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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bottled Up by Andrew Grey, July 27, 2009
This review is from: Bottled Up (Paperback)
Bottled Up is a full romance, with all the cliche of the good old romance (the hunky cop, the perfect family, the nice neighborhood), and it's also the proof that a man can write romance. Truth be told, it's more than a proof, since Bottled Up is way more romantic than any romance I read lately.
Sean is a nice gay guy. He is the owner of a winery, no apparently money issues, a bunch of good friends, a supporting family and even a boyfriend. Well this last is maybe the only thing not so perfect, since no one of his friends seem to like Ted, his boyfriend. And being Sean so nice and perfect, it's only obvious that, when he saves an homeless teenager kid from a rape attempt in the alley near his business, Sean has no courage to put him again on the street. Sean's suddenly interest and attachment to Bobby would have been strange or worrying, if a bad experience in Sean's past didn't explain his reaction to the event.
From that moment on, the story flows down steadily and with little bumps towards an happily ever after, even the only nasty thing, the bad boyfriend, is soon replaced with the hunky cop of above, Sam, a patrol officer who is trying to catch Sean's interest for months without apparently success. I have the feeling that Bobby's rescue, other than awakening in Sean fatherly instinct that he didn't even know to have, also unveils some inner trouble that Sean was hiding from friends, family, but even to himself. The Bottled Up of the title is an obvious reference to Sean's business, but also to his attitude towards the world, he has everything bottled up inside himself, and when he decides to let it go, the result can be only one: he will explode like a sparkling wine shook too much, but the explosion can have also a positive side, since now Sean is ready to love again, with all himself, body and mind, and not only with a cool external behavior that didn't reflect the pain he had inside.
Side by side with Sean during his journey from good friend and aloof boyfriend (with Ted, the ex) to perfect father and lover, there is Sam, the quintessence of the Cop Dream Lover; nice, gay, out and proud, Sam has nothing to hide since he has no mean bone. Sometime when you write a character like Sam, you risk to make him nasty since too much good could be too much; but this is not the case with Sam, it's true, he never once fails or does something bad in the book, he is always willing and ready to help Sean and to love Bobby, even if it's clear that he is doing so for Sean's love. Sam probably was not thinking to become a father, but like a perfect man, if the object of his love has a son, there is no doubt that he has to include that son in his affection. No complain for the time they lose since they are not alone, as he doesn't complain when he has to face Sean's past, a past that is still conditioning Sean's response to sex and relationship. As I said, Sam is perfect.
The story is basically a romance with an happily ever after; true, it deals with delicate matters, but the author manages to not push too much on the angst bottom. More than make you cry, the author chose to make you smile, a warm and quiet smile, since, to respect to the delicate matter, he never even pushes too much on the light bottom.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Was Hoping To Love This..., November 29, 2009
This review is from: Bottled Up (Paperback)
Man, I was disappointed by "Bottled Up" by Andrew Grey - and I was SO hoping to really enjoy it. Actually, that may be part of the reason I wasn't happier with it, because the reviews had been so positive and the themes and plot points interesting, I truly thought I was going to love it.
Unfortunately, I didn't. The main problem I have with it, in fact, is just that it seemed a little too...Hallmark Channel movie-ish to me. The lead in the story, Sean Bielecki, has a tragic past, a mobster ex-boyfriend who doesn't much like being made an ex-anything, and the sudden (ridiculously so, actually) fostering of a teen boy who was almost raped in the alley behind Sean's wine store. God, that just sounds so...MEATY and deliciously complex for a book!
Unfortunately, as written, it just...isn't. There's the kid, Bobby, who has been living on the streets after escaping from the drugged out, absentee mom...who just happens to shake that horror off like water off a ducks back and gets everything he's ever dreamed of with no acting out, little-to-no backtalk or sullenness or emotional trouble. He does, however, turn out to be a fabulous untrained artist and lands a lucrative art contract...at the age of sixteen. Then there's the new boyfriend, police officer Sam, who's loved Sean from afar for months and is uber-supportive of every aspect of Sean's decisions and all Sean had to do to grab this hunka hunka Superboyfriend was ditch the mobster and then fall into his waiting arms. And then there's Sean himself, who'd been through a horrifying tragedy in his past and it affects him his whole adult life...until he talks it out with Sam over the course of an evening and then he's fine. Or at least, that's how it seemed. Admittedly, by then I was sort of skimming parts.
I guess the problem that I had was that the truly gritty plot points got watered down and the truly tantalizing potential for intensity got totally bled out of this book long before the end. And while there are those who will undoubtably get a feel good reaction from everything that goes right for everyone in the book...I just prefer a bit more struggle from point A to point B to HEA. A bit more triumph. A bit more realism, I guess, before the feel good ending.
And that's just a personal preference.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bottled Up by Andrew Grey, August 21, 2009
This review is from: Bottled Up (Paperback)
I won't summarize the story for you. Someone else has already done so. But if you want an honest opinion, here's mine:
In this story, Andrew Grey has written a wonderful romance. Yes, it has its happily ever after, but it is indeed a rocky road to get there. While avoiding the depth of angst most authors would have gotten caught up in, he manages to deal with difficult situations, post-traumatic stress, family relations, and a stalker and instill humor, love, and joy inbetween times. It also shows how different anybody's life can be when you keep a sense of humor and a positive outlook.
Two days after reading this book, I picked it up and read it again. I highly recommend this novel.
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