Best Gay Paranormal / Horror: Infected, Freefall by Andrea Speed

This is the second book centering on the same characters, Roan McKichan and Dylan, in a series that is at its fourth chapter, so yes, I paused before deciding to directly read this one skipping the others. Sincerely I don’t have the feeling I missed anything in the story, maybe I would have liked to read how Roan and Dylan met, I suppose that is in the previous book, but nevertheless the story plot in this one is complete.

In the blurb the author alerts that Roan is still mourning, and supposedly in love, with his late husband Paris. That is for sure true, but I think that Roan is also angry with Paris (who committed suicide). Not sure if the reason is that Roan wanted to follow Paris, or maybe exactly the opposite, that he doesn’t approve Paris’s choice; or maybe there is even another reason, Roan is worried he will not have the same courage Paris had, when it will be his time. Against, pro, for sure Roan feelings are a boiling pot, and in the middle of that there is Dylan.

Dylan is like a balsam to Roan’s soul; you can think Roan sees Dylan more like someone he has to protect more than a lover, but this feeling will change with the story, more or less at the same time when Dylan will prove he is not those head on the clouds artist type he seems at first. Dylan is way stronger than what you think, and probably this strength is allowed also by his stability, all his living healthy and spiritual seems to do good to him.

This is not the first book I read by this author, but truth be told I didn’t have a strong opinion about her. Now I think she managed a worn theme, the paranormal shifter romance, in something new; true, this is not your classical romance, and the intimate scene between the main characters is not what you will remember of it (in a positive way, meaning that the story is not focused on sex), this is more a psychological urban fantasy than a paranormal romance and I suggest to the more selective reader to give it a shot. Maybe you will be more diligent than me and start with the first book in the series…

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2642

Amazon: Infected: Freefall
Amazon Kindle: Infected: Freefall
Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (November 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613722494
ISBN-13: 978-1613722497

Series: Infected
1) Prey
2) Bloodlines
3) Life After Death
4) Freefall



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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Hommeboys by Blair Mastbaum

Part biography, part novel, Hommeboys is the story of Sam, a simple guy from Ohio who is plunged in the glittering modeling world of New York City, only to discover the glitter is fake, and that he will be basically very, very alone.

I really enjoyed this story since I could recognize most of the characters in it; now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these are real people and I linked them to their names, but that they are stereotype of real person, and for many of them you can connect someone. There is Sam, who is doing the model since he doesn’t know nothing else, but you can say he is not fated to be a “name”; Sam is cute, but he is like hundreds of other boys, and they eat them in one year top. There is Darren, Sam’s first friend in this new world, someone Sam could love, but Darren is damned. There are the owners of the model agencies, the stylists, the photographers, the supermodels and the background. All of them feel so real and consequently so fake: nothing in this world is solid enough for Sam to cling to, and he is like a guy who is drowning.

It’s scaring to think that Blair Mastbaum used his own experience to write this story, because then it means he was there, and probably what Sam is experiencing, is what Blair did. Scaring and elating indeed, because now we know that Mastbaum’s did the right thing, lived that world for a bit and then walked away, towards what was his real, true life. Modeling was like a temporary madness, something you need to learn how to survive to and walk away alive. But I remember some of Mastbaum’s posts, listing the ones who didn’t manage to survive.

Hommeboys is pretty on the surface and gritty behind the cover, but I think many will identify reading it; it’s also really “light” in the writing style, so much that it goes down smoothly, without any stop in the reading, easy like taking and jump and emerging again… a jump into hell and back.

Amazon Kindle: Hommeboys
Publisher: MERC Books (December 9, 2012)

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