Customer Reviews

Power Play

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

 

 

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 7/10

PROS:
- I liked both of the characters a lot. They struggle with real issues and have their own individual hang-ups, but they're both very selfless. They're constantly concerned about each other, each trying to make sure that life is beautiful, happy, and problem-free for his boyfriend.
- The obsession of young people is depicted well. The guys meet and have an immediate connection, and then they can't stop thinking about each other. Ever.
- There's an incredible amount of depth in the examination of Ryan's and Dante's thoughts.
- The flirting is sweet and tentative and nervous and lovely. Then the progression into physical intimacy is the same way.

CONS:
- The characters are 18 and 19, so I had a little bit of trouble believing in the "foreverness" of the relationship. They might really be soulmates, but aside from the first chapter, which details Ryan's injury and the immediate aftermath of it, the book covers a time span of about 2 weeks. I couldn't make myself buy completely into a forever relationship between two people who are so young when all I saw was 2 weeks.
- Ryan treats his mother horribly at times. This is a book about teenagers, sure, and Snyder creates a pretty accurate depiction of teenage isolation, but I wanted to smack Ryan on more than one occasion. His mom is overbearing sometimes, but he can be an ungrateful little jerk. (Dante, on the other hand, loves Ryan's mom and even gently suggests a couple of times that Ryan should be nicer to her.)
- The writing is a little dense. The exposition is very detailed and contains a lot of sentences that are sort of stream-of-consciousness. Example: "From his room Ryan heard every word, mortified, but in the end she got her way, she always does, and that's more good news Ryan's just waiting to tell Dante, that they are definitely staying together, the room has already been reserved, thanks to his mother."
- The ending is pretty open; there are several conflicts that surface throughout the story that are left unresolved at the end.

Overall comments: This book's in present tense, which I always find a little weird, but the tone is conversational and relaxed. The characters have a lot of room to develop: there are 350 pages, with a lot of text on each page. Overall I think this is worth reading, but it's not a quick read: it's meaty and a little cumbersome.

Ryan Talonovich was the star of his college hockey team before he was seriously hurt at practice. The injuries he sustained have put him in a wheel chair. It'll be a long time before he can walk again, never mind skate. Ryan is angry and depressed. Watching his teammates skate makes him feels worse. It's at the rink that he meets Dante Espinoza. Dante is an exceptionally talented speed skater working towards his dream of going to the Olympics. Ryan and Dante hit it off and soon, romance follows. Dante has to work hard to afford to skate, his mom doesn't approve of it, and he's got issues with his teammates. Ryan is hurting, mentally and physically, and his mom's over protectiveness is driving him nuts. Will the love Dante and Ryan find in each other's arm see them through the rough road ahead?

Power Play is a wonderful love story. It's full of angst and passion. The emotion pours off of every page. Whether it is Dante's feelings about his lecherous boss or his need for his mother's approval or Ryan's fight to get back on his feet or his struggle to cope with his mother's over protectiveness, you can feel every one of their emotions. The love and desire Dante and Ryan have for each other creates one poignant and erotic moment after another. Power Play has fantastic characterization. You really get to know Dante and Ryan, who they are, where they're going and what makes them tick. The same can be said for every character in the story. The innocent and intense feelings Dante and Ryan have for each other are extremely endearing and sexy. Ryan is shy and nervous. He's strong, but reduced to near helplessness. It doesn't sit well with him and he struggles to find himself again throughout the story. Dante is exactly what Ryan needs. He's protective, honorable, and gorgeous. His own battles are hard won. I felt intimately a part of Dante and Ryan's relationship as it unfolded across the pages. Power Play is uplifting and beautiful, although, I wanted more at the end. I wasn't done reading about Dante and Ryan! Power Play is another example of why J.M. Snyder is one of the best author's of gay romance.

Nannette
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

The problems facing Ryan and Dante feel very much like real ones, not the usual tripe thrown into romances. Ryan is recovering from a horrible skating accident and seriously unsure if he will ever walk again. Dante faces daily harassment for his sexuality, harassment from his boss and struggles to afford to skate for his dream of Olympic goal. They need each other but they're young and very vulnerable.

The characterization is solid. You feel Ryan's anger at everything and everybody, especially his over-protective mother, as he deals with his sudden disability. You feel Dante's isolation and fear. At the same time, both young men have a strain of honor and strength that makes you cheer for them. The characterization really carried the story.

The negatives: I felt that there was a little problem in making this quite so soon after Ryan's accident. The therapists wouldn't have been pushing him quite so hard at such an early stage in his recovery, but I think that was done for plot reasons. It did give me pause. I did NOT like the author deciding they should have unsafe sex. It added nothing and is a terrible and dangerous message to young men. And I thought, surprisingly enough, that the author ended it too soon. Too many loose threads were left in the story. Having come to like these characters, I wanted to know more about what happened to them.

The negatives are very far outweighed by the positives in this very well-written gay romance.

This is not at all the novel I was expecting. First of all the characters are much younger than I thought.

Ryan is a 19 years old college student and hockey player who, during a game, was badly injured. Now he is in a wheelchair and ahead of him he has many months, maybe years, of therapy for the hope to walk again, but not more skating for him. He has lost everything: he is not a striking guy, not a good student, he is plain and simple, and maybe a little surly, and being the star of the college hockey team was his change to be someone in college. Now he is a cripped guy living with his parents and with no chance in front of him. And he is also virgin, he likes guys but he has never had the courage to near someone, only an interrupted attempt of blowjob during a frat party.

Dante is a 18 years old boy from the wrong side of the city. After high school he didn't go to college, cause he has no the necessary money, and to be true, neither the inclination. He only loves speed skating, he is very good at it, and his dream is to arrive to Olympics. He works to pay his lessons and the fee to the trials. He is a beautiful latino guy, the dream man of many girls, but he is gay. He has had only a lover, a very bad experience with a schoolmate, but he has not given up the hope to find a boyfriend. Yes, a boyfriend, cause Dante is only an eighteen years old guy, and for him love is someone to call mine, someone to hung out with, someone who, like a knight in shining armour, stand up for him and claim to all the world and above all to the men who bother him, that he is his boyfriend, so hands out from him!

The story is very well written and compelling. Dante's trouble to find the money for simple things but also for the month's rent, his daydreams of glory. Ryan's struggle with the therapy, his bad attitude, very right considering his situation, his relationship with his mother. Oh yes, his mother... cause we are speaking of a nineteen years old guy, not a man, and mothers are still a very present costant in a guy's life. And Ryan's mother is a wonderful character, not the perfect mother of fantasy, but a real mother, bothering but loving.

And then there is the sex, that at that age is the most important thing you have, but it is naive and tender. Sex is also a kiss stolen in the shadow, but sex is also something more, you do careless and with enthusiasm. Condoms are a joke, not a life's necessity... they are teens in heat.