Review: Easy and enjoyable
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2013
I enjoyed this story, it lived up to the blurb . it is not a sweet one, in fact Damon's actions at the start make me want to dislike him intensely. It is raw and in your face and shows yet another facet of the struggle that some people have with their sexuality. Ben Ryder does not promise or deliver any hearts and flowers except for the little sweet moment at the end. It is a gritty meeting of two men, raw and unvarnished.It is set slightly in the future at least that is how I took it, it introduces a vaguely mentioned vaccine that I assume covers at least HIV AIDS, which made me go straight to the fact that sex when it happened would probably be bareback. Which is a good warning or teaser depending on which way you hang. They meet in situations where being gay is probably not a wise thing to flaunt, Jay being a marketing salesman for the Side Line beer company along with his squad of cheer leading girls and Damon a marine in for a free beer before being deployed into the latest hot spot, Iran.It's all very closeted and they seem to go from bad situations to worse before it gets better. For a short story, it was a bit uneven, as in I thought there was more setup than was actually needed. Especially for Jay, as we get a fair amount of backstory through his eyes, whilst Damon's is done through conversation without him even there, and the romance of it seemed to be a bit hurried, good but hurried.When all is said and done it was a fairly easy read, and enjoyable. It's a bit like drinking really, sometimes we get spoiled and treated to the finest vintage wine and sometimes all we need is to slam back a bottle of beer. Any one for another cold one?Madam Aus's 3 1/2 sweet pea review appears at mrsconditreadsbooks.com/index.php/?p=13186