AUTHOR: Thom Lane
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 21k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $4.99
Travel writer Charlie has the perfect life. He gets to travel where he wants, do what he wants, all without having to worry about ties. When he meets Matt alongside a French canal, he expects nothing more than something casual. After all, he only has two free nights to stay. But Matt’s charming insistence coaxes Charlie to change his immediate plans, the life he introduces Charlie to entirely too seductive…
I fell in love in this story.
Not with the characters, though they are certainly charming enough, each in his own way. And not with the romance, because honestly, there wasn’t anything new and the ending itself was incredibly sappy and a little contrived.
No, I fell in love with the setting, and more than that, with the author’s delicate, almost ephemeral, prose.
The story is a simple one. Told in 1st person from Charlie’s perspective, it starts with him fishing in a French canal, relaxed, enjoying the atmosphere, then enjoying the beauty of a young man walking along. The young man, Matt, stops and starts flirting with Charlie, which ends in an arrangement for dinner. One thing leads to another, they spend the night together, and Charlie thinks that’s it. It’s not for Matt. He manages to charm Charlie into coming to his house – his family owns the neighboring vineyard – for dinner and to spend the night. Thus, Charlie gets introduced to a family utterly tied to his surroundings, a trait that both amazes and boggles him as he can’t imagine staying anywhere for that long.
Charlie and Matt function perfectly well in the roles they’re assigned. As a third party observer and a journalist to boot, Charlie is naturally detached from much of what is going on around him, with the exception of Matt. Matt, on the other hand, is charming and affectionate, so much so that any flaws he might have become nonexistent. It flattens his characterization a bit, creating an idealized version of the character instead of something rounder, but his sweetness and charm compensate for that.
Where the story shines is in the author’s voice. Suitable to its setting, there is an ethereal quality to his descriptions and commentary that only heightens that sense of airiness. It felt like I was in
Readability | 10/10 – I’ll admit it, I absolutely fell in love with the delicate romanticism of the writing in this |
Hero #1 | 7/10 – A little detached, necessarily so, from the events, but I still liked him |
Hero #2 | 7/10 – Suffers from the same fate of idealized hero, though he’s still sweet and charming |
Entertainment value | 8/10 – I fell in love with this because of the writing rather than the characters |
World building | 10/10 – The setting came to life for me, ringing very true |
TOTAL: | 42/50 |
2 comments:
Have you read "Dark Heart"? I absolutely loved it, so I bought "White Flag" as soon as I saw it. "White Flag" felt so light and trivial compared to "Dark Heart" that I was rather disappointed. WF is in a completely different tone and style from DH and since I was so enamored of DH, I am sure that had a lot to do with my reactions to WF. Maybe I will go back and read it again and see if I feel different now.
You know, I've looked at the blurb for Dark Heart twice now, and heard good things about it, but something about it always puts me off. Maybe it's my mood (though I've been reading other BDSM stuff lately). I'll probably look at it again later in hopes that that's the case.
I think part of my response to WF was it rang so true to my experiences with the setting. I guess that's just one of my reading kinks. :)
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