Jeffrey RickerReviews

This was a well written adventure story they played heavily on the mythological. The three main characters, Jamie, Billy and Sarah were well developed average teens dealing with the pressures of growing up. The story starts moving when Jamie's mother comes on the scene. Jamie has to cope with meeting this woman he believed to be dead and learning that she is an amazon. Billy's step-mother is also an amazon. The story boils down to a battle of good vs. evil in the amazon's mythical city. The oracle has foretold that the future of the amazons depends solely on Jamie but that a death will occur. The transformations that takes place in Jamie, Billy and Sarah are amazing. The story is not a romance per se though Jamie and Billy have a young love. The story is about personal growth and life decisions that change everything. The story is an easy read with good underlying message. Mr. Ricker us a new author to me but one that I will keep an eye on. This adventure story is easy to get caught up in and well worth the time.

Warning, romance readers: this is more a literary novel than a romance. The end is at best a happy for now, though we don't see it. Nothing close to a happily ever after.

That said, I did enjoy it for what it actually was. Though, having finished it, I feel less satisfied than a good romance (or any good novel) leaves me. It feels incomplete, thus the three stars: average. Not exceptional.

For such a short story, 'Straightening Up' delivers quite a punch. The situation as such is bad enough: Greg and Michael live together, but Michael has only told his father the truth about them being lovers. When Michael's mother announces a surprise Christmas visit, Michael rushes back into the closet, and forces Greg into a role as roommate. What impacted me even more though is the quiet sadness with which Greg reacts. Yes, he gets angry, but overall he is sad and pretty much resigned to his fate.

It isn’t until Greg has to live through the indignity of being relegated to the guest room, Michael not even coming for a 'visit' once his mother is asleep, followed by Michael's mother cooking roast because Michael hasn’t even told her Greg is a vegetarian. As much as Greg loves Michael, that is just one step too far. So he leaves to stay with a friend. At that point, it was probably the only thing he could have done to get through to Michael.

Michael is too caught up in 'keeping the peace', not upsetting his mother and risking her scorn, or whatever other excuses he has come up with to justify his lack of standing up for himself – and Greg. The thing is, the woman isn’t even horrible! It just goes to show that the prejudice against gays can do tremendous damage to some gay men by undermining their self-confidence to the point where they deny themselves at any cost.

If you like stories that will make you think, if you're looking for a high dose of realism, and if 'walking in another's shoes' means something to you, this story is a great opportunity to see the world from a gay man's perspective – the one who becomes an outcast because his lover is afraid of confronting what he believes to be his mother's disapproval.




NOTE: This book was provided by Untreed Reads for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

A Hearts On Fire Review

In Jeffrey Ricker's Straightening Up", it's the Christmas season and an established gay couple have to pretend to be straight roommates due one partner's reluctance in coming out of the closet to his dear old mama.

So hmm...holidays...closet re-hiding...possible alcohol imbibing...sounds like Christmas chaos and fights, right?

Wrong!

This story was really good (and pretty clean, so smut lovers will have to put their toys away briefly for this one) ;) Michael and Greg live together and Michael has only come out to his father. So when his mother decides to visit for Christmas on short notice, Michael panicking his way back into the proverbial closet and poor Greg has to make the short trip there too. The formula for the low level drama is simple and gets to the point. There's a continued HEA and ends with what could be room for more but left me satisfied with the realistic way it ended.

Other than the obvious complaint of 'I wish it were longer' (because I do-but for less than 20 pages-it did not leave the main plot line to question), the only other issue were the lack of details on character's descriptions (I like knowing on how to visualize my characters), how long were Michael & Greg together, how old were they or setting (what town or state?), the author delivered in everything else to make the story interesting and entertaining.

Are you a fan of good in-between-novels short stories?

You will enjoy Jeffrey Ricker's "Straightening Up". I did."

I think the trouble with the book was my expectation. I kept wondering why Joel's mother was lingering around.. was there a brilliant ending that would explain all that but somehow, the ending got me a bit smirking, comparing this ending to the great Brokeback Mountain. Of course these two stories were not of the same level.

I did not dislike Detour but I would not say that I was over the moon with this book either. What we have was a gay American who could not decide what he would want to do with his life, irresponsible and made decisions that would not tie himself to regularities. Perhaps irregularities were important sometimes but I failed to be impressed by Joel.

If Lincoln was bad, Joel was as bad.

I may like Jeffrey's writing but I am sure not fond of the male lead character created.

Shortly after his return home to St. Louis from a holiday in London where he met Philip, the man of his dreams, Joel is told that his mother has died. After the funeral he agrees to drive his parents' RV from Portland across the country to San Fransisco to deliver it to a family friend his parents had sold it to shortly before his mother's death. He is accompanied by the brother of a girl he briefly dated in high school and his mother's ghost. After the trip he must decide whether to stay in Portland with his father, return to St. Louis, or follow Philip to London.

I enjoyed this book while I was reading it and it certainly kept me turning the pages. Afterwards it felt curiously insubstantial. Things happen to Joel rather than him doing anything much. I was ready to accept his essential passivity as due to the hiatus in his life in reaction to his mother's death but it appears to be typical of the way he seems to drift through life.

{SPOILER ALERT}

Even at the end Joel's decision is really made for him as his life conveniently arranges itself so that there is no struggle involved. His father opts for a retirement home, his friends in St. Louis move away or pair up, and even his dog transfers his affections, so there is no sense that he is giving anything up in following Philip.

