Review: PHENOMENAL!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 20, 2013
I have absolutely hit the jackpot lately with five-star reads. Suicide Ride: The Platinum Man...what to say, where to start. How about--PHENOMENAL. LIKE NOTHING I'VE READ BEFORE. GRITTY, RAW, CRUDE, CRASS AND IN YOUR FACE. I liked this story and the writing style (third person, which is my favorite), but will admit that the sometimes lengthy, unusual descriptions the author used felt a bit overwhelming at times, even distracting--but what an imagination! There was also a bit of head hopping that sometimes threw me out of the story for a moment until I could reroute my circuitry. But it was all good. :)In the beginning, you get a flavor for twenty-nine-year-old Johnny Gellis, a highly-educated, supreme hetero stud, who has come to LA and wants nothing more than to sing and make it big. You also have a sense that he's running from something back in Atlanta--something BIG. Then, Norman Dimond enters the mix and the story just skyrockets from there. Norman is a late fifties, sexy, masculine bisexual, who owns a big time record label in LA. He's powerful, well-connected, and used to getting what he wants. Although, as of late, he's become a bit bored with his life and has lost his mojo.I felt as if I couldn't read fast enough. I've never read a story about M/M love or sex, so I wasn't sure what I would think. What it comes down to: when it comes to lust, love and infatuation, the emotions are the same. And it's also no different when you're on the receiving end of someone's love or desire and cannot reciprocate--someone's bound to get hurt. I found myself vacillating between feeling compassion and dislike for Norman, because he knows Johnny is straight, and yet, he expects Johnny to 'trade' for what he wants. Whereas, I swung between pity and concern for Johnny, who clearly has some BIG problems (mental included) about to erupt that could ruin any chance of a music career. And ruin Norman's desire to keep Johnny as his one and only. Although, Norman already knows he needs to handle Johnny differently. You see, they're both rabid breeders, pitchers, tops, as Norman describes himself and Johnny, and neither is willing to play bottom. So, that makes navigating a potential relationship more difficult.By the end of Suicide Ride it becomes painfully clear that Johnny is a confused, messed up man. And that is why Norman has hired a PI to dig up everything possible about Johnny because he's not talking. Norman wants to know for personal reasons what Johnny is hiding so that he can fix whatever is wrong with his object of obsession, AND he wants to protect his investment. See, he knows Johnny will be the Platinum Man in the music industry, and he wants to shutdown in advance anything and anyone that could destroy that. Johnny's talent will catapult them BOTH to the front pages and bring Norman out of an early retirement.I get the feeling that Norman wants to help him for the right reasons, not JUST the selfish ones, but in the end I don't know if Norman is what's best for Johnny. And if it doesn't work out between them, I get the feeling that Norman will crash and burn--maybe they both will.We shall see. I am really looking forward to the sequel: The Fix...the sooner the better! :)