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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and just a little bit different, June 15, 2009
Two things drew me to read Drawn Together: my admiration for Z. A. Maxfield's writing and P.L. Nunn's eye-catching cover art. I have enjoyed almost everything that I've read by Ms. Maxfield, and this story did not disappoint me in the least. It has a bit of a different flavor than her previous offerings, but I still found it to be an involving and highly entertaining read. This story is very clever, from the double meaning of the title and the fact that the cover of the book reflects the manga theme of the story, to the development of the characters and their personalities, to laid-back and almost folksy atmosphere that is elicited throughout the book. The story of Rory and Yamane flows gracefully throughout, and enough attention is given to the secondary players to make the story very well rounded. Not only do we witness what is happening with the two heroes of the tale, but we also visit occasionally with the antagonist and her "goons" and with law enforcement officers in Rory's home town. Ms. Maxfield does her usual good job developing the characters, making them interesting and unique. She also gives us some memorable secondary characters and does not cheat them of the attention they deserve. The secondary characters are as carefully crafted as Rory and Yamane are, making them just as real and important to the progress of the story as the two heroes. Rory and Yamane are as mismatched a pair as you're going to find in romantic fiction, and this makes for a very lively reading experience. Ms. Maxfield makes us care about these two, but she also places obstacles between them that might separate them as permanently as the physical danger that they face. Rory may give a "Forrest Gump" impression of being somewhat dim and a good ole boy, but he's actually quite intelligent. He's blinded by hero worship and love at first, which makes him look a little foolish and not unlike a stalker. He is a compulsive hero, however, always trying to ride in to the rescue, whether or not he has his white horse and shining armor close by. Yamane is much more jaded and wary, having been misused and discarded in the past. He's afraid that Rory may using him as a "roadside attraction" or a novelty, regardless of Rory's protestations of love. Even though they are direct opposites, these two men find fun and tenderness together, and the repartee between them is witty and quite endearing. Drawn Together mixes comedy, tragedy, danger, and romance into a very novel blend of emotion and action. It combines elements of manga comics along with gritty reality, giving the story a unique and almost otherworldly air. As the story progresses, the suspense builds and the feeling of danger grows more oppressive, leaving the reader hanging on, afraid of what may happen next. This is not your typical romance. Readers looking for something entertaining and just a little bit different may wish to consider reading Drawn Together. Ms. Maxfield is a very talented storyteller and writer, and I for one will continue to seek out her offerings as soon as they are available.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So Much To Like!, December 10, 2010
Between grad school semesters, Rory Delaplaines left his home of St. Antoine's Parish, Louisiana to drive across the country out of a fierce love and yearning for the woman behind the art and artistry of the elusive Anime artist Ran Yamane, feeling connected to her in a way he can't explain. His intentions, while naive, were romantic. When he finally got to her table at the Long Beach Anime Expo, carrying a bouquet of flowers, his heart on his sleeve and her art in his bag, he was crushed to realize that Ran Yamane could never be the woman he thought she'd be. HE wasn't a woman at all. Exotic and beautiful beyond the telling of it, Yamane was used to the sort of thoughtless adoration his looks and his body drew from both genders and across all sexuality lines, so the slow speaking, respectful southern boy that shows up in front of him shouldn't have been any different than the other throngs. But something about Rory sparked interest in Yamane. Useless interest, he's sure, as the gallant knight errant was decidedly straight, but interest just the same. An act of generosity on Yamane's part and an act of nobility on Rory's draws these two men together in ways that neither one had expected or even dreamed. When a psychopathic stalker hits them with the force of a hurricane and with far more evil intent, they will band together to escape with their lives, and their cross-country exodus to safety will alter the perceptions...and passions...of them both. I thoroughly enjoyed Drawn Together and have such an appreciation for the characters that Maxfield has created here. Rory is a charming gentleman, at turns young and naive and intent and honorable. He's a bit of a contradiction with his slow, southern drawl and his quick wit, an easy manner belying a core of steel. Being a former SciFi convention fangirl myself, I was delighted in his beginnings in this book, as his motivations - while extreme and fanciful - struck such a chord of truism in me. I loved everything about him as a character, and admired the deft but subtle growing awareness of himself as his saga with Yamane evolves. I wasn't quite as enamored of Yamane, who occasionally struck me as a bit selfish, a bit prissy, and sometimes mean, but his was definitely a case of a person being improved by his companion. Rory brings out the best in him, and through Rory we see those kernels of loneliness and disquiet in Yamane that ease only with his prince in his arms. Surrounded by wealth, endowed with talent, graced with beauty, Yamane is a man who's often at the mercy of his looks, with little substance in his life beyond his art until one true southern gentleman shows him that he is extraordinary for more than what lies on the surface. It improves Yamane greatly. I loved their relationship and the storybook path of their trials and tribulations. It was like an exquisite fairy tale...with all the yummy parts included. Something about their journey together, their bond and their romance, felt uplifting for both its complications and its purity. It was a uniquely satisfying reading experience. That's not to say that everything was perfect. Maxfield has a clean, genuine writing style that strongly supports her fluid narrative, but the dialogue between the characters seemed overly florid at times, and out of character for the participants. It wasn't a consistent problem, but I did feel there were several places that seemed to be more formal than natural conversational flow would account for - and as I've spent most of my life in the south, hearing various cadences of the different southern dialects and colloquialisms, it was most notable in Rory's dialogue. The crazy stalker plot arc was nicely done, and I enjoyed the tension that added to the situation. I was especially pleased with the realism in the characters actions and reactions once that storyline came into play. I found the believability of their reactions went a long way in