The Fall by Robin Alexander

The Fall
by Robin Alexander
Pages: 204
Date: November 15 2014
Publisher: Intaglio Publications
Series: None

Review
Rating: 5.75
Read: October 24 2016

This is my 12th book by Robin Alexander that I have read. Second one that I read on the 24th of October. Though that may or may not sound impressive, I feel the need to note that that is only 284 total pages (84 pages for ‘Ticket 1207’ and 204 pages for ‘The Fall’).

This book picks up that holiday theme, just like the previous book I read on the 24th, – there, ‘Ticket 1207’, it was a Christmas theme, here it is a Halloween theme. Similarly, certain other themes that Alexander likes continued to pop up – old wacky people (mom/grandma Savino; dad/grandpa Savino), set in Louisiana (here Baton Rouge), humor, and two of the main characters are in the 30 to 40 age range.

Unlike any previous Alexander that I have read (as far as I recall), though, there are also two characters in the 13 to 19 age range (17 going on 18). For you see, this is one of those double couple type books (like in ‘The War Within’ by Yolanda Wallace – which involved two women in their 70s, and two in their 20s). This book stars Noel Savino and Harper Guidry (niece of Noel), and Sunny and Lydia Chase (daughter of Sunny).

The book opens with Harper painting a badger, and Lydia nearby working up the courage to burst forward and be near Harper – for you see, Lydia fancies Harper. Though she ‘knows’ that Harper is straight. They quickly become friends - with Harper finding that she rather likes Lydia - as a friend. Also, somewhat less quickly, Harper’s sexual orientation begins to come into question, by by Harper herself, and by others around her. Harper and Lydia are the 17 to 18 year old 'couple'.

Then there’s Sunny and Noel. They meet for the first time through another Chase family member – Uncle Ethan (Sunny’s Uncle). Ethan, formerly a hairstylist, now forced to be retired due to car accident, lives with Sunny and Lydia. He’s quite dramatic and a bit of a character himself – constantly dressing up as various old Hollywood actresses (and constantly trying to get everyone who comes within his reach to allow him to paint their faces, do their hair, and dress them in dresses; he’s a little hard to take at first though he grows on me). So I was mentioning a first meeting. Ethan has a tooth issue, and Sunny drives Ethan to the nearest dentist. Ethan’s kind of fragile like, and so he drags Sunny into the examination room with him. Whereupon Ethan and Sunny meet . . . a woman wearing cat ears. For, you see, Noel normally deals with kids, though can fit in adults as well. So Sunny and Noel meet. Ethan gets gassed and babbles certain things Sunny might not wish Noel to immediately know. Sunny and Noel are the 30-40 year old 'couple'.

Meanwhile, the generation below Sunny and Noel continue their own form of flirtation – as Lydia and Harper continue their friendship.

The generation above Noel and Sunny involves grandpa/dad Joe and grandma/ma Inez Savino (I haven’t been tracking this, but this actually might be the first time I’ve read an Alexander book wherein both father and mother at this level (the grandparent level, other books have had living father and mother) are living, I could be wrong here). Joe’s retired and loves going out on his boat with his friend Jeff (‘taking the boat out’, if they happen to actually catch any fish, it changes to ‘went fishing’). Inez loves making gigantic meals and loading everyone’s plates to the point wherein it is hard to see someone on the other side of the table, past the plate. She also likes sitting in bushes and spying on her neighbors (see a wacky old person).

The extended Savino family also includes Mason and Corey (cousins of Harpers - neither large presences in the book), Mary (Harper’s mother), and Matthew (father of Mason and Corey - barely there sibling). Mary plays a slightly larger role in this bunch, what with being Harper’s mother; while Corey gets slightly more lines than the rest (except for Mary).

It took me awhile to have Uncle Ethan grow on me, but I rather liked everyone else of major importance (Harper, Noel, Sunny, Lydia, Inez). Great story all the way around. I actually liked seeing things from the perspective of 17 year olds (unexpected, that - since I'd only really experienced main characters in the 30s/40s from Alexander).

As I noted, this is the 12th book I’ve read by Alexander, and I believe that it is tied with ‘Dear Me’ as being my favorite Alexander books. And to think, I read 3 books in 2014, then took almost two years to read another. And now I’ve read 9 more – as of this writing, bookended on one side by 5.75 ‘Dear Me’, and 5.75 ‘The Fall’. To a certain extent, I like the fact that ‘Ticket 1207’ actually appears above ‘The Fall’ on my list, even though I’d read ‘The Fall’ second. Because now I don’t have to play the ‘two great books, bookends, stop now for another 2 years?’ game. I can just continue reading.

