Three of a Kind by Sean Michael

TITLE: Three of a Kind
AUTHOR: Sean Michael
PUBLISHER: Torquere
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 30k)
GENRE: Contemporary gay menage erotic romance
COST: $3.95

After an explosive fight with his “boyfriend,” Zane steals his truck and heads west, only to break down at the side of the road, six hours away from his destination. He’s rescued by Butch, the owner of the junk yard, who takes him home and offers him a place to stay as he gets the truck fixed and heals up. Butch and his lover Randy are interested in more than nursing the young man back to health, though…

I think it’s time for me to admit that Sean Michael’s books are just not for me. This is the third book I’ve read by him, though only the second I’ve reviewed, and it’s gone downhill since I struggled to get through Bent. While I can appreciate some of what he does with characterization, his voice is just far too spare to satisfy me. I need more than the skeletal dialogue that comprises the majority of the story, and the lack of any kind of detail – except for the occasional scattering – prevents me from getting immersed. I’m a visual reader, not auditory. I need visual clues far more than anything else to lose myself in a story. If I can’t see it, I can’t get into it.

This gay ménage is symptomatic of everything I find difficult. There’s a heavy imbalance toward dialogue, much of which feels directionless and inane, and while I had no problems differentiating between the three men, I was never able to connect emotionally to any of them, not even poor battered Zane. The build-up to the actual ménage was handled well, with both Butch and Randy understanding of the time Zane needed, but once they reach that plateau halfway through, all they do is have sex. It’s all right for what it was, but I was just too disconnected by that point to be really interested.

The bare bones plot of Zane’s abusive boyfriend gets resolved far too easily at the end, too. It just happens, with no intervention from any of the three men, enhancing the sense of passivity that prevails for me throughout the story. Zane does counter that to some degree by refusing to take advantage of Butch’s generous nature and actually pulling his own weight, but generally speaking, it’s not enough. That pretty much characterizes my reaction throughout the whole thing. Not enough. But at least I know now.

Readability	5/10 – Calling it spare is generous
Menage	5/10 – I didn’t dislike the guys together, though I can’t say I believe they’ll last very long
Characterization	6/10 – The fact that all three guys had distinct personalities is the best part about this story
Entertainment value	4/10 – I was bored for most of it
World building	3/10 – Focus is on dialogue and very little else
TOTAL:	23/50

Bent by Sean Michael

TITLE: Bent
AUTHOR: Sean Michael
PUBLISHER: Torquere Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 123k)
GENRE: Gay BDSM erotic romance
COST: $6.95

Top Marcus meets would-be bottom Jim under awkward circumstances – when Jim is ranting at a hapless employee in a bookstore. Marcus won’t stand for such uncalled for behavior, but something in the other man calls out to him, a submissive side just waiting to be tapped into. Marcus pursues the other man relentlessly, determined to help rebuild this man’s broken life. What they find transcends everything either one of them ever imagined…

I have a couple books in my TBR pile that are there primarily because the author has been recommended to me so often that I finally caved and picked something out that might be interesting to try. This isn’t a technique that works for me very often, unfortunately. I’ve discovered there are several popular authors out there that fail to work for me for some reason or another. Sean Michael is one of those authors that gets recommended a lot, but after reading this long novel, I can honestly say I’m not sure what category to place him in.

The story starts out well enough. Though Jim seemed to capitulate to Marcus’ near bullying a little quickly, I didn’t mind too much as they seemed to have a genuine rapport, I liked both men, and those first few sex scenes were really hot. I flew through the first 30k and was eager to get back to it every time I had to put it down. But then something happened. I missed Jim’s spirit from the opening of the book, though I recognized that it wouldn’t work within the context of the relationship Marcus was trying to build. Instead, I got more of Jim’s rebellion and whining, which ended up creating the following pattern: Jim messes up, Jim gets spanked, they have sex. Jim throws a hissy fit, Jim gets spanked, they have sex.

Over and over and over again.

Got very boring.

I appreciate the fact that Michael wrote a story detailing how a sub gets trained when they had no idea they were even submissive, but the effect of the scenes gets diluted when they’re all the same. I needed more variety, something else in the context of the plot, anything really that would surprise and break me away from the monotony. And I liked Marcus. I wanted more from it. I can even see why some people like Michael, because a lot of the sex is pretty hot. Until I got tired of reading it, that is.

So, in the end, I still don’t know about this author. I can’t write him completely off, because I was right there for the first third of the book. He hooked me in, the way good authors do. He just didn’t keep me hooked.

Readability	6/10 – Overly simple and repetitive, little challenging or original about it
Hero #1	7/10 – I believed him as an individual, even when I got frustrated with the story
Hero #2	6/10 – The whining got a little old, but I’ve read worse
Entertainment value	4/10 – Hot sex and characters I don’t hate aren’t enough when the same patterns get repeated ad infinitum
World building	7/10 – The BDSM world feels complete, though the rest of it gets neglected.
TOTAL:	30/50