Second Chances
Ten years ago, I wouldn't have touched a romance with a fifty foot pole. I know, most of my women friends look at me oddly, especially other romance writers, but it's true. The same, dang drivel over and over it seemed to me. I was wrong, of course. Oh, not about mainstream romance. It really is often the same drivel over and over, but m/m romance and gay romance have so much more...room to roam. Sure some of it's written by rote - the same commercially successful formulae again and again. But I've found an awful lot that's not.This is not.
This is freaking emotional open-heart surgery.
First person narrative often makes me cringe, but it was the right choice, the only choice for this novel. It's so bleeding personal, so very raw at points. Yes, yes, we all know I'm a big sissy and I cry during kid's movies, but most books will make me tear up at most. This book...I had to put this book down and cry not once but three separate times. I'm not saying when. That's private. *sniff*
Is the prose perfect? Not always. Did the editors catch everything before they published? No. But the honest, searing emotions in this book just blow everything else away.
Honest. Simple. Real in the complications people create for themselves and each other, in the ways we find to deny and justify our actions. It hurt. It was beautiful. I'm completely verklempt.
