Review: I Loved This Book - With One Exception!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2014
I loved "Guns & Hoses, with a single exception, which I'll get into later. By the way, cool title. The play on "Guns & Roses" was perfect because 1) It's the name of a bar in which both police and firemen mingle and 2) Ms. Cothern keeps up this leitmotif throughout the book, with the lyrics of popular songs matched perfectly to what's going on in the scene. Clever, and well done.This is the story of a firefighter (Flame, would you believe?) and a cop (Tig, short for Tigger), who have hated each other since they were about six years old and lived directly across the street from each other. They went to the same schools, in the same grades, and then both were the stars of their High School's football team. Therefore, they've had to deal with their hate on a fairly intimate level for most of their lives.This is, of course, a Gay Romance (and a damned good one), so that hate has to, at some point, morph into love. It's absolutely delightful watching these two kicking their own butts because they just can't deal with even the idea of being attracted to each other, let alone in love. But we all know how that ends, right?Were it not for my own personal experience, I would have scoffed at the entire premise of "Guns & Hoses". But, let me assure you, it does happen. It happened to me, in college, which taught me that there's but a fine line between hate and love. In both cases, you are exquisitely vulnerable to the other person, and they can destroy you. When it's love, they don't.And that's exactly what this book is about.By the way, I rarely comment on the sex scenes, as there are so few gay male Romance authors, and so many writers in this genre just get it wrong, or worse, get it "flat" - lots of verbiage without much heat. Ms. Cothern, on the other hand, writes some seriously realistic and hot sex scenes. I don't think I've ever written the words "hot sex scenes" in a review, before, so that's high praise from me.The characters are richly drawn, including a wealth of interesting secondary characters, some of them only fleeting, but still vivid. The plot is simple and direct - how two hot men who hate each other fall in love, and deal with it. Which makes it something short of rocket science, but also a great deal of fun to read. And what's wrong with that? Most of the time, I'm not in the mood for rocket science, anyway.I might have even given this book five stars, just because the book, and its writing, really grabbed me, which is all I ask of a good book. But there was one exception, and it's one that sticks in my craw, every time: the editing was unforgivable. I know, self-published works should not be compared to those from major publishing houses, I shouldn't ask for too much, right? Wrong. I paid my money, I expect a finished, polished product, not a first-draft rife with elementary school writing errors.I don't know if Ms. Cothern has a problem with basic grammar, spelling and word use, or whether her editor (if she has one) screwed up a near-perfect manuscript, but, in either case, she (and the rest of them) just have to do better - or they won't have me (and many others)  as readers for very long. I read fast but never skip a word. Every time I encounter another glaring error, the story shudders to a sudden halt. I'm distracted from the characters and/or plot I'm deeply invested in. Which means, the better the book, the more annoying the errors are.And I'm not talking nits, here, either:"not being self-conscience..." [self-conscious]"Flame replied with panted breath" ["panted" is the past case of a verb, not an adjective - "bated breath?"]"I'll meet you at you're place" [is there something in the water that causes Gay Romance authors not to know how and when to use apostrophes? Or is that "apostrophe's"?]"...stepped to the side to move passed the a******..." ["past" the a******!]"Tig forced himself to breath." [breathe, please!]and my favorite, ever, misuse of an apostrophe:"let's me help you".OK, I'll get off my soapbox. I just want the author to know that I knocked a star off my review of "Guns & Hoses", because there were so many obvious errors that it actually interfered with my experience of the book.Otherwise, this is a fun book that I heartily recommend.