Whitley Gray

Recruited: 1 Star. A police officer is recruited to join an “elite” agency (at which, apparently, new agents are recruited by having sex with them) (if it sounds like a bad porno, well, you got it in one). “Recruited” reads like the first chapter of a novel, not a short story, and is riddled with typographical and/or grammatical errors.
The Last Easy Day: 3 stars. Navy Seals in training, in service, and in love. Sweet. Much better researched than the final story, “Training Buds” (which is also about BUD/S training but very vague on the details).
Love Undercover: 3 Stars. DUC cop whose biker gang finds a patrolman snooping on their property.
Hand to Hand: 2 Stars. Not much to this readable but forgettable H/C romance between an officer and his subordinate.
One More Time: 1 Star. Gay-for-you romance, only tangentially related to law enforcement, about small-town cop who can’t possibly be gay, even though he lusts after a (barely legal) neighbor. We’re back with the bad grammar.
Training Buds: 1 Star. Two gay sailors in BUD/S training (spelled BUDs in this story). Very vague on the details of the training (compared to “The Last Easy Day”).… (altro)

A change in jobs isn’t always easy, especially when you're fed up with the limelight of being a model and want to go back to being a firefighter. Joe, aka underwear model Blake Huffington, finds out exactly how tough that is while also being gay and deeply in the closet. Thanks to Errol, a poor actor, wanting to pull him out into the open, so to speak, Joe has to reconsider not only his personal choices, but also the way he is trying to run Errol's life. And it all starts so simple with both of them snowed in during a blizzard… I have to say I do like the "snowed in" scenario when it is well done, and this novel definitely hit the right balance with me. And while the story happens to be set around Christmastime, sensibly so, since there tends to be a lot of snow then, the theme was definitely focused on coming out, dealing with fame, and two stubborn men with very different ideas about their careers.

Joe is all about the isolation when he heads out to his cabin deep on the woods somewhere near Denver. He needs solitude to come to grips with his secret lover's death to years ago, or so he thinks. Fate clearly has other ideas. When Joe finds a man half buried in the snow, his training as a paramedic sets in and he saves him. From then on, he is trying to figure out what the heck happened. Suddenly he is interested in a man again, for the first time in two years, and before he knows it, he begins to fall for Errol. He fights it, especially since Errol wants into Hollywood as badly as Joe wants out, and when confronted by his agent he denies everything, but the "damage" has been done. Both to himself, and to Errol, who flees the scene, thinking Joe will never come out.

Errol is in deep trouble. He wants to be an actor, but cannot find work due to his evil ex who is well-known in Denver theater circles and made it impossible for Errol to find work in his chosen profession. Errol is on his last seventy-five dollars when his car gives out and he ends up almost dying from hypothermia. He is very attracted to Joe, but cannot believe a man like that could be interested in him. Asking him for help via an intro to his agent and being rebuffed, then being denied in front of said agent is too much and he runs. Joe has a lot of apologizing and making up to do if he ever wants Errol to speak to him again!

If you like reading about men who have opposing objectives and cannot figure out how to solve their issues, if you enjoy stories set in snowed-in cabins in the middle of nowhere, and if you believe that everyone deserves to find love or find it again after losing a partner, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Loose Id for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
… (altro)

Allen Saunders (American writer, 1899-1996) once said that “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” That is certainly the motto of this enchanting love story about Michael, who is determined to leave love out of the equation of his life, and Cobey, the man who unknowingly teaches him that love and monogamy are not as bad as Michael fears they are. Neither of these men expect to fall for the other, but both of them come out of their agreement—where Michael was supposed to introduce virgin Cobey to the joys of sex—with a totally new perspective of life.

Cobey has been raised by fanatically religious parents, who were disappointed when he informed them he wasn't going to become a priest. They sent him to a catholic university, the only one they were prepared to pay for, so now that he has a degree, a job, and works at a liberal university as art professor, he is learning how to have a life. Specifically, he wants to learn how to be a gay man, and part of that is getting rid of his virginity. He has tried meeting men on his own, but ran into a**holes instead. When he accepts help from his friends, who suggest Michael, a man with experience, teach him, Cobey has no idea what he is letting himself in for. The physical side of their relationship isn’t the only thing that goes spectacularly well…

To call Michael a "man with experience" is probably an understatement. He has enjoyed sex for many years, but relationships have been a disaster area for him. After being stood up at the altar, he has had enough and swears off love. Teaching Cobey about sex may be a bit of a harebrained plan, in his opinion, but once he meets Cobey, he decides it will not be a hardship. And then, as he puts it, "Monogamy happened all by itself." It made me laugh to have him put it that way, but it is exactly what happens. Not that he will admit it, and he fights his new insight to the very last second.

If you like stories about opposites who learn they may have more in common than either of them expected, if two men who approach the physical side of a relationship in different ways only to figure out they love exactly the same things, and if you're looking for a sensual read that is as charming as it is hot, then you will probably like this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
… (altro)