Incognito by Miho Li

Starting this novel, I was pretty much sure I was for reading a yaoi novel, which I did, but I wasn’t expecting for it to be something more other than sex. Let’s be true, most of the yaoi novel out there are about sex between cure boys, the plot is usually thin and only a frame to the main action, that is the sex.

So plot about American-Japanese student Ren falling in love for fellow student Shin, was for me the sure starting point for a series of hot meetings between them. The author made them college boys, but that was probably for a censorship reason, these yaoi novels are usually about high school boys. And don’t get me wrong, Ren is an horny kid who has sex as main thought on his mind and everything else is of secondary importance. But when he basically starts to stalk Shin, Shin is far from being willing to satisfy Ren’s wild sex fantasies, and he “forces” Ren into a chaste friendship, with a side of Ren’s friends who cheer for him to conquer the boy.

The mystery plot, and the resolution of it is unlikely like many of these yaoi novels are; again, this is not a complaint or critic, this is the fact: yaoi novel are all about boys in love, what happens around them is not important; did you notice that family, real life, adult figures are usually non-existent? If not for sporadic appearances, these boys seem to live in a world apart where them and their love is the only reality.

But in any case, kudos to Miho Li to not making this yet another story where the two boys were basically existing only in bed; there is actually a building and blossoming of a relationship, and some of the side characters (Ren’s friends) where cute too.

Amazon Kindle: Incognito (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)
Publisher: Siren Publishing (May 2, 2012)

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

You Are Here by Chris Delyani

You Are Here is like a carousel developing in the Castro district in San Francisco. It all starts with Peter, wanna-be artist who is working as a waiter in a local coffe-store; painful shy, he just left home back in Chicago probably with the dream to be finally free in the gayer city in US, San Francisco; but nothing is simple, and Peter will find out there are people not so good, like Donald, the business man who brings him home one night, and Jeff, is strange roommate.

Donald’s own roommate, Myles, is a nice man trying to overcome a broken-heart; his fiancé Stuart left him without a word days before their marriage, and Myles is wandering the streets hoping to meet him. The only link Myles has with his former boyfriend his Stuart’s best friend, Ben, but Ben is also the reason for their break-up, so he is the last person Myles would like to be near too.

On the other side of Peter’s life there is his roommate Jeff, a widower who inherited his townhouse from his late partner, and who is now basically living on the little income he has left. Jeff is trying in every way to find a new partner to climb again the social staircase, and Nick is the most likely candidate. On New Year’s Eve, when Jeff thinks to plot his conquest, Nick is “distracted” by Ben (yes the same of above), and they ended having sex in Peter’s bedroom, who will be accused by Jeff of stealing his man.

Peter will end living with Ben, and in front of him will have two chances: socialite Nick, with a different man every weekend, and quiet and brooding Myles, who is probably still stuck up with his ex-boyfriend Stuart.

I liked how the Castro seemed at the same time so full of opportunities, but also so tight a community. There are a lot of characters in the novel, everyone with his own story, but they seemed to work together perfectly, like an oiled clockwork. This was not a light tale, some of the characters were vicious in their behavior, but it’s also true that they had it back to them in the end. Who was good, who didn’t give in to life and try, instead, were able to find an happily ever after (or some sort of it).

Amazon: You Are Here
Amazon Kindle: You Are Here
Paperback: 334 pages
Publisher: iUniverse (August 14, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1475934432
ISBN-13: 978-1475934434

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