reviews_and_ramblings | M4M (A Collection of Gay Erotic Romance) by Rick R. Reed

VGL Male Seeks Same by Rick R. Reed

This is quite a tender tale for a writer that usually I associate to more "creepy" tales. Ethan is a 42 years old very "normal" looking guy. He has a good job, a love for quite and comfortable thing, a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood... everything perfect if not for the fact that Ethan is lonely. He is past the age to go cruising in the gay club, and even when he was in the age, he didn't like it. The type of man you can pick in that place is not the man Ethan is searching: he wants someone to share a life, to spend time together other than in bed, to be proud to take home... Ethan wants romance. But romance seems unattainable, but Ethan persist and try one last time, with an dating online website. Ethan is sincere, he posts his real profile, his life and a nice pic of him, and he gets no reply. Than he leaves all the same other than the pic, and he finds his mailbox full. Among the more than forgettable emails he finds one worthy: Brian is a 45 years old man, who likes almost the same things Ethan likes, who wants all the same things Ethan wants, and who is as very good looking as Ethan's new profile pic... that it's not as Ethan really looks.

The story is very nice, not so short, 59 pages, but still short enough to be read during a lunch break :-) It's even more nice since it's sincere, I believe it describes an event more common than not, but it has also an ending that appeals to the romance's lover that is in me. As I said it surprised me, since I believe this is the first time I read a Rick R. Reed's book with an happy ever after ending... but it let me also perplexed, since to be the end really true to the story, Brian's behavior should be a little different or at least I should have an explanation by him on his reasons. Anyway this is a problem of mine, maybe sometime the realist that is in me won over the romance's lover!

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/VGLMale.html

Amazon Kindle: VGL Male Seeks Same

NEG UB2 by Rick R. Reed

In more than 2 years that I read gay romance, I have never read about a HIV+ character; I read about man who worried about it, who waited for the diagnosis, and happily it was negative, I read about man who lost friends, I read about man who were uber-safe... but where are all those men who are HIV+ and still deserves a romance? AIDS was, and sometime still is a deadly virus, but there are more and more cases today of men who can "living positively", enjoying their life with a little more of precautions than before, precautions that probably it would be better to always take, but this is the life and you have to face it.

In VGL Male Seeks Same, Ethan was a 40 something years old man who finally found the love of his life. Everything was perfect, above all since it was not a too much pink glasses perspective on the world: Ethan found his love on the net, like probably many men today, and Brian was not a prince charming, but more a best friend type, but nevertheless, the love and sex were great, and Ethan and Brian walked toward the sunset together and happily ever after... almost. Now months later, Ethan finds out he is HIV+... since he was almost celibate before, and truth be told, he met Brian online, and you all know what this means, the most obvious explanation is that Brian passed the virus to him. Was he aware of it? Or maybe Brian cheated on him and, worst than the cheating itself, he was not safe?

We follow Ethan's difficult first days after the discovery, wondering what it was and what it will be; his working of mind is sincere and true, Ethan passes from being angry to scared to lonely. He has no family and so he searches for comfort and assurance on the net, the same place where probably he also "found" the virus, but it's the only place where he can go, and for once, the net replies to his plea of support.

And we follow Ethan deals also with Brian, the man to hate... at first Ethan is all for denial, denial that what happened to him was not his fault; Brian is the evil man, it's all his fault. But then Ethan realizes that Brian is someone like him, Ethan, someone that didn't gave the right importance to this plague of the XX century. Even if Brian is guilty this doesn't mean that Ethan is innocent, they both have their faults.

This is a novella that is really true, sincere and open, without loosing the romance; it's a light in the blackness that falls down upon whom discovers to be ill, and it gives hope. It doesn't give an answer, and I like that, even in the end, it doesn't explain who is wrong and who is right, the important thing is to cope and move on, always thinking positive to live positive.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/NEGUB2.html

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/M4M.html

Amazon: M4M (A Collection of Gay Erotic Romance)

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