put Rob on his path. A male prostitute, Rob is for sure an enough big scandal that Minerva’s father has to break their engagement.

Despite Rob’s profession, the novel is far from being erotic. First of all, all Rob’s meetings with his customers are conducted in private rooms, where the reader is not invited; so you don’t know what Rob actually is doing, even if you can imagine. While instead he is with Dean, aside for being always by night, they are also more romantic than erotic, letting the reader again more imagining that reading what is happening between the two of them. I actually had the feeling that the sex was really not important for the author, she was more focused on the journey Rob and Dean are taking towards Bath and on all the people and landmarks they will meet along the path; it was so vivid a tale that I actually went and checked if some of those places really exist and if I could visit them myself (and yes, more or less all of them are real).

To whom is wondering if the historical details were accurate, for what I can say they were, maybe since the author didn’t overwhelm you with them; I’m not sure if it was real, but she suggested that Rob was finding some of his patrons through the Times, in the announce section, usually one advertisement starting with “discreet young gentleman required…”; if it’s not true, nevertheless it was a nice idea and it served perfectly the plot.

Amazon: Discreet Young Gentleman
Amazon Kindle: Discreet Young Gentleman
Paperback: 194 pages
Publisher: Seventh Window Publications; First Print edition (October 31, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0971708959
ISBN-13: 978-0971708952

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading%20list&view=elisa.rolle