October 26 2016

Stay by Mia Archer

Stay
by Mia Archer
Pages: 289
Date: July 15 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: July 18 to 19 2016

This book here is the fifth book that I have read with Mia Archer’s name on it.

This is a book with some youngish main characters. I assume that they are right around the age of 18, though a specific age (I don’t think) is not actually mentioned.

Sarah and Alyssa have spent most of their lives competing and training to be competitive swimmers. They’ve gotten up at the crack of ‘too early’ to go swimming; practice sometimes twice a day; one also lifts weight to add whatever that might add to being able to pull herself through the water with stronger arms (I think that is Sarah).

Both young women are super competitive and super good. They are about a half second or a second off of each other’s times – which would be great if they didn’t compete in the same division – as only one from their section/division can go to ‘state’ (ever since Glee, I kind of giggle when people talk super serious about ‘sectionals’ and ‘state’ and the like; they could be models/singers/football players, but still, that little giggle comes up).

The book opens on the big old qualifying event for the State level races. Sarah thinks it is her year. Alyssa thinks she will win. Everyone, apparently, believes that the person that will win will either be Sarah or Alyssa.

Sarah’s parents are old school liberal and quit easy going. Alyssa’s mother is a massive over controlling bitch. Her father is kind of okay, though. This becomes important for ‘reasons’.

The book synopsis on GoodReads kind of gives things away in terms of who won at sections, but I’ll live off mentioning that.

One or the other won. The other took it hard and cried. The one that won comforted her (all this is, in its way, spoiler, but it is also the foundation of the relationship that develops from here on out).

The one who lost the race goes out of their way to drive many miles to the State level event. To act as a supporter for the other. Recall something that can’t be recalled since I haven’t mentioned it yet – both were rivals of each other. A certain amount of ‘hate’ might have even been bubbling. Which is where I’m uncertain if I should call this ‘fell for rival’ or ‘fell for friend’. Since they were rivals, but no part of the time they were rivals (on a ‘we hate each other’ level) occurs in this book. And they went from rivals to friends, then to that ‘falling for’ part. *shrugs*

Unknown to either, both have full ride scholarships to the same college, so while one or the other (or both, I forget now) might have some worries about whether this event, or that, might be the last time they see the other, they soon realize that they will have a good chance to see each other for a good longish while. Barring unforeseen complications that could have access/communication/scholarship complications.

So, fairly quickly, the book turns to these high schoolers moving from high school to the summer between graduation and college – which they spend at college, because athletes report early for training.

There’s kind of love-hate thing that occurs in waves. I’d say almost immediately, but then love doesn’t come immediately. Hate does though. But not what someone might be thinking – no, I’m referring to the hate between Tiffany and Sarah. Mostly from Tiffany to Sarah. I’m being deliberately something . . um . . not vague, because I’m using names, well like vague. Tiffany is Alyssa’s mother.

From almost the beginning of the book a certain complication is shown, foreshadowed (well, two, the first being that the mother is a bitch and that isn’t going to go away). That being some mysterious ‘waves of dizziness/light headness’ experienced by Alyssa. By the half way point the dreaded ‘word’ gets used to explain things, but as the synopsis itself doesn’t go beyond saying ‘terrible sickness’ I’ll refrain from explaining in detail the specific ‘terrible sickness’. Cancer/leukemia

Right, so, this is a coming of age/coming out/young adult/major life alternating illness book with a heavy dose of family drama book. Involving two athletes (swimmers) just starting off on the road of life.

For one reason or another books like this, and I mean simply and specifically, those that involves students, never really seem to draw up in my mind memories of the time when I was a student. There is no inherent reason why the high school years in this book would cause any memories to pop up – since that part seems to be over in a flash, and only shows something like a week or three of it – plus it was heavily focused on, to the exclusion of everything else, on swimming. The college part though did, oddly enough, pull up some memories of college. That’s the sum total of my point of mentioning this factoid – books like this do not normally engage my memories, while this one did.

It should be noted, for those coming along behind me, that this book ends at the 80% mark.

