Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, but if you're looking for something racy, you won't find it here.
Turning the is-he-or-isn't-he trope of gay romance on its ear, Gallagher offers her readers a less traditional love story between two asexual men, one of whom is just coming to terms with what this new identity might mean for him.
Brennan has been dumped for the third time in a row by a woman who was sexually dissatisfied with him. Figuring there must be something wrong with him, he decides to do some research on his techniques and winds up in the only logical place: ye olde local porn store. It's there that he meets Zafir, who, after troubleshooting his coital woes, suggests that perhaps Brennan is also asexual. Since asexuality is not something that exists in the vocabulary of most red-blooded all-American dudes, it takes some time to wrap his head around. And there's a lot to figure out. If he's asexual, what does that mean? If he's attracted to Zafir, does that mean he's gay? Or biromantic? Gallagher does a great job of explaining these concepts without getting preachy or taking the reader out of the story. Her characters are well-rounded, and it's a pretty straightforward narrative. Zafir is a Muslim single dad working two jobs. Brennan is a semipro skateboarder who works part time when he's not competing. The two men fall quickly into a comfortable friendship that leads them separately to wonder if this unconventional happiness might be love. While there probably aren't tons of books specifically about two asexual dudes trying to make an honest go of it, this is a pretty typical feel-good boy-meets-boy sort of story.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, but if you're looking for something racy, you won't find it here.Pub Date: June 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62649-420-6
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Riptide
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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