Review: Disappointing and unrealistic
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2013
2 out of 5 stars***This book was provided for free by the author in exchange for an honest review, through the Goodreads “Don't Buy My Love” program***Before reviewing, let me say that I was really looking forward to this book.  I love historicals, and I love this era (early 20th century, pre WWII).  I've read some of Ms. Cochet's stories before, and found them entertaining and lighthearted.  I guess my expectations were too high.Chauncey (later nicknamed Chance) is introduced as a homeless orphan in NYC who is lucky enough to be befriended and taken in by a theater group when he is 8.  He grows up in a loving, accepting, though somewhat haphazard, environment, where his homosexuality is accepted.  He's still a street tough most of the time, but is happy with life and his circumstances.<spoiler>Then the theater burns down, with his lover and all his friends in it.  Chauncey proceeds to become a self-destructive punk.  Despite being a “seasoned drinker and dope fiend” at age 16, he is picked up by a new theater (with Hollywood aspirations?  It was never clear), and until he is 25 he parties, sleeps around, apparently makes a lot of money which he doesn't spend, doesn't fulfill the terms of his contract but they keep him around anyway, and then he ends up in the French Foreign Legion.  The entire back story establishing his history is disjointed, confusing, and ultimately unconvincing.  I get that he is physically beautiful and emotionally empty, but how does that lead him to have money and end up in the desert?And the storyline never really gets any better.  In the French Foreign Legion, he apparently remains a punk and a troublemaker, and still acts like he is 15 years old, though I guess he is by this time pushing 30.  He is sent to Jacky, a commandant who surrounds himself with troubled queer men and saves them from themselves.  Chauncey becomes Chance, and it is insta-love for both of them.  Ugh, I really don't like insta-love.  The rest of the time in the desert (maybe about 50% of the book) is taken up with Chance growing up, and becoming a model soldier instead of an immature jerk, so he can deserve Jacky's love.  When Jacky is seriously injured, he is forced to leave the Legion, and it is revealed that he is wealthy, and wants to use his English manor home as a shelter for gay men.  So he arranges for his crew of queer misfits to all be discharged at the same time, along with the doctor who treated him who also happens to be gay, and they all go to England and live happily ever after.  Except for occasionally getting shot (Chance), and the secondary characters never accepting their destined true loves.  Really???? </spoiler>So, we have confusing storyline, minimal or unsatisfactory explanation of character decisions, and completely unrealistic resolution of all problems.  The dialogue was mostly good, although the author's use of slang and words contemporary to the times was inconsistent, and sometimes also confusing – I ran across several terms that were very obscure to me as a 2013 reader, and there wasn't enough context to figure them out.  And though the blurb for the book included a disclaimer saying “these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma” I still found the handling of societal reactions inconsistent.  One minute Jacky and Chance are sharing a tent and the rest of the camp knows it, and the next minute Chance is sneaking into “the back of the tent” (does that mean under the tent flap?) where they proceed to have fairly loud sex, with the lanterns lit, and no one knows.  This reminds me of a scene out of one of the Austin Powers movies that involves a tent, and  suggestive silhouettes, and I couldn't keep that out of my mind while reading this book!Overall, disappointing.  I don't plan on reading any of the rest of this series.