July 19 2016

Truth or Dare by Raven J. Spencer

Truth or Dare
by Raven J. Spencer
Pages: 53
Date: August 26 2014
Publisher: Self
Series: None

Review
Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 16 2016

This is the first story I've read by this author.

I'm somewhat surprised both by my reactions to the story, and when I happened to, just now, glance around to see what others had said. Well, mostly I just looked at their ratings. I see that I'm the odd one out here, mostly. No matter.

In a moment of needing something quick to read, I looked at the synopsis of this story to see if I should give it a chance. And, no, I do not mean on here (GoodReads), I meant inside the book. I'm used to Lesbian Fiction books including a synopsis in the books that I normally skip (skipping the synposis not the book, shesh I need to write better). Sometimes read when I need to fill a minute or ten. Why am I mentioning this 'synopsis'? Spending so much time on it? Because there isn't one in this ebook. Yet, I didn't immediately realize that. Because the book is written on about the same level as a synopsis. This happened, then that, then that over there, and then.

I did not feel connected to either character at all, and the only emotions generated were created from the cheating involved, but (since there was a bit of 'wink wink, the husband/boyfriend is okay with it') mostly with the people involved. The out of work woman dates women. Yet she somehow accidentally got into a relationship with a man? Then accidentally ended up on vacation with him? What the fuck? How . . how does that even happen?

I mean, the other woman in the story also annoys me greatly, but she's on this little vacation with her husband. Who, granted, she wants nothing to do with now, but supposedly did at some point. Though we, the readers, are again treated to a character who apparently never in their life considered the possibility of women as potential dates. There are ways in how such a character can come about (in reality and in fiction), but we have none of this woman's backstory, so all we have is this kind of incredulous and vague 'never-realized-women-existed' feeling. *shrug, whatever*

I'm happy others liked the story well enough, I didn't but we can't all like the same things.

July 16 2016

Come Back to Me by Chris Paynter

Come Back to Me
by Chris Paynter
Pages: 213
Date: September 15 2014 (Orig. Published May 1 2010)
Publisher: Companion Publications
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 12 to 13 2016

My fourth book by this author and first that is not part of a series. The first three books I gave 5 stars to; this one I gave just three stars.

I forget how many years it had been, but two characters meet up again after a longish separation. During college, for a brief moment, Angie Cantinnini and Meryl McClain were lovers and friends.

Prior to their meeting each other, Angie had come out to her family during a Thanksgiving meal (it’s thanksgiving, what are they going to do, toss me out? Yep, that’s what they are going to do) as lesbian. This became the source for a short story that Angie wrote for a creative writing class. Meryl, along with others, critiqued the story.

Using that story as a basis to strike up a conversation, the two circled each other, until the two became friends, then lovers. Then everything fell apart. Because there was a semester break and Meryl decided to come out to her family. Her grandmother, who apparently actually ‘knew’ long ago, screamed at Meryl. The father demanded that she stop being a lesbian. Her mother looked disappointed. Sadly, the family is/was super rich, and the father was the kind to use the power that came with that amount of wealth. And he threatened his daughter that he would destroy the one who had ‘ruined’ his daughter if the two didn’t stop, immediately, seeing each other. By killing Angie’s scholarship. Angie who got tossed out of her home after coming out, and was only able to go to school because of said scholarship. Naturally Meryl couldn’t accept that fate to befall Angie. Then the father said that Meryl would have to change schools. Meryl ‘needed’ to go to that school, so the father gave her a choice – go to that other school, or remain in the current school, never make contact with Angie, and date a specific man the family wanted her to date. Naturally, or not, Meryl ended up married to that man.

All of that above is, for the most part, back-story. For the book opens some years later. I might have known a week ago when I finished the book, but I no longer recall how much time has passed between the college relationship falling apart and the start of the book.

Angie now lives in Key West. She got talked into a particular contract by her bitchy agent – see, she, Angie that is, had written a rather ‘good’ little mystery book. But she couldn’t get anyone to publish it. Mostly because she, a lesbian, had written about a really macho man type character and no publisher believed a woman would be believable/sellable as the author of that type of book. So, Angie agreed to use a pen name (even though that basically meant that Angie was giving away her soul or agreeing to kill puppies yearly or whatever fucking bit of weirdness developed here – basically Angie apparently believes using a pen name makes her an immoral and/or amoral lying horrible bitch . . . or something). But, as noted, Angie agreed with the contract. To use a pen name. And never, upon threat of death (okay, law suit), reveal that she, Angie, was Zach England.

