False Colors: An M/M Romance

John has just been given a ship and his mission is to stop the pirates from stealing English people and enslaving them. This is how John and Alfie meet. Alfie is assigned to be one of John's lieutenants. Now Alfie knows he's gay. John is not aware of his inclinations. You see, John grew up somewhat super religiously (to combat his father's vile ways) and part of his belief system is to remain chaste. So he's always assumed his not wanting to be with women had to do with that, that he was strong enough to overcome his baser instincts. But Alfie draws the strangest reactions from him and he doesn't understand why - and he does not realize that Alfie is gay. So after their mission has been accomplished, Alfie comes clean to John. And John show more reacts with disgust and anger.

Alfie, not wanting to see John again that first reaction, leaves. It just so happens that his first captain, and the first man he was attracted to, has pulled into the harbour and Alfie talks his way on board. Captain Farrant rebuffed Alfie in the past, but Aflie has matured some and he knows now that Farrant can't love him and that's ok, Alfie has given up on love. So Alfie and Farrant begin an affair (which has some serious complications for Farrant's life).

Meanwhile, after storming out on Alfie, John spends the night reflecting on Alfie's actions in the past and comes to the realization that he actually loves Alfie. But when he returns to their rooms, Alfie is gone. And so John moves on with his life and his next mission, in Jamaica, hunting pirates and the French. While on this mission, John is captured and tortured by the pirates - only to be rescued by none other than Captain Farrant and his crew. So Alfie, currently involved with Farrant, is now face to face with John, who has come to realize that he loves Alfie.

And this takes us half way through the book, maybe 3/5ths of the way through. There's so much more going on here! Stuff happens, Alfie and John are on the same crew on an expedition to the Artic and more stuff happens. It's quite the adventure.

And throughout all these goings on are these two great characters. John with his doubts and coming to find out who he is, and Alfie, going from the naive fool-for-love to a cynic. Even Captain Farrant is an interesting character and I couldn't quite bring myself to hate him. He had his own demons to deal with, one of them being a doctor who thought he could cure Farrant's homosexuality.

Alex Beecroft is one hell of a writer. She totally drew me in and I got so invested with these characters. A truly fine talent and I can't wait to read more by her.

False Colors gets 5 stars from me. I wish this book didn't have to end, it was the best book to start of 2010 with. And if you've never tried m/m romance before (this is NOT erotica) I definitely recommend trying this book. I dare you to not fall under the spell of Alex's excellent writing and a truly gripping romance. It was epic! show less

It's a joy whenever I find historical romance that is also good historical fiction. Alex Beecroft thanks Patrick O'Brian in the acknowledgements, and the inspiration is clear. False Colors is as strong on naval adventure as on romance. It's also strong on realism; our heroes serve in a navy where sodomy is punishable by death, and the concern is not simply dismissed. But above all it is a romance, and a hot one at that, but it is heavy on plot and firmly in the romance rather than the erotica camp.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I never read gay romance before. This wasn't bad. I enjoy historical fiction and nautical fiction (read all the Hornblower books) so I thought why not try this. It was an engaging read with well developed characters. I enjoyed the fact that John struggled with his homosexuality and found that believable and engaging. I felt for the guy. And the ending was worth the wait, especially if you're a hopeless romantic like me. I will recommend this book to others.

I have been exploring cross genre "incursions" into age-of-fighting-sail Historic Naval Fiction with varied results. Science fiction -- disappointing. Good SF/Fantasy, but no respect for the naval side. Young adult -- mixed. One or two writers who set their stories in a genuinely-rendered navy of the Napoleonic era and one or two who tell a good story, but who show little respect for the details of ships and navies. When I became aware of False Colors, I did not hold out a great deal of hope for a gay romance set in the Royal Navy just at the close of the Seven Years War. In fact, I was very wrong. While I had feared to find the navy ignored after being used as a convention for throwing a lot of men together, like some kind of mincing show more Pirates of the Caribbean, I encountered instead a well-researched re-creation of both the technical and social sides of the navy. Alex Beecroft did her homework and treats the reader to compellingly written passages of ship and sail evolutions, gunnery, medicine and boat handling. There are plenty of well handled actions -- single ship, cutting out, shore bombardments and fighting ashore. In particular, Beecroft showed a fine mastery of how to fight a bomb ketch. I was very impressed with her narration of ship handling and repair during a harrowing, and near-disastrous, encounter with an iceberg in the arctic.

