Scott & Scott

I really loved this book. It has all the classic elements of melodrama -- amnesia, an over-bearing father, long lost loves, an unhappy arranged marriage. But it has better characterization and far less silly written sex scenes. With the exception of the first sex scene which is purposely abrupt and out of place, the two Scotts make a good effort to fit them into the plot. Having completed this one I'm eagerly awaiting the next one which I know is on its way to me after the holiday.

I was iffy on this book when I bought it. I'd visited the authors' website and figured this would just be a cheesy book. I mean, a romance book line for gays? There was just way too much potential for cheesiness. I was pleasantly surprised! There was actually a story here, and a pretty good one, some really interesting characters, some real angst, and, TADA, a happy ending! The writing is sharp and witty. I can't wait to read more Romentics books and see if they are all as good as this one! show more

On a scale of 1 to 10, a 7. show less

I read in the introduction: A Novel Approach to Gay Romance. Introducing a line of romance novels written just for gay men...

and I add: and women who like to read about men in love!

Lately I have read a lot of books or ebooks about manlove written by men: William Maltese, Bobby Michaels, Josh Lanyon, Matthew Haldeman-Time. I have to said that I like them all. I like their style, even if it's very different one from the other, and I ike their way to approach love between men. It's not true show more that romance is woman. Also men can love deeply and suffer the pain of love.

In Spare Parts, Dan is a 35 years old mechanics. He has had an hard life but now, he has managed to own six garages all around a little province town and life seems to go well. But a former friend is very jelaous of his success and begins to gossip about him: Dan is gay, he employes only young men (underage men), he is not a good mechanics... All false except the first thing: Dan is gay but he is also very lonely. So when he meets Trent, and mistakens him for an hooker, he hopes to have found a soul to share his life and if he can make something good for Trent giving him a chance to change his life... But Trent is not a hooker, he is only a young men (27 years old) with some money problems and a wanna-to-be photographer.

The story is pretty simple, but very well written. Even if there aren't unexpected twist and the story flows smoothly through a happily ever after ending, it's a very relaxing and enjoyable reading. It's very 'romentic' indeed.

I finds strange the continuing underlying of the age difference between Dan and Trent. Eight years old is not so much in our age (never been I think) and if it is between a 27 years old and a 35 years old is highly acceptable. But maybe this id due to the fact that Dan is described as an 'old' character, a man who has reached a moment in his life where he has to take some final decision. 35 years old!!! Help!!! I have only two years to spend in happiness and careless life?!? Joke apart, I like the interaction between the two.

Dan is a very good man. He is strong and caring. A man you'd like to have at your side (man or woman). He is also handsome and very physical in his love. Trent instead is still a wanna-to-be man. Maybe he is out from a troubled youth, and not having a father, but only a mother, has made him a bit spoilt, but not a nasty person. I think he is happy to lean on someone else. He need a fatherly figure in his life. And so here we have the relationship between the two: a man grown old too soon, and another man not enough grown. A perfect match.

This is the second book I read by Scott & Scott but I think not the last...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/159457376X/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

Nick is a thirty something very traditionalist gay man who lost his hopes for an happy future together with a man. After a bad break with his last lover, Nick is convinced that no gay man out there shares his idea on family and home. Nick is a steady and strong man, with a moral bigger than his big body. For work he build dry stone walls, and his work is just like him, old, precise and made to be eternal. To build something steady like his walls, Nick proposes to a single mother of three, a show more prim and proper woman, a good mother and probably a perfect wife, even if Nick doesn't desire her.

From the country Brent moved on the big city, New York, with great dreams of being a professional dancer, and now, 31 years old, his careers ended before time, and his last relationship as well, he is again at home to join in his sister's wedding celebrations. When he was young and still lived in the country, Brent was a little brat, always enamored of someone, a little imp who flirted with everyone, but he knew that, sooner or later he would meet Mr. Right and he would have the happily ever after like everyone else in the perfect country life picture of his youth. Now, fifteen years later, he is still convinced that, out there, Mr. Right is waiting for him, and when he meets Nick, he is so sure that he is the one. But Nick is in a denying phase and he is still hurting from the betrayal of his last boyfriend, a man too similar to Brent to not awake in him painful memories. And then Nick is a man of honor, and he can't be unfaithful to his fiancee and above all to her kids.

This is not the first book by Scott & Scott I read, but I'm a little surprise by this one. I don't know, it has a more romantic style; yes, it's true, also the other books were romance, but they were also 'erotic' romance, and the sex was a great part of the book. This one instead is more centered in the feelings, in the game of push and pull between Nick and Brent, that you almost arrive to the end of the story without realizing that they have never done nothing more than kiss. In all the book there is only a 'complete' sex scene (since a second one is an interrupted one) and a lot of teasing, a few kisses and a bit of petting. The teasing above all is the main event, since Brent is a mix between a brat and a slut, liking himself (a bit of Narcissus also) and his body, and liking to parade himself in front of Nick, to prove to the man that he is losing something marrying a woman.

Nick is a nice character, but, well, he has emotional handicaps. I think his mistrust in men is not only a consequence of his past bad relationships, but also of his general attitude toward life: he is a loner, he likes his works because it allows him to be alone, and he also likes to go hiking as hobbies, since it's something he can do alone. So it's real the other men that betrayed him, or it's him that didn't allow to no one to come near? His past relationships ended with all the guilty from only one side of the couple?

I think these two men didn't find Mr. Right before because they were not ready for him. And now that they are ready, they need to make some compromises, as I always say, the life is not right or wrong...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594574251/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less