Review: Coverboy by Dan Skinner
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2008
This is quite a strange book that I still have trouble to classify. First of all the main hero, Brock, was straight for two/third of the book and then he didn't fall in love physically for the other hero Carey, but rather he decided that Carey is a good man, better than all the other people around, and so he wanted to stay with him. On the other hand, Carey was the same, he didn't fall for Brock as a man, but rather as the image the man is for him.Brock is a poster boy of the past; in his early twenties his career is just finished, burnt like thousands of others in the modeling world. He is broken and without a place to stay, and he has no friend to turn for help... and maybe he doesn't want to neither. Then he meets Carey, a 32 years old independent wealthy man; Carey is strange, but he is gentle and caring, and he offers to help Brock for nothing. Neither Brock or Carey are gay, and Carey's offer raises not from a sexual interested, but more from an esthetically point of view: Carey is a wanna-be photographer, and he really likes Brock's easiness in front of the camera. So from their bargain, both of them will have what they want, Brock a place to stay and Carey a free model.When I say that I found strange this book, is due to the fact that for most of the book, Brock is regretting his lost sweetheart from high school or remembering his sexual experiences with women; never he lusts for Carey in a sexual way, if not with a light comment on Carey's muscular body after their exercised together, like a buddy friend could do in a gym.Also Carey is not easy to understand. I believe he helped Brock out of a need for company, he is lonely and without a real interest in life, and play the role of the Good Samaritan with Brock could give him a sense for his life.The book is rather short, less than 80 pages, in fact it's a novella, not a novel. But as I said I find it puzzling but not without interest. So puzzling that pushes me to browse the net to find info on the author, Dan Skinner, and I found a Dan Skinner who is a romance cover artist (like Carey) and who started his career helping a buddy friend with his modeling career (like Brock)...