Customer Reviews

Best Gay Romance 2009

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is now among my favorite books! I cannot tell you how many times that I have read it now! Nothing quite like that warm, fuzzy feeling, especially when you and your sweetheart are reading it together.

What is more, there is not excessive, explicit, meaningless sex thrown in your face; the sex is present, but as a vehicle for the intimacy and romance, which I find wonderfully refreshing.

Some of these stories will make you cry:

Coming Back to Me: Two boys fall in love in San Francisco in 1967, but one desires to seek success in New York qhile the other opts to stay. Twenty years pass, the one who sought New York has returned to California and is in a wheelchair when the pair is suddenly reunited.

What We Leave Behind: A couple who has volunteered to take dying, neglected dogs into their home to let them die in comfort. As the first dog dies, one of the pair dies of cancer. The owner of the current dog and the surviving partner suddenly find themselves falling in love with each other.

Chiaroscuro: A young British couple, Michael and Peter, come to an Italian village in the 1960s to teach and become much-loved by the local people. When an aged Peter dies from cancer, a despondent Michael finds healing in the friendship of a young American artist, Daniel, and that of the village who have long-seen him as part of the family.

Kindred Souls: A recently-divorced, fifty-something father living in New York finds a kindred spirit in Will, a twenty-five-year-old from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Despite their age difference, they are as attracted to each other physically as emotionally. It made me sad in that Will may very much find himself alone when his love (the narrator) dies.

Afflicted: Two college boys are in love, but the depression and self-cutting of the meeker one alarms his boyfriend, who keeps urging that his sweetheart tell him what's troubling him. No, nobody dies and they stay together.

Starting Over: Taylor, smarting from a thankless career in New York and a bad breakup, moves to New Mexico to persue his dreams of painting and decides to keep his sexual life unattached... until he meets Mark, a handsome but close-mouthed man who is just as enamored of Taylor as Taylor is of him.

Sail Away: An elderly man, living in his hometown of Key West, reflects on his first love, Jimmy, of the untimely loss of his soulmate, Dag, and of the wandering, carefree life that he has lived.

Others will perk you up, even make you shriek with delight as the characters find love:

One: Lyle, a young bear working a blue-collar job, faces subtle (but obvious) harassment from his coworkers and struggles with a seemingly unreciprocated attraction to a coworker, Mike, who has recently had a testicle removed from cancer. But Lyle finds that his crush might not be one-sided... and gains an ally.

The Calimus Emotion: Love Among the Ruins: A young man in San Francisco relates his experience in San Francisco to his sweetheart in St. Louis in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

...And these two are my favorites for when I need an emotional boost!

The Pools of Paradise: Brandon's sudden death in an accident sends him to the Afterlife... where he finds that Heaven has many differing realms, from Evangelical Heaven (where his parents and other deranged fanatics incessantly worship and sing the praises of an untouchable idol) to Gay Heaven, a paradise for gay men. All food is delicious, there are no harsh emotions, no shame, no pain... everyone is eternally young and beautiful, happy and happy to see each other. Brandon is reunited with his beloved cat, Munchie, and falls in love with Richard, who was put to death in 1620 for sodomy.

The Baker: The narrator, a recently unemployed twentysomething living in Miami walks into a little French bakery for breakfast on his way to the unemployment office and meets the baker, Jean-Pierre: a handsome, barrel-chested, jovial, and downright charming young Frenchman. The narrator lands a job as a clerk and cashier at the bakery then and there, prompting Jean-Pierre (who often gives his new clerk great bear-hugs and a peck on both cheeks) to offer dinner at his flat above the bakery, which the giddily flattered narrator accepts.

I could not have made a better pick with this book! I highly recommend this for any romantic out there!

In Richard Labonté's introduction to BEST GAY ROMANCE 2009, he makes mention that of all the romantic stories included in the tome, none involve marriage, even now that it is legal in Canada and some of the States.

Instead, to me, the theme that popped out among all the tales was instead the notion of the wounded. From physical wounds (T Hitman's "One," Simon Sheppard's "Coming Back to Me," and Shanna Germain's beautiful "What We Leave Behind") to emotional scarring and losses (J.M. Snyder's painful "Afflicted," and Jay Mandal's lovely "Chiaroscuro"), it seems that romance is a tale best told by those who've had loss and suffering.

This doesn't blunt the delivery, and indeed, there's a fair mix of erotic to the romantic, and there's some sweet and happy tales mixed in as well ("The Baker," by Neil Plakcy, is charmingly cute) for those who enjoy their romance with a dash of sugar.

For me, the two tales that stole the show were Jay Mandal's "Chiaroscuro" and Mark G. Harris's "As Sweet by Any Other Name." Mandal's beautiful progression through a relationship born, bloomed, and fallen, and the connection to a younger generation, was a delight to read. Harris' doughty ability to spin prose with a sly humor turns even the wounded and love-shy hero of his tale into someone you admire, and his witty plot leaves you grinning.

'Best Gay Romance 2009' is just that, the best gay romance anthology of the year. Under Richard Labonté's veteran editorial duties, familiar writers share their fantasies of gay love.

Jack Fritscher uses a historic letter to share the implied romance between two men separated by miles and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. T Hitman's "One" shows how to stalk and romance a hot fireman. Simon Sheppard's strangely tragic tale is handicap-inclusive, while Mark G. Harris' "As Sweet by Any Other Name" brings a few neighbors closer via a tree house. Other stories are as much about getting over past wounds as much as opening up to new love, making for a mature and diverse collection.

This is a great collection of stories--will keep you interested from beginning to end. Well worth the purchase. Lots of good authors.

Not romantic enough. Too soft core for me. Want a book with more cute meets.