Review: Loved it!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 29, 2013
When the story began with Trip and his two best girl friends, Rina and Jillian, getting ready to do the Organ Run in Central Park ~ hundreds of costumed joggers running from zombies ~ I knew immediately I was in for another great read by Damon Suede. Discovering the story involved a graphic artist and a monster-makeup creator just made me even more interested in reading it.Trip is a graphic artist with a secret crush on his editor and colleague, Cliff, who is completely straight and, as far as I can tell, is just using Trip for his genius artistic abilities. I mean, let's face it, Big Dog Comics is getting a serious amount of art out of Trip but not allowing him to script anything other than the bland stuff all because Trip is an idiot and keeps hoping Cliff will notice him and all of a sudden discover he's gay. Not gonna happen, buddy. Plus, the comic he does the art for is seriously staid about a bunch of high school kids. There's no sex, no blood, just issues about acne and peer pressure. Boring! Good thing Trip accepts commissions because otherwise he thinks his brain might ooze from his ears. Life looks up when he meets Silas at the zombie run. Silas is hot, even in full zombie makeup, and Trip thought he was flirting with him but they both forgot to exchange numbers. Now, Trip is trying a little subterfuge to locate Silas, and really hoping it works.Silas does FX makeup for the stars, and his specialty is gore and wounds. What a thing to put on a resume, huh? He's so mad when he can't find Trip again during or after the race because he thought they had some chemistry. Silas is a lot different than Trip in the dating department. I guess it's easiest to just say that Silas has had a lot, and I mean a lot, of hookups and short-term dating, but something about Trip makes him wonder if there isn't more to life. When Trip tracks him down and calls him, Silas is ecstatic and they meet for dinner. It's a bit of an odd first date as Trip is still upset at Cliff stealing his pitch for a new comic and having someone else draw it. What? So, Silas and Trip sort of stumble around each other in that first date nightmare. The second date goes much better and they both are realizing how much chemistry they have together, and this is before anything physical!Rina and Trip do a brainstorming session where the character of Scratch, an incubus, is created and a basic idea is born for a "very graphic novel" for adults. While Trip is drawing and thinking and doubting, he and Silas continue to date and when things do get physical it's pretty intense. I completely and totally fell for Trip and Silas. Both of them so hesitant to trust, to open up, to be vulnerable, even as they are doing those exact things. I loved how they brought out the best in each other and how they managed to come up with ideas for Scratch when they would just be talking to each other. Not brainstorming, just regular conversations where something Silas says would light a match in Trip's brain. Trip makes Silas feel valued and cared about and Silas makes Trip feel like he can do anything and his talent and ideas have value. Silas encourages Trip to try and interest publishers and fans in Scratch at the next comic convention, but Trip is scared and has a lot of doubts. What if he loses his guaranteed work with Big Dog, or loses the respect of his fans and others in the industry when he introduces a gay incubus graphic novel? Which he's not even finished with? Trip thinks it's way too risky and Silas thinks you need to risk to win.What a fantastic book! Damon Suede really knows how to keep my attention, and considering this is a fairly long novel, that is saying quite a bit. I was on pins and needles waiting to see if Trip would finally see Cliff for the giant a-hole he is and see how much he played on all of Trip's fears and doubts in order to use him. God, I despised Cliff! I wasn't so sure how I felt about Trip at the end, because it's really all his fault what happens, and I personally felt he got off easy in the blame game. I adored Silas, every single inch of him and want one for myself. I absolutely adored this book. The writing is phenomenal, the characters are fantastic, the psychology is real, and the sex is hot. Thank you, Damon!NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews