Review: Beach Balls
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2012
It's good to have strong principles, but we need to reexamine them from time to time to make sure they are still relevant. Broad, sweeping generalizations such as all developers are crooks and all conservationists are reactionaries isn't healthy or fair. Adam and Sky of Tara Lain's book 'Beach Balls' are both very determined men with very specific attitudes toward certain things which seemingly put them on different sides of the fence. If they want to be together, they need to dig deep and decide what's important and what isn't.Adam has trapped himself in the closet, in a life of lies which constantly keeps him from being himself. He's a handsome, charming guy and, deep down, under that tough, all-business exterior, he's sincere. People like Adam. The problem is they aren't seeing the real him. He is rich, but miserable and all the money in the world can't make up for the emptiness he feels inside. To put it from Adam's perspective: "He sat in a room he didn't love filled with things he didn't need that his money had bought. He had friends who weren't really friends, and family that wasn't really family, because they didn't know him. He had a stake in a project he didn't believe in that would bring him more money to buy more stuff he didn't like."Adam immediately realizes that his relationship with Sky has something that goes beyond what he's ever experienced before and never knew was possible. Adam and Sky become mirrors reflecting the admirable and not so admirable traits of each of them. They're confronted with some uncomfortable facts that neither of them want to face. It shakes their worlds and causes them to question everything, to the point of wondering what they could change to be together.Sky is his own person, he doesn't hide anything, but he has no diplomacy either. He believes in his causes which makes him admirable, but his personality borders on arrogant. His "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" attitude is obnoxious at times. He may be smart and an expert in his field, but he's not endearing. He's not comfortable with people, so he acts as if they don't matter. When Adam begins to realize that everything he has isn't worth anything without Sky, he confronts him with a desperate plea saying that he's willing to change if it will help them be together. Adam is willing to compromise, but Sky can't see beyond how things are at the moment.They both have a lot of growing to do. They need to reach the point that it isn't a compromise for either one of them, but a coming together on equal footing.With each 'Balls' story, I fall totally in love with Tara's men and can't imagine her coming up with better ones, but then she introduces new guys and I fall in love all over again. Adam and Sky are wonderful, sexy, handsome, gay, and good at what they do. The character growth they undergo during the story is phenomenal and adds a lot of zing, along with the 'off the chart' hotness of their sexual encounters. It's not only a great story, but it's also a reminder to never forget who we really are, because true happiness lies in being true to oneself. I highly recommend this story to any of you romantics out there who, like me, love a good, sexy story, full of angst, which has a happy ending. Thanks, Tara, for another fabulous story.Originally reviewed at Rainbow Book Reviews.