increasing the pathos in the book. Also well done was the depth and dimension quickly developed in the secondary and ancillary characters. There were several in the book and whether just briefly featured or allowed more page time, each one felt genuine and natural in their settings. It was a pleasant surprise and a mark of a higher level of sophistication of storytelling. I have to admit, though, I wasn't totally sold on the story all the way through and thought the book went a little awry after the resolution of the stalker arc. The plot wasn't the problem - I understood and believed the actions of both characters and it felt organic to their definition, but the narrative became a little choppy as the timeline started jumping. Up until that point, the story had been told in a more real-time format as the men fled from danger, then towards resolution, but once the stalker issue was dealt with, the leaps in time started. Perhaps necessary for the continuing development of the relationship between Rory and Yamane, it still felt a bit awkward and disjointed after the preceding flow. And there were moments as the conclusion was being reached that I felt the characters lost their cohesion a bit, and acted a slight bit off from how they'd previously been defined. That didn't last long, though, and they were firmly in focus for their heart-melting conclusion and touching epilogue. At it's core, Drawn Together is a sweet romance, but there are many more layers to this wonderful story that make it a true pleasure to read and experience again and again. The characters will stick with me in the sort of way that will always leave me hungry for a sequel. Kudos to Z.A. Maxfield for penning another deeply drawn, richly developed, and tenderly felt exploration into the lives of her characters. Ps. Rene and Ethan...that's all I'm saying. Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drawn Together by Z.A. Maxfield, April 27, 2009
Everytime I read a new book by Z.A. Maxfield I wonder how can she manage to write something new everytime, and still be original and better than before. If you pick one per one all the books she wrote in less than a year, and try to compare them, it's almost like they are written by different authors. There is only one thing that is certain, that the two characters will fall in love and that their romance will be wonderful, even if not simple. This last book starts as a funny romp to go through a thriller story and end as a big Hollywood comedy; the middle part reminds me a bit that movie with Cary Grant, North by Northwest, with a simple man that finds himself in a story bigger than him and forced to play the role of an unwilling knight in shining armor. Well to be exact, Rory, our unwilling hero, at first is not so unaware that he is embarking in something big and unknown. From a small town of less than 1000 people, he falls in love with the work of a Japanese artist, Ran Yamane. People who knows him are not surprised: Rory has a big heart and is a very good boy, but he seems to not have the reputation of a very clever man. But he has dreams, and when Katrina upturns down his life and leaves him with nothing, Rory clings to that dreams: he will find Ran Yamane, the artist who draws a comic that is become Rory's only bond to reality, and he will sweep her away in a crazy dance under the moon and she will love him. And they will be happy. And so when Ran Yamane comes to California for an anime convention, Rory takes all his worldly possession, spends his last money to buy flowers, and stays in line for dazzling the girl with his smile. Only that the girl is not a girl, but a man, a man older than Rory, and way more experienced and not so easily impressed. Yamane is beautiful, no doubt, but Rory is not ready to forget the little details that he is not gay, not even for an handsome man like Yamane. I like that Rory, without being grossed out or disappointed about Yamane, doesn't either immediately falls at his feet. Rory has dreams, dreams about a girl, and he can't change them without notice when he discover that Yamane is a man; he needs time to assimilate the news and to reprogram his mind on this new turn. But even if he needs time to decide if he wants to go on with his romantic plans on Yamane, he has no doubt on the artist and the man: Yamane needs help, he needs a knight in shining armor, and Rory will be that knight, even if he will not immediately profit of the grace of the damsel in distress. Rory faces this new adventure as if he is playing with a new videogame; he plans his move, he hides his traces, and he for real sweeps Yamane away but not for dancing under the moon, but in a run through the country. As a good player, Rory has aces in the sleeves, means that he has friends scattered all around the country, everyone the face of the state in which they live, from the party girl in Las Vegas, to the mormon in Utah, to the cook in Louisiana, every single supporting character is like a piece in a country puzzle. And when he has not a friend in the place, Rory is ready to tighten new bond of friendship: no one seems able to resist to his southern charm. Neither Yamane. Yamane is a strange character; at first he probably doesn't believe in Rory, he thinks he is an overgrown puppy, an adoring fan like all the others. And since he doesn't believe in him, he also doesn't believe in their story, and he doesn't fight enough for it. And when their relationship becomes intimate, he approaches it like a carpe diem thing, takes as much as you can since maybe tomorrow it will be over. Again Yamane doesn't trust Rory to be serious. I don't know if Yamane is worried since Rory is too young, too straight, a bit of both... Probably it's also a cultural clash, even if used to live in USA (he is also half American), Yamane is also Japanese, and Japanese man always follows a strict etiquette, in everything they do, and instead Rory is an outburst of energy, always in motion. And then Rory tends to do thing without informing Yamane, and this is not good since, even if he is not aware of it, doing so he is dismissing Yamane as a man and a partner. I really think that Rory is not aware of it, he is only young, and obviously used to having relationship with girls, and above all with southern girls. From what I know, southern girls are really good in making their men doing what the women want believing that it's what the men want to do; they don't talk but they are really good in directing behind the scene. And so Rory is not used to give explanations, but Yamane, on the other hand, is not good in reading between the lines. Even if small and apparently fragile, Yamane doesn't like to be treated as a woman, even if, truth be told, he likes to be the center of of attention. All right, at this point you have understood that I can go on for thousand of words, always finding something new, some new side, some new perspective for the story. Not only the two main characters are complex and interesting, the book is also full of funny and various supporting characters, don't get me start with Rory's grandparents, or the various police officers, even the evil men have their "positive" side.
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