This was a hard book to classify and a book that didn't grab me from the get go. That said it's a book that snuck up on me and managed to wrap it's self around my heart. The characters are slightly shallow and not fully developed but given that most of them are still trying to figure life out that makes sense. This book had many poignant moments but not a real cohesive whole. This book had great promise and it showed but it lacked consistency. Over all I enjoyed the book but it's not one I'd reread.

Resolved way too quickly.

I had the wrong idea this was an almost comedy type of romance, and that is the spirit I started reading it, to then, almost immediately, realizing there was something deeper, and even if Joel, the main character and narrating voice is a mix of bittersweet and spicy, I tend to classify the novel more on the discovery/journey life genre other than romance. Truth be told, and that is also where the major points lie for me, I felt like the real relationship was that between Joel and his dog Dudley, more than that between his current lover Philip, temporary lover Lincoln and past lover Matt… and no, don’t get the wrong idea, Joel is not “easy”… well, not soo easy at least.

Getting things on perspective: Joel is having a relaxing two weeks in London, middle of the second week, he meets Philip. Love at first sight, or better, good sex at first sight, they spent the last 4 days together, practically without leaving the bedroom. Then Joel is back home and to the awful news that his mother died, and Joel is not ready, and maybe that is the reason why, he continues to see, and talk, with his mother’s ghost, like she is the last linking chain to his past, a past Joel is not ready to letting go. Back in the US, Joel also has a return of flame with Matt, his former boyfriend, a man that is a positive character in the novel; not like instead Lincoln, an old acquaintance of Joel that basically invites himself over for the road travel Joel needs to take from Maine to San Francisco. And the self-invite includes also Joel’s bed. In the meantime, Philip from UK is trying to reconnect with Joel as well… and Joel’s main trouble is not choosing among Matt, Lincoln or Philip, or choosing what to do now that he suddenly quit his job, or where to live since he basically is homeless… his main thought is what to do with his ten years old dog Dudley, who sincerely seems to be way more independent than Joel!

I quite enjoyed this novel even if it had imperfect characters. Actually the one who really needed to grow up was Joel, since both Matt and Philip were positive figures, and good example, and above all, supporting friends and lovers to Joel. They didn’t push but let Joel arrive to his own decisions… even if Joel was painfully slow.

Like Philip tells Joel, he needs to realize there is no time like today, and it’s not good to delay to tomorrow because you are never sure if tomorrow will arrive. Joel is seeing his mother’s ghost not since he has something to conclude with her, but since his mother represents his past life, his previous self, something/someone he has to learn that is gone, he needs to look ahead and not behind.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602825777/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

I think I need to start this with the table of content: Highland Sleeper by Jeff Mann, No Mincing Words by Rob Rosen, Elsewhen by ’Nathan Burgoine, Mount Olympus by Jeffrey Ricker, Reunion on the Rails by Hank Edwards, The Blue Train by Erastes, The Train Home by Rick R. Reed, Royal Service by Dale Chase, Resist Me, Please! By Daniel M. Jaffe, Engine of Repression by Gavin Atlas, One Night on the Twentieth Century by Jay Neal, Shadow Mapping by J.D. Barton, Geronimo’s Laughter by Joseph Baneth Allen, The Roundhouse Men by Dusty Taylor, The Last Train by William Holden. Why? Because aside for very few names I didn’t know about, this is a collection of la crème de la crème in Gay Fiction. All these authors are bestsellers on their own, and having them all together in one anthology is a treat that make me forget for a moment that anthologies are usually not my cup of tea. It’s also a compliment to the editor, Jerry L. Wheeler, because I think it hadn’t to be simple to put them all together, maintaining by the way the feeling of uniqueness of the collection, all the stories work together for the same target.

Like the majority of these anthologies, Riding the Rails falls into the Erotica category, but I was quite surprise to find out that indeed this is also a Romance collection; some of the stories in it are not even about sex ( see ’Nathan Burgoine’s one), and almost all of them are about love story with an happy ending. Sure there is a bittersweet aftertaste all along the anthology, something that, truth be told, I have always found when reading stories related to trains… there has to be some deep connection between the two things, or maybe the train itself is a metaphor for something you wish but cannot catch. In any case, aside for maybe one or two exceptions (Rick R. Reed and Jay Neal probably), the romance reader will have plenty of happily ever after to enjoy, some of them a little kinky (Jeff Mann), some of them sweet (’Nathan Burgoine) and some of them funny (Daniel M. Jaffe)… to everyone their own.

A collective compliment to all authors go for the high quality of the stories, more little novel than short stories; different in genre, from historical, to sci-fi, to steampunk, but all of them way more than the average you usually are expecting to find in a collection; here the authors sent their best production, not what they had laying around in a forgotten folder.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602825866/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

BOOK BLURB:
What if doctors were able to transplant your mind into a new body after a terrible accident? What if, thanks to the process, you found you could no longer love the person you were with or live your old life? What would become your new 'normal?'

BOOK REVIEW:
A very short short, but exactly long enough to pose a really challenging question ~ what is it that makes us us.

I was a little disappointed that the story didn't go further into exploring answers to that question, but that's to do with my expectations, and I think the author has done exactly what he intended. The near-future world he describes is uncomfortably vivid, the relationships sharply real, and the overall sense of dislocation and discomfort is impressive.

(Originally reviewed for Rainbow Reviews - http://www.rainbow-reviews.com/?p=7436)½