Excerpt: Renfred's Masquerade by Hayden Thorne

Renfred's Masquerade
AUTHOR: Hayden Thorne
ISBN: 9781611522129
GENRE: Fantasy • Gay Fiction • Romance • Young Adult
LENGTH: 75,214 words
e-book's release date Nov. 27, print book's release date Nov. 30
Publisher Link: http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=46&products_id=392&zenid=vb1bbn3upmmh4g218rllhel954

Young Nicola Gregori has always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a brilliant clock-maker who’s famous for his wild, fantastical designs. But his father instead sends him to school to learn more practical matters. Nicola, stricken with infantile paralysis that left him with a deformed right leg, becomes an object of mockery and cruel jokes in school. He learns that in order to survive his daily ordeals, he needs to vanish in the crowd, to stop aspiring, to stop dreaming, and above all, to believe himself unworthy of respect and love.

Tragedy strikes when Nicola turns sixteen. Gustav Renfred, an old friend of his father, takes on Nicola as his charge and whisks him away to an isolated islet filled with empty mansions and bordered by a bluebell forest. There Nicola slowly learns about the tragic story that tightly weaves together the fates of Jacopo Gregori, Gustav Renfred, and Gustav’s twin sister, Constanza.

Magic, impossible dreams, and unrequited love come together in Ambrosi, the Renfreds’ mansion, where Nicola is caught up in a world of haunting portraits, a ghostly housekeeper, and the mysterious disappearance of Davide, Constanza’s adopted son. When Nicola’s invited to one of Renfred’s magical masquerades, he discovers the answers to riddles as well as the mounting danger that the Renfred family faces with every passing hour.

With the masquerades’ existence depending on the physical and mental strength of an ailing Renfred, the task of solving the mystery of Davide’s disappearance before time runs out falls on Nicola’s shoulders, and he has no choice but to depend on things that he’s long learned to suppress: courage, self-respect, and the desire to aim for impossible goals.

( Excerpt )

Excerpt: Renfred's Masquerade by Hayden Thorne

Renfred's Masquerade
AUTHOR: Hayden Thorne
ISBN: 9781611522129
GENRE: Fantasy • Gay Fiction • Romance • Young Adult
LENGTH: 75,214 words
e-book's release date Nov. 27, print book's release date Nov. 30
Publisher Link: http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=46&products_id=392&zenid=vb1bbn3upmmh4g218rllhel954

Young Nicola Gregori has always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a brilliant clock-maker who’s famous for his wild, fantastical designs. But his father instead sends him to school to learn more practical matters. Nicola, stricken with infantile paralysis that left him with a deformed right leg, becomes an object of mockery and cruel jokes in school. He learns that in order to survive his daily ordeals, he needs to vanish in the crowd, to stop aspiring, to stop dreaming, and above all, to believe himself unworthy of respect and love.

Tragedy strikes when Nicola turns sixteen. Gustav Renfred, an old friend of his father, takes on Nicola as his charge and whisks him away to an isolated islet filled with empty mansions and bordered by a bluebell forest. There Nicola slowly learns about the tragic story that tightly weaves together the fates of Jacopo Gregori, Gustav Renfred, and Gustav’s twin sister, Constanza.

Magic, impossible dreams, and unrequited love come together in Ambrosi, the Renfreds’ mansion, where Nicola is caught up in a world of haunting portraits, a ghostly housekeeper, and the mysterious disappearance of Davide, Constanza’s adopted son. When Nicola’s invited to one of Renfred’s magical masquerades, he discovers the answers to riddles as well as the mounting danger that the Renfred family faces with every passing hour.

With the masquerades’ existence depending on the physical and mental strength of an ailing Renfred, the task of solving the mystery of Davide’s disappearance before time runs out falls on Nicola’s shoulders, and he has no choice but to depend on things that he’s long learned to suppress: courage, self-respect, and the desire to aim for impossible goals.

( Excerpt )

My Dearest Holmes by Rohase Piercy

First of all you have to consider that this novel was released in 1988, so well ahead of the movie on Sherlock Holmes and James Watson that so openly suggested that the relationship between the two had a sexual undercurrent. Actually I have two thoughts in mind upon finishing this book: one is that both movie than book have to be very accurate to the original characters since they share so much in common that only having the same origins can explain that, or second hypothesis is that maybe the screenwriters were aware of the existence of My Dearest Holmes and instilled some of their characteristics into the movie characters.

The novel is told from Watson’s point of view and is the account of two of their adventures; in the first one Holmes and Watson are living together and when investigating in a case Watson has the chance to meet with a lady who shares with him some “particular” interests; the lady’s assumption is that Holmes and Watson are a couple in life as they are in career, but Watson will confess that his is an unrequited love, and that Holmes is unaware of Watson’s preferences. As the lady suggests, maybe Holmes is not aware of Watson’s love, but for sure he is dependent from Watson to an emotional level that is even deeper than a simply love relationship. I didn’t feel in Holmes a struggle to admit homosexual feelings, but more a fear of opening himself to the danger of love, whatever the companion is a man or a woman. Holmes has also an addiction to cocaine, addiction that he uses as a shield whenever he wants to rule out something or someone, even Watson, from his mind.

In the second story, Watson is married and has left Holmes; I found this attitude of Watson a little cowardly, like he hadn’t fought enough for his love for Holmes. True, his marriage is only by name, and his own wife has a female lover, but nevertheless he abandoned Holmes without giving the man the chance to make a decision. Between the two, I found Holmes to be the more coherent, and yes, also the more courageous; he maybe is not able to express his feelings if not dragged to the point of no return, but at least he is not betraying his heart.

My Dearest Holmes is a romance that is not a romance; there will be no a sexual realization of the romance, and in this situation, if nothing change, it’s likely that Watson will search that sexual satisfaction outside their bond, but nevertheless the bond is there and it’s strong. At the end Holmes and Watson will be a “couple” in everything if not in the “mechanical” demonstration of that bond.

Even if along with the relationship, this is also the account of two “cases” of Holmes and Watson, the mystery plot is nice but not as important as the romance, so yes, I would definitely classify this one as a romance and a good one for that.

Amazon: My Dearest Holmes
Amazon Kindle: My Dearest Holmes
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (November 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419676326
ISBN-13: 978-1419676321

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