A deeply felt but rather sedate exploration of love and new beginnings.
Gay priests, starting over in sunny California, weather mild relationship turbulence in this romance novel.
This follow-up to Shekleton’s Father Tierney Stumbles (2011) finds Joe Tierney, a gay Catholic priest who lost his job as pastor of a Midwestern parish after he publicly came out, arriving in the wealthy desert town of Palm Springs. He’s there to take a job as a housekeeper at gay resort Casa Vista Oro, and to repair his relationship with his ex-boyfriend, Kenny O’Connor,whom he’d dumped out of fear and shame. Kenny feels guilty that Joe contracted HIV from him, but he also has a new Marine boyfriend, Jasper Wylands, to whom he’s committed. Fortunately for Joe, another prospect emerges in an attractive, 23-year-old sex worker named Oscar Del Rio, a mature, thoughtful man who recognizes a kindred soul in Joe and establishes a platonic friendship with him—albeit one with lots of sexual tension. Complicating things is the arrival of Edward Brockton, an older, gay Episcopal priest who counseled Joe in the past and now hopes to kindle a romance with him—and maybe with Oscar, too. Meanwhile, Casa Vista Oro’s proprietor, Cy Anastasis, sets out to disrupt Joe and Oscar’s relationship because he fears that Oscar might contract HIV—and so he can continue enjoying Oscar’s services himself. Cy undermines Joe through subtle machinations, such as renting a room to Kenny and Jasper in the hope that seeing them together will send Joe into a breakdown, and trying to lure Joe into appearing in a porn video so that his halo of priestly idealism will be tarnished in Oscar’s eyes.
Shekleton’s yarn explores his characters’ psyches with sensitivity and nuance, and he subtly registers both the niceties of social pressure—“He was the image of a peón before the master: dark-skinned, sweaty and subservient,” the half Mexican, half Irish Joe reflects, when summoned by Cy for a talk—and the quiet intensity of longing: “ ‘I was falling in love with him,’ Edward said, just above a whisper. His eyes wet, he blinked back tears.” Unfortunately, the novel’s interiority means that nothing much happens beyond people ruminating and calling each other up for dates and having heart-to-hearts. The characters spend a lot of time gazing at one another, but when explicit sex occurs, it’s tastefully done and not at all disruptive. Joe’s angst over his HIV status and residual Catholic guilt feels overdone in a gay-friendly Palm Springs that welcomes him with open arms, and the moral dilemmas that Cy’s ploys pose—to be, or not to be in a porn film?—seem contrived and silly. Shekleton’s attempt to combine the setting’s hedonism with knotty spiritual depth means that characters often sound like couples counselors, even when he’s a sex worker talking about a ménage à trois (“The real point I want to make is...you are both attractive to me, as friends...and more than friends. Something we experienced fully last night”). As a result, the novel feels more sluggish than torrid.
A deeply felt but rather sedate exploration of love and new beginnings.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 199
Publisher: Mo Keijuk Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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