Customer Reviews

Forth into Light: A Novel (Peter & Charlie Trilogy) (Peter & Charlie Series)

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

 

 

I am totally obsessed with this trilogy! I fantasize about it, write more chapters, I even dream about it at night. VERY recommended. When I finished the third book, I almost cried because there wasn't more, and I desperately wanted to know what happened to Peter and Charlie next. Both the love and the fights were so honestly written that I almost believed it all really happened. Read these, they're a complete emotional experience!!

Forth Into Light does was so few books can do: It made me angry and it made me sad. It is so rare that a book can make real emotions erupt in me, so I must say that I think it was well done. I don't have to like what happens to my favorite character, but it does have to be believable and/or justifiable. However, I'll be honest - this was my least favorite of the three books.

This book is significantly different than the previous two books in the trilogy. It takes the focus off of Charlie and Peter and puts in on a whole village, with a slightly brighter light shining on a expatriate American writer and his son.

I wasn't always nuts about how the story moved along, because it seemed as if Merrick had become bored with his two lead characters and was attempting to "do" something with them beyond that which he'd already done. It often seemed as if there were two books here, neither of which was Merrick terribly committed to.

Ultimately I enjoyed the book because it finalized the two characters I'd come to love from the beginning (sometimes I could relate with Charlie and other times I could relate to Peter). In this final book, it is important to remember what was happening in Merrick's world as well as the 1960 world of the characters. The whole free love movement was in full swing for Merrick, but it was just finding its sea legs in 1960. That's all well and good, but it just seemed rather forced at times in the book.

Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the book, but it was a less pleasurable read than the previous two books in the trilogy. But ya' gotta read it!

It began with Peter. Then there was Charlie. Along came Martha. Now in the final chapter of the monumental love story about two men who could pass for Greek gods, steps Jeff, an exquisite young man who brings searing passion -- and intrigue -- to the lush Greek isle on which they all live.

Forth Into Light is the third book in the exciting trilogy of Charlie Mills and Peter Martin. It is 279 pages of fairly dense script.

The story started out being a disappointment to me because even though the contented, highly respected Mills-Martins were intrigued onlookers of the developing plot taking place in the lush Greek Isle where they lived, they did not in the beginning play key roles. I want to make it clear that in spite of that fact, I found the story and colorful characters to be fascinating, and as it progressed Charlie and Peter became drawn into the many intermingling aspects of the tightly woven story. As with most of Gordon Merrick's stories, it is intensely romantic, erotic, angst-ridden and active.

The one thing I find extremely off-putting in Merrick's stories is his determination to force his gay men into sexual encounters and relationships with women. I have nothing against the women in the hetrosexual relationships in the stories, but when women are foisted off on Charlie and Peter I deeply resent them. For one thing it feels forced. I despised Martha from the beginning, because I knew that she secretly had every intention of splitting Charlie and Peter up at her first opportunity so she could have Charlie to herself. In this book she finally outed herself and proved that she was the sly, manipulative witch I always knew she was. Of course it backfired in her face.

Though I was saddened by the way the story ended for one of the main characters whom I had become very fond of, at least there was a happy ending for Charlie and Peter. I hesitate to call it an ending because it finishes with no real finality to it. Merrick could have picked up with another story where that one left off. I wish he had.

I must admit I thought Lord Won't Mind was to be his crowning achievement, but I feel this book outdid the first in the trilogy. And this time around, even though the characters are once again for the most part Harlequin cardboard cutouts,... I think the emotional tie to Jeff is what makes me hold this one dearest to my heart of all three (well, all two... havent read One for the Gods yet). And check out the passage between Jeff and Mike for one of the most erotic "first timer" encouters written in any manner...gay, straight, and bi authors would have a hard time (no pun intended) topping this one.