Beecroft also understands the socio-political structure and mores of the Eighteenth Century navy. While it would have been easy for her to establish a convention that homosexuality, while officially condemned, was unofficially condoned and a fact of life -- a sort of proto don't-ask-don't-tell -- her romance in fact unfolds in a harsh and unforgiving culture where it is viewed with disgust and punished by death. She does permit herself the license to create some not-implausible situations that allow the story to move forward, but she never fails to respect the real culture of the navy. Needless to say, the romance does take up a good bit of the story. Alfie Donwell is smitten with the handsome Jack Cavendish, who spends most of the book becoming aware of, and reconciled to, his own love for another man. There is a lot of soul-searching and a few encounters, but this is a love story, not pornography -- nothing as graphic as, say, the straight sex in Dewey Lambdin's novels. Other reviewers who enjoy romance have praised the love story. Readers of historic naval fiction may find themselves less engaged with this aspect of the book, but will still find a good adventure and an authentic historical novel which shows the Royal Navy from a slightly different perspective. show less

The Blurb

1762, The Georgian Age of Sail: For his first command, John Cavendish is given a ship - the HMS Meteor - and a crew, both in need of repair and discipline. He's determined to make a success of their first mission, and hopes the well-liked lieutenant Alfred Donwell will stand by his side as he leads his new crew into battle: stopping the slave trade off the coast of Algiers. Alfie knows their mission is futile, and that their superiors back in England will use the demise of this crew as impetus for war with the Ottoman Empire. But the darker secret he keeps is his growing attraction for his commanding officer - a secret punishable by death. With the arrival of his former captain - and lover - on the scene of the disastrous show more mission, Alfie is torn between the security of his past and the uncertain promise of a future with the straight-laced John. Against a backdrop of war, intrigue, and personal betrayal, the high seas will carry these men through dangerous waters from England to Africa to the West Indies in search of a safe harbor.

The Review

I'd like to start this post off a little bit differently than my other reviews by telling you how I decide about my rating of a book. You see, I was just skimming over all the reviews I have written so far for this blog, for Rainbow Reviews and for my own blog (I know I really have to update my own blog, I posted the last review there aeons ago). And no, I did this NOT because I was in any way unsure about the rating of False Colors. It clearly deserves the five star rating, there is no arguing about this in my eyes.

I try to keep it simple with my reviews. Three stars for books that were good but which I wouldn't read a second time. A book that is really a joy to read, which has a good story and characters, receives four stars from me. And finally there are those books which not only have a wonderful story and believable characters and which were a pleasure to read, but also surprised me in some way and most importantly stuck in my head long after I had finished reading them. Those books get a five star rating from me and one of these gems, which is more than worthy of such a rating, is no doubt False Colors by Alex Beecroft. I was so very tempted to even give it a five star plus rating, because I was so very moved by this book. But I would contradict myself with a 5+ star rating, you know, keep it simple. ;-)

It's no small task to describe on how many levels this book is a brilliant piece of work. Where should I begin? *scratches head* Let's start with the way the author describes the world the story is set in. We are speaking of the Age of Sail and locations ranging from Jamaica to the Arctic and I can't even guess what a lot of work it must have been to research all those historical details. And then to use all these details to build a world that is so rich and full of atmosphere that it comes alive in front of your very eyes. Just brilliant!

At the same time the atmosphere of the story is quite violent at some points. There is no flogging to start off the story like was the case in Captain's Surrender, but still some scenes in the book are quite gruesome. But one has to keep in mind that these were very dark times and the author is only accurate in her historically correct description of these times.

But there were also some very interesting details in the book. Did you know that ships were actually painted while at sea? I mean, it seems like an intelligent idea, especially to paint a ship black when you plan to sneak into an enemy harbor. But think about what a task that must have been.

Oh, and of course the characters. There are three main ones and through the prose and artful characterization of Mrs. Beecroft they feel so very alive. Each character struggles with his life and reacts to the events in the story differently, and is haunted by different demons of the past. The characters and their angst and confusion throughout the story are described in a beautiful way and despite their obvious flaws they are very easy to like. Even while they struggle, you can always sympathize with them, and their motivations are always understandable, even if you may not agree with their course of action.

So, altogether this is stunning and brilliant book, one of those essential reads if you are interested in historical stories.

And I have to echo a comment made by Ruth Sims on another review of False Colors published on Dear Author (yes, I'm lurking a lot!). This is not the first time Mrs. Beecroft has written such a wonderful, magical book and I'm not only referring to Captain's Surrender, but especially to Witch's Boy. Buy it, read it and immerse yourself into a magical, Tolkienesque world.

