Gary Martine

“Kingsley and I Together”, like its predecessor, is not just another m/m erotic romance. “Kingsley and I” was a first point of view so centred around the main voice that the reader had very few change to realize that there was a world outside. The reader was so sucked inside 'I''s body that sometime I felt like captive of him, I was feeling what he was feeling in good and bad: 'I' was feeling like his body betrayed him, his body craved Kingsley almost without 'I''s permission, and so was me, that was feeling 'I''s uneasiness. The fact that 'I' remains without name is also a right choice since we don't think to ourselves with a name, and since reading the book we are 'I', it's not necessary to have a name.

For almost all the first book, Kingsley and I remain inside their personal world, without interaction with the outside world, and so we have very few hint of their 'public' life; but at the end of the book, they spent a weekend in a B&B along the coast, and they 'tested' their relationship... now they need to decide if it's time to commit or to end things. Obviously since there is a second book, and it's called 'Together', the decision is to give a chance to their relationship.

From the first book, the reader could have the idea that 'I' was entirely dominated by Kingsley, he changed his life according to Kingsley's desires and needs, he becomes the 'recipient' (more than the receptive partner) of Kingsley's love and lovemaking, and he considers himself the 'female' of their relationship.

Kingsley is gay, yes, but his partner, 'I,' still considers himself not 'gay,' and although he is willing to accept the idea of bisexually, truth be told he thinks of himself more like a straight man who happens to love another man...but only Kingsley. 'I' has not desire for other men than him. Recalling his past relationship with women, 'I' remembers that he was always shy and that he never ignited the relationships or the sexual encounters, even if he appreciated the women and was flattered from their appreciation... and here we start to understand better 'I'. He considers himself shy, but in front of a mirror, he is the epitome of an hedonist, he likes his body, he likes to take care of his body, and he loves offering his beautiful body to Kingsley... this is not the behaviour of a shy person! We also have another detail on 'I' that allow the reader to know him better: he is a professional dancer, and so it's obvious that he likes his body and he loves to groom himself, his body is at the same time his business card and his work tool. So, is 'I' really shy or an hedonist in disguise?

And what about Kingsley? What we at first believe was Kinsley's overwhelming persona, that almost crushed 'I''s fragile ego, is not instead a form of worship? Is he, as he at first seems, the master of their relationship or is he actually more like the priest to 'I,' the God of Love? When 'I' so carefully prepares his body for the upcoming sex with his lover, he is so meticulous that all the scene is almost clinical, 'I' has total power on his body, but then, when Kingsley arrives, he seems to suddenly loosing that control, he is swept away by Kingsley's forceful behaviour. But at the same time also Kingsley seems to be unable to control himself: Kingsley, 'the King,' and 'I' together are swept up in a greater force that drives them both relentlessly on.

Reading this second book I really changed my idea of “I”, I no more see him like an unsecure man who needs the steady figure of Kingsley beside him to be happy; “I' is a Bermuda Triangle, safe and innocent alone, but deadly when near, and Kingsley and the reader with him, must struggle not to drown in the deep sea that is 'I'. The more I read, the more I realized that, whether enthralling or dangerous, one cannot remain indifferent to the power of 'I' and their growing relationship. I look forward expectantly to the next in the series.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608200221/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (altro)

I should start this post with a big label WARNING! Kingsley & I is not a novel simple to read and understand. It's pretty hard both in style than in argument.

First of all is written in first point of view by the main character, 'I' (without name, probably the author himself...) and in simple present. It has not chapters, but days, the days that beat the time of his relationship with Kingsley.

Probably 'I' before meeting Kingsley was a straight man, meaning that he had past relationship with women and he was quite satisfied by them. But when he meet Kingsley he knows that something is different. Kingsley is gay and he wants a sexual relationship with 'I'. And 'I', who likes Kingsley as a person, accepts to have a sex relationship with him to not lose this newfound companionship. He probably doesn't expect to find sexual release or joy in gay sex but he will be surprise. 'I' begins to crave sex with Kingsley in a way he almost doesn't understand: the sexual release he experiments is given by the joy to be the receptive partner of Kingsley's sex loving; he doesn't reach a 'male' climax, he doesn't have an apex, instead his sexual release are warm waves that spread on his body every time he receives Kingsley's sex.

'I' is almost frightened by the turning happening in his body, but more days pass and more he needs Kingsley by his side. The relationship with the man never cause him trouble, it's the relationship with the outside world that worries him; and not much his family or friends, but more with strangers and what he imagines to read in their eyes. 'I' is scared to admit even with himself that he is gay; and maybe he is not even gay, cause he doesn't need other men than Kingsley. Truly sometime I felt his reactions and behavior a bit obsessive.

All we know about Kingsley is from 'I''s point of view. At the end of the book I even didn't know what is Kingsley's work or 'I', for that matter, cause 'I' didn't feel the necessity to 'think' about it and so he didn't say it to us. Kingsley enters and exits 'I''s life with an easiness and still he is a constant presence. I even thought he could have a second life, a second home and maybe even a wife... Instead we know that Kingsley is jealous of 'I', he fears that the man sooner or later will need a woman in his life and will leave Kingsley. And Kingsley is also tender and caring but also a bit commanding: he is very sex driven and when he wants sex, he is ready to 'impose' it to 'I', always asking true, but it's obvious that 'I' will not deny it to him.

And finally the main reason why I should warn you on this book: in the past I read erotic novel, sometime explicit, sometime light, sometime with graphic details... Kingsley & I is all these and more. It's almost clinical in its description of sex; and the description is not only limited to the act, but also to the preparation for it and to the afterward; so clinical and detailed to be almost embarrassing. And always from the 'I' point of view, making the description also personal and too easily to impersonate: I don't want to give up in details, but some attitudes of 'I' are almost like those of women when they are in those periods...

And so, all in all, I like this book? Well it's not an easy answer but I should say yes; most of all since I started and finished this one in only two session, and it's not a short book; and more I read it more I wanted to know what 'I' would do, what Kingsley would do. There are a lot of thing I didn't understand, you are thrown in the mid of 'I''s life without background: it's like you switch on a television and there is a movie on and you start to watch it without have seen the first hour, but still the movie is so compelling that you don't manage to take off your eyes from the screen.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934531391/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (altro)