Review: Gay Melrose Place? Kinda sorta
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2014
Enjoyable ReadMain couples are Duff & Brad, & Jackson & Garrett. The following are some disjointed notes so bear w/ me:Some plot points more convoluted than need be- Garrett's photo studio- why didn't Moonshine just offer to invest to begin with? Why wait for the psycho boyfriend to get his claws into everything?Jackson's devotion, while sweet, almost unexplainable. Garrett's actions were more snarky, clueless, & selfish - why was Jackson SO into this guy? The story, for me, didn't justify this (blind) devotion quite as much as I needed it to. You're told that Jackson has had romantic feelings for Garrett for the past year, but then you're sort of thinking, yeah, Garrett seems nice enough, but he's rather immature, insensitive, & self-absorbed. It took a while for me to really feel vested in that relationship. I mean Garrett was SO clueless about Jackson, in EVERY way. How could they have been such good friends to have Garrett be THAT clueless about Jackson? Garrett had blinders on too much, not only re: Jackson, but also Landon. This storyline had me more frustrated than anything else, & I just wasn't sold on it fully. This was the Melrose Place-ish drama portion of the story. The ending for Jackson & Garrett was sweet indeed, but I could have used less clueless, & more common sense on Garrett's part to enjoy it.Loved Duff & Brad. Duff was strong, confident, stood up for himself, mature, & loving. Brad's backstory was so heartbreaking. Their coming together was sweet, poignant, & sexy. (Brad's personal tragedy in the story closely follows the movie, Bridegroom, a documentary about a gay couple- it's a tragic story but worth watching).What's with the weird girls' names? Liked the strong female characters, good & evil. Moonshine (aka Ashley), & her squeeze, Jennica; even Elizabeth in her horrible glory.Supporting characters were good. Adam & Eli were periphery friends. They were Jackson's fall-back if he needed a place to crash & a good background support system for the MCs. Even Drake, Landon's assistant, redeemed himself in the end.The ending- wave the magic contract wand, & voila, the troubles & villains go away. Who knew? A little too pat for me.Overall, an enjoyable Gay Melrose Place- type read. Felt like soap operatic drama, but it worked. The writing was good; the connections, dialog, good. Some plot points lacked sophistication to be outstanding but still enjoyable, and there were some angsty moments that really worked for me (ie) between Duff & Brad. It's a long story but didnt seem to drag. Garrett's obtuseness dragged the story down for me. He needed to get a clue waaay before he finally did. (I'm just as critical of my real life friends, & myself, if we suffer from the Clueless Affliction) 😉In any case, I like this author. I'll definitely read more stories by AJ Rose.