High Line

I always liked T.A. Chase's work, I believe he is one of the first authors I read, but this last book probably is one of my favorite; the first impression I have soon after ending it, is of a very easy and well plotted book, once that despite being almost 200 pages long took me only a night to read since I was eager to know what was happening.

The second impression is the play of contrast, that the author uses in two different way: once between the two main characters, Garrett, an Hollywood actor, and C.J., a race driver; from their jobs and from the fact that C.J. was apparently straight and also older than Garrett (even if only for 4 years), you will expected C.J. to be the MAN in the relationship. Yes I know, I'm letting old habit and show more idea to lead me on, but well, I'm not the only one! Even if you are reading a male on male romance, if you are strong, older, and with a more manly job, you are the MAN. And instead in the relationship, Garrett takes the upper hand: he is the one who shelters and offers a friendly shoulder to C.J. when no one else apparently is willing to do it; and when C.J. is ready to admit that he is gay and wants to come out of the closet, Garrett is more than willing to be his training ship and to teach him everything a good and healthy gay man should know ; and here is when the naughty part of the book is coming, but strangely enough, is not the main aspect of the story, and it's not even so soon in the book, you have to savor it.

The second contrast I notice was in C.J.'s parents, and again my old fashioned idea kicked in to make me having the wrong mind. Usually mothers are more accepting and supporting, they are the ones who try to mediate with their husbands and sons when the truth comes out (pun intended). And even more in this case, where C.J.'s parents are old southern people and his father is a mechanic, not usually a job that allows people to be very open minded (why on earth when we are speaking of car and motor, it seems that women and gays are not enough clever to be involved?). Anyway, I was in for a big surprise when it was C.J.'s father who stood for his son when on the other side his mother kicked him out of house.

This are only two example to prove you that the story, as I said, is very well plotted and carefully crafted in every details. Plus the characters have a good development, enough for the reader to identify himself and try to imagine how it would be for him of he was in their shoes.

Last but not least, I really like as T.A. Chase seems to have done his homework right: the car racing world, even if only hinted, is enough vivid to give the reader the impression to be not only a nice cover for the main character: this is something I noticed before in this author's books, there is often a sport setting (baseball, rodeo, horse jumping and now car racing) and they are always rendered with nice details to help the reader building the world in his mind. So, two are the things, or T.A. Chase is an huge sport fan, or he does well his research work.

Only one regret: I would have liked to read about the Academy Awards night, hope to see it in a third book?

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4 stars for the feel-good factor.

It was great to see these two MCs find their place in the world - or at least, for CJ to work it out; Garrett pretty much had it worked out, but he now has a stable partner with whom to share it all. *sigh*

Even a short follow up story on this group would be great - I'd love to hear CJ being able to thumb his nose at Morik, the NASCAR owner and that Kasey is over-the-top successful :)

CJ Lamont is a top NASCAR driver with a big secret. When his ex-wife outs him in an interview, he falls into despair and into a bottle. Garrett Johnson, an openly gay actor, befriends CJ and tries to help him through his ordeal.This is by far the better of the two Love of Sports books Chase has written. It helps ties up some of the loose ends in Out of Bounds while setting the scene for what I can only hope will be more books.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4

This second book in the series is so much better than the first! We not only learned more about Garrett and his developing relationship with CJ but we also revisited Kasey and Gram.

High Line was another must read apparently; so I did. While I enjoyed the first part of the novel the second half had some issues with pacing. It just did not flow as smoothly. I liked the premise immensely, who doesn’t like hot racing car drivers (Hello Jeremy Clarkson. snerk) and there was lots of lovely angsty emotion too. OK wee read.http://sharrow.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/shorts-2/