Review: One of the best threesome stories I've ever read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 24, 2010
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 9/10PROS:- More than perhaps any other m/m/m ménage story I've read, this one convinced me that the guys could only ever be together as three. Each guy loves his two partners equally, yet I felt instinctively that no combination of two would ever really work. This is a threesome in which all three guys are NECESSARY. It also wasn't easy for me to pick a favorite among the three main characters. Each of them has a (realistic, limited) number of good qualities as well as human weaknesses, but their characteristics complement each other both sexually and personality-wise.- This book is more realistic than most m/m/m books I've read. When the three guys first meet, for example, there's no hedging or pretending that their hookup is anything other than what it is. Later on, the story faces problems inherent to threesome relationships (for example, the difficulty of taking only one partner to an important business meeting peopled by a bunch of conservatives) head-on rather than trying to glaze over them.- Luke struggles a lot with letting go of his past and allowing himself to love Richard and Matthew. Yet surprisingly, the book's angst level is pretty low. There are no prolonged periods of suffering or misery. The characters have their rough patches, but they work through them quickly and emerge more solid as a result of them.- There's a healthy amount of sex in this book: the bedroom is, after all, the main place the men connect with each other, especially in the beginning. The sex isn't near as graphic as I've seen before in this genre, so I wouldn't say that I found it particularly hot; however, I didn't find it boring, either. I never knew quite what to expect from those scenes because all three of the guys are versatile and flexible when it comes to bedroom roles and specific acts.- Occasionally, Parker's writing is very funny. The story is told in first-person from Luke's perspective, and he's dry and (tries to be) unfeeling and matter-of-fact. Here's one of my favorite sentences: "Gay sperm probably had no clue when they shot out of the body their fate was much less noble than creating life."CONS:- Luke is difficult to like early on. I hesitate to put this as a con because his prickliness toward the beginning is contrasted so greatly by the man he becomes by the story's close, but I feel that I should warn potential readers that he's kind of a jerk at times and that he does get better--much better--as the story progresses.- There are a few plot points, especially regarding Luke's father, that are not resolved at the end of the story. The relationship ends so well, though, that my mind was more than happy to assume that everything turned out as blissfully well as the romance.Overall comments: I liked this book from the start, when the guys are just meeting for semi-anonymous hookups. Once they make the decision to start getting to know each other, though, and their personalities really start to come out, I loved the book. If I had to recommend a "starter" ménage story for a reader who's not sure whether s/he likes threesomes, this would be it.