Salvation by Rob Colton

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I had to think about this story, cause, well, it doesn’t really follow the rules of romance of having everyone perfect hero like material, and even if they have a dark past, they are these brooding heroes who are even more attractive than the lily-white ones. Moose is an ex-con, and he was also guilty of his sin; sure he didn’t kill with the intention of doing it, he was driving under influence, but nevertheless he killed his best friend who was in the car with him, and he got 10 years of prison who he did from beginning to the end, also cause he knows it’s right for him to pay. And no, Moose is not an hunk stud with a stoic attitude, he is more like an overgrown teddy bear, with a lot of muscles, but also with a little bit of fat around the waist. And he tends to get emotional, and to cry when he isn’t able to cope with those emotions.

On the other side we have Danny; Danny is average, he is a good guy, he doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and rescues pets from the street… he is basically a saint, and to complete the picture he is basically a virgin, he had only one boyfriend, for the length of 2 months and that was 10 years before. When Danny decides to start writing to Moose as a pen-pal, I wondered if he was considering Moose as a prospective partner, cause that is what Moose wrote in his sheet, but then I realize that Danny was basically really alone, and even if he wasn’t in prison like Moose, he was more or less on the same level of isolation. Danny is not an ingénue, but he doesn’t think he deserves much, and so he tends to lower himself and accepts compromises that he shouldn’t.

So no, Moose and Danny aren’t hero material, but I got to feel for them, and to cheer for their joy, simple as it was and sometime even too much mundane (I think it’s the first time in a romance that the reader partakes in what is happening in a bathroom other than sex). I was also glad the author decided to make of what were probably two separate novella, one book, cause we had the chance to know a little better Moose and his past. And a not so small factor is that, the price of the kindle version is really low, less than 2 dollars.

Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2 edition (October 18, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 149292542X
ISBN-13: 978-1492925422
Amazon: Salvation
Amazon Kindle: Salvation

Updates: http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/2156728?key=011e4dd0a1ff993d8c2322e691d6229ed9bbf74b

Comments

[pet0511.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, I bought it. I like to read about "normal heroes" - many books have at least one mc who seems outerworldly: so smart, so rich, so good of a person, and of course his looks are too stunning to have words for it. Like any other reader I like that - it's a fictional fantasy the reader is looking for. But not so seldom a book leaves me unsatisfied because I feel the flawlessness of the mc as the flaw of the book.
Btw: I pretty much like your entries about the personal background of the authors/men. No matter if I have read any by them yet, it's interesting.
:-)
Pet

[pet0511.livejournal.com]

P.S. The topic "normal men" made me think of a book I'm listening to as audio whenever I'm in the mood for an audiobook. It's Shades of Gray by Brooke McKinley. I'm halfway through it. Both guys are more or less of the "normal kind", one being a criminal who so far not went into begging for justice about what he had done blabla but not being the "good leader of a drug cartell either who secretly is the beloved Papa of his minions" either. The other guy, even being from the good side of law, isn't flawless either, building up his life as a straight man and his career almost like a robot.
:-) - just saying....

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

know about that, I even feature Brooke McKinley back in August: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2325431.html

[pet0511.livejournal.com]

Oh.... It's marked as to-read on GR whereas normally I see your review over there on the friends list, so I didn't know about this review.
Have a good break!

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

no no, it's not a review it's a featuring post, Brooke McKinley's book is on the Top Gay Novel list I'm maintaining, and well, yes, I have probably to read it sooner or later ;-) I'm featuring all authors in that list.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

you are lucky in this period if you prefer reviews, I'm on a winter break from the Rainbow Awards, and I'm reading more than before, trying to work out the backlog