Review: The Tourist By Clare London
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2011
I shouldn't been surprised by the top notch quality of Carina Press's titles, this publisher may releases few books per year on the M/M genre, but they are always carefully picked, as are their authors. And it's not the first time I enjoyed Clare London, she is able to weave original stories whatever genre she picks, and actually, this time I have even some difficult to simply fencing this book into a genre. You could say it's a mix of paranormal/horror/fantasy, but it's everything so light that actually it's more cross-genre.Ace is a ghost, demon, incubus? What we know is that Ace died of an horrible death and soon after he awakened in the body of another man having sex and enjoying it. If it was a way to exorcize the pain of his death, he doesn't know, but he liked the experience and now he is simply jumping from body to body, preferably man, and preferably involved in some sexual escapade. Ace is a "tourist", he has no the power to direct the man he is in, he can only push them to express at the best their personality.When he jumps into Dan, he thinks he has hit the jackpot: not only Dan is a good and handsome guy, he has one of the most beautiful boyfriend, Ricky. Apparently Dan is a lucky guy, and he is having the time of his life with Ricky in the shower; sure Ricky is questioning why Dan, usually so quiet and shy, is suddenly so assertive, but Ricky likes it, and so why look a gift horse in the mouth? But as soon as the shower ends, Ace realizes it's not a bed of roses for Dan and Ricky, there are unresolved questions between them, a jealous ex-boyfriend of Ricky, self-esteem issues for both of them, and a difficult to accept they can be happy with the little they have. Ace is annoyed, he is in for the fun but not for the drama, and he would like to just go, but something in Ricky prevents him doing so, a memory from his own past, someone he wanted to help but that he doesn't know if he managed to. Maybe this is Ace's second chance, maybe this time he will be stronger, and the happily ever after will be for both Dan and Ricky than for him.I really, really liked this story, it's was at the same time original but almost simple; it didn't try to blog me with too much innovation, trying to impress me on how good it was, in a way it was too good to do that: it was more like a "just read me, enjoy me, and you will understand why".