The Contenders 2: The Boxer by Jan Irving

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I really did like the previous book in this series, The Janitor, like I liked this one, even if, in both of them, there was something that sometime made me frown. Dane is a big man, a boxer, but he is also a simpleton; he has not really any physical problem, on the contrary, he is in a perfect physical shape, and he is also very strong (good thing since he is a boxer), but his brain simply sees the world in a different way from most people. I wouldn’t say he is retarded, Dane is plenty capable of understanding good and bad, he is more than capable to love, well, maybe he is not really able to hate, but that is not enough reason to say that he is a blockhead.

Dane knows how to love, and who he wants to love, and he is deeply in love with Noel. Noel is a college professor, he is wealthy and sophisticated, but he was also very shy and scarred in body and mind. Probably if Noel was aware of his worth, he would have been able to conquer anyone, but it was Dane who approached him, who, day after day, courted him pushing the man out of his protective shell. Now Noel is fiercely possessive of Dane, if Dane decided to give all of him to Noel, now Noel wants all of him, and he is not willing to share the man with anyone else, and the only prospective to loose him is unacceptable.

Maybe since he is naïve, maybe since he has not a strong core, even if he has a strong body, Dane prefers to be dominated during lovemaking, and Noel, even if he doesn’t fit the character in a physical way, is plenty of capable to play the role. That is what have me frown now and before: all the Daddy and bad boy scenario was sometime too much for me, I really felt like, while in an ordinary situation, with both men plenty capable of understanding the lines between reality and fantasy, a similar scenario was clearly a sex fantasy, between Dane and Noel the lines were blurry. The only reason why, probably, I could accept it in the end is that Dane had only his mother, I didn’t remember anything about a father, and so I don’t think he was a sexually abused child; with this basis, what Noel and Dane have between them is clearly a sexual game, between two consenting adults, and though totally right and good. Moreover, Dane’s previous sexual experiences were cold and detached, no one was able to fulfill his desire to be loved and cherished; Noel instead is able to understand him, and his desires.

Again, as the previous book, this was not an easy story, but I appreciated a lot the effort of the author to write something original, and above all not superficial.

http://www.loose-id.com/The-Contenders-2-The-Boxer.aspx

Amazon Kindle: The Boxer (The Contenders)

Series: The Contenders
1) The Janitor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/630154.html
2) The Boxer

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by April Martinez