So, that’s what Angie did after the relationship with Meryl imploded. Wrote and sold a few lesbian mysteries, made a tiny amount of money from that, then ‘sold her soul’ (again, apparently, judging by Angie’s reactions about it) and used a pen name to sell a bunch of macho man mysteries. Which pile in massive wads of money, and have a tv series be created based on the series. By the time the book opened, her eighth book in the series has just been released. This is important because the New York Banner has released a review about that book. A negative review. Under the byline of Meryl McClain. Angie’s ex.

So, after splitting up, Meryl did what is obviously natural for a lesbian (there was some comment somewhere that lead me to believe that she didn’t actually fancy men, so that she would not be bisexual, though it has been 7 days since I read the book) to do, she married a man, worked as a professor, then went off to be a book columnist. Her horrid treatment of Zack England’s latest novel is Meryl’s first review while with the New York Banner.

Then, based on several conversations she had (maybe just one with a friend), Meryl looked over England’s books again. Agreed with her initial impression, and review, but noticed something interesting. This macho macho man really seemed to ‘know’ women. Therefore, Zach England must be a woman. Just as the publishers couldn’t believe that any woman would be acceptable to the reading public as an author of a macho man book; Meryl believes that no man could ‘get’ or ‘know’ women like Zach England appears able to do. Therefore – woman. Meryl writes an article based on this thought process – well the England must be a woman part. Then, through a fluke, learns that a specific agent, who appears to mostly just represent Zach England, has a lot of mail that goes to and is received from Key West. Naturally, this means Meryl needs to immediately go down there and spend a week investigating. Because, again naturally, randomly walking around Key West asking people if they are (1) a woman; (2) Zach England; is the way to find Zach England.

Okay, I do not actually know how Meryl really expected to wander around and find Zach, because her mission got sidetracked immediately. But that appeared to be what Meryl had planned to do. Randomly wander around Key West. For a week. On the off-chance that there’d be some woman there who might really be Zach England. So, as noted, she got side-tracked immediately. Because she ran into a female mystery writer who just happened to live in Key West. Naturally she put 1 and 1 together and got . . . nowhere, because, seriously, she never once even thought that the mystery writer woman she bumped into, who lived in Key West, would be Zach England. That was kind of . . . . dumb.

The only and I say that this only is flimsy, reason that Meryl didn’t look deeper into this female mystery writer is because that writer was, and people probably already know this, none other than her former lover, Angie Cantinnini.

Angie has a weird brain disorder when she learns why Meryl was down in Key West and decides that the best thing to do is to lie to Meryl. Something that is almost cliché, and might even be cliché, in books with this type of scenario, the deceiver/lier/party who gave offense, was ‘just about to’ reveal the truth when the other learned the truth before they could do so. As if that ‘just about to reveal’ is in any way shape or form some kind of ‘get out of jail’ free card. Or, um, something that isn’t a metaphor.

It has been a week. As might be seen from how I’ve written this review, I’m still disappointed might be putting things mildly, angry would put things too severely, but something. I’m still annoyed by how this book unfolded. The way both people reacted and interacted with each other at each step of their relationship – with each other and with their parents.

Well, no matter, I’ll stop babbling now.

June 20 2016

Love vs the Limelight by Manda Olie

Love vs the Limelight
by Manda Olie
Pages: 45
Date: April 27 2016
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: April 4 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first story by this author.

I went into this story knowing that I’ve read several variations of it over the years. From J.A. Armstrong’s Off Screen series, to Jae’s The Hollywood Series, to Gun Brooke’s Course of Action, to Selina Rosen’s Vanishing Fame, even to the chick-lit Blame it on the Fame by Tracie Banister (‘even to’ because that’s an ensemble piece with many people involved, it just so happened that it included, among the characters, a closeted lesbian actress). They all have something in common with each other and this story here – people in the acting profession who have to deal with the issue of ‘coming out’. The difference between all of the ones I mentioned, and this specific story here, is that all but this specific story here involved women. This story here involves men. It intrigued me to see how this issue might be different or the same with men instead of women.