Review first posted at Reviews by Jessewave.
PUBLISHER: Linden Bay Romance
PURCHASE LINK: PRINT show less

There are many things that pleasantly surprised me in this book, but once stood upon all the other, the sensuality and the carnality that lacked in the previous book, by the same author, Captain's Surrender. It's not a big fault, I loved that book, and in a way, being it almost asexual allowed more readers to near a genre that sometime it's stigmatized as 'erotic' when maybe it's not erotic at all (don't let me go further on the matter, it would be too long). Anyway, for example, I gifted this same book, False Colors, to a friend of mine who is a newbie of the genre without even having read it before since I vouched Alex Beecroft with closed eyes: I said to my friend, you will find a very good historical setting, adventures and show more beautiful characters, but no worries, there will be few 'sex'... and now I'm wondering if my friend will still talk to me! All right, I'm slightly joking, it's not that, all of sudden, Alex Beecroft has written an erotic romance, it's only that this time I 'felt' her characters in a more physical way, and at the same time, and maybe for that reason, they are also more exposed to the turmoil of unrequited love, they suffer more for love.

At the beginning of the story there is always the love for the sea, but above all for the Ladies of the Sea, the stunning Royal Navy ship, of a man, an officer of that same Royal Navy. The year is the 1762, and John Cavendish has the luck to receive the command of a ship; he is quite surprised, he is not so well acquainted or wealth, or senior, to have the right to it, but he will not question his luck... at least not until the moment he realizes that he was also given a suicidal mission with the ship, a mission that will bring down him and the ship, and all the man on it. John is the son of a quaker mother and a libertine father... from the mix, John came out as a man with high principle, very pious, but with a tendency to passion that not always is proper for an officer. John has always denied his passionate nature and he is the perfect officer by the book: he will not question his orders, he is willing to the sacrifice, but he pities his men. And so when he is informed that there is a voluntary officer for his mission, he is not quite happy with the news.

'Alfie' Donwell is the typical self-made officer; from a middle class family, he probably chose the sea as the only way to arise himself from a mediocre life. It's not clear if Alfie always preferred men, or if the alluring personality of his first captain (when he was only 13 years old) made him so, we only know that Alfie is careless and almost open to his true nature. He likes man, and you can read it in his eyes when he sees John, that he likes him. And he is not even shy to hide it, he makes it quite clear. But John is not 'awaken' to this possibility, in his naivete, he knows that there are sodomites in the 'world', but for sure they are not abroad. And so when Alfie approaches him, he banishes those strange feelings he is having to a some sort of comradeship. How candid he is...

But when a man for Alfie's past comes along, Alfie confirms his carelessness and maybe also his unrequited love for John, and finally speaks the words that clearly state what he was trying to prove to John with actions... and obviously John at first rejects him, it's in his nature, it's against all he believes, he can't do anything else. And here come out the real Alfie and John: Alfie feels rejected (and he is) and runs away, without giving time to John to digest the shocking news... Alfie is always ready to flee away, he is so driven by his heart more than his mind, that he never stops to think. He is and he will always be, for all the length of the book, ready to catch only the first meaning of the words he hears, without trying to catch instead the hidden meaning. John instead is a man who is ready to listen and comprehend; even if he is a very religious man, he is not the man who always wants to bring God's justice upon other men. John asks for his own punishment, but his always ready to forgive other mistakes. And when faced with Alfie's revelation, even if shocked, he is willing to comprehend the man, and doing so, to question his own believing. If Alfie was not ready to run away, maybe the evolution of their story would have been different.

But this would have not been an adventure romance if there was not the adventure part, would have been it? And so our heroes take separate ways, and have to face very difficult moment, but all of it serve them to understand what it is really important in life and who they really love. Not all the adventures they have are 'romance' like, there is blood and sweat and dirty, actually only when they are together I feel the romance, and it's always a pure and 'clean' love, but when they are distant, the real world is right there ready to catch them. Alfie, in his haste to run away from John, will also chase his first love, a man who clearly is not right for him and that will never give him what he needs, since Alfie, with all his carelessness, is only searching someone to age with, same as John. Even if everyone around tells him that for the sodomites like him there is no good in searching love, Alfie still believes in romance, and for doing 'certain' things, he has to believe to be in love. John on the other hand, 'has not' to believe, he can be with a man ONLY if he is in love, and since he is in love with Alfie, there is not other man for him other than Alfie.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0762436581/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

Lady Wombat says:

I've been intrigued by mentions in web sites about Regency romance that mention the relatively new area of M/M romance: romance novels with two male protagonists, written for women, with women as the main audience. Many recommendations for this title, and so I decided to give it a try. Enjoyed it quite a bit -- the prose, although not stunning, has some lovely moments; the main characters individualized and flawed in interesting ways; the historical background well researched (although I'm not an "age of sail" expert, so I may be off here re accuracy); and the romance (although long-delayed) appealing. A bit plot-heavy, particularly the last, Arctic episode.

I did like the way the author portrayed the easy violence and show more physical disgusting-ness of life at sea (and on shore) during the 18th c -- really visceral. And, innocent me, I learned a lot about the mechanics of gay sex that I hadn't known before. show less