Mind you this isn’t actually the first story I’ve read that involve people who act who happen to be dealing with the concept of ‘coming out’ and who happen to be men. Alex Gabriel’s Learning How to Lose is different enough, though, to put it into a slightly similar though adjacent category – since the characters are (1) Japanese working in Japan; (2) musicians (as is one of the characters in Rosen’s book, but I had included it because of the other person in that coupling – who is an actress; plus there never had been any question about the musicians sexual orientation in that book, though there was about the supposedly straight actress).

Right, let’s get to the actual short story I’d read. Love vs the Limelight by Manda Olie. The title in and of itself tells you the thinking of one of the characters in this story. Does he want love, or does he want the limelight – the acting career.

I knew what I was getting into, and wanted to get into, when I received this story to read. I just didn’t expect to find that the majority of the book would trip me over a specific issue. Especially because of the way the story is described on GoodReads. From the description: “His silence when it comes to the truth may cost him Christian, the love of his life, who's grown tired of being a dirty little secret and has issued Rick with an ultimatum: tell the truth or lose Christian.” – naturally I assumed that I’d be entering a story involving Christian and Rick dealing with this issue of coming out, or having the relationship implode. Instead I’m greeted with the relationship already broken apart because Rick had refused to come out; and Christian left, not being able to take it any longer. None of this is the specific issue that tripped me up that is referenced in the beginning of this paragraph though. No, that would be the reasoning given. Partly Rick didn’t want to come out because of the potential consequences to his career. The career he had fought hard to achieve. Partly because, at least one of the reasons given, is because he wanted to ‘protect’ Christian from the harm that comes from being in the news, in the press, hassled by the paparazzi. That’s the issue that tripped me up – that self serving ‘I’m doing this for you!’ bullshit that I’ve seen pop up before.

Luckily, for my own piece of mind, while that comes up a lot, it always came up tinged with the idea that Rick actually knew that he was being selfish – it was more about his career, though there was just a tiny itty bitty part that is true, that he wished to protect Christian from the vultures of the press.

So, let’s try to boil this down a little more:
Characters
Rick Campbell is an actor with, as the description puts it ‘a great career’ who has spent a really large amount of time attempting to hide his gayness, by being shown being on the arm of numerous women. He has, also as the description puts it, a reputation ‘as a lady-killer’.

Christian is a lawyer from Iowa who is a long time best friend of Rick’s who started dating him two years before the start of this story. Tired of having to hide, he had issued an ultimatum to Rick ‘tell the truth’ or Christian would leave. Well, Rick didn’t tell the truth, so Christian left. Oh, and Christian is also, to complicate things, Rick’s lawyer.

Bella Carson is Rick’s agent. Or, at least, I think she is, though she seems to spend more time working as Rick’s publicist – the person who deals with Rick’s image. Ah. No, it actually says that Bella is Rick’s publicist. Hmms. The description mentions several things, like an excellent agent, but does not mention an ‘excellent publicist’. I’d assumed Bella was the agent because no one else fitting that description appeared in the story.

Andrew is Rick’s friend who is a director. He has a lot more . . . issues in his closet than would be advisable to be seen in print.

Jake is another of Rick’s friends and is an action star.

Keith is the tabloid guy trying to catch Rick doing something publishable.

Plot
The description is misleading in one way, and not misleading in another. The story is about the ultimatum, but the plot-line is further along than expected. We are at the point of attempting to keep the break up from cementing into permanence, and attempting to ‘fix’ the issue territory, not ‘ultimatum issued’ part of the story.

The story follows Rick as he attempts to deal with being separated from his love, Christian, separated by his own refusal to come out. He is attempting to figure out some way to keep the relationship going, or restarted, without actually having to give in.

Overall
The story was interesting – it’s neat to see this ‘issue’ from the male perspective. Long and short – I didn’t actually see any difference, at least not within this story, and all the other ones I read. Any difference, I mean, between the impact of being a gay man, or a lesbian woman attempting to work in Hollywood.

There seems to be a solid story here. It’s kind of short, but gives the details needed to be given to be a full story. For those interested in such – there was mention of sexual passion, of certain acts performed in the past, but other than some passionate kissing, there is no actual graphic detail in this story. That detail isn’t in the description over on GoodReads, but it is in the NetGalley description. So I knew that issue going in. I know that there will be people disappointed by the lack, and others who might not read the story because of fear of the inclusion, but so far the lack does not seem to be having an adverse impact on the ratings.

Overall, I’d give this short story a rating of around 3.80 to 4.20.

April 4 2016