Well, January was a bust, reading wise. I managed 1 book total. And then while I planned to write it up, “Snowmageddon” happened here outside of Portland. It wasn’t a lot of snow, but it was enough for this to happen:
That’s about 40 feet from the top of the hill that my driveway is off of. I never realized how many hills there between my place and getting to the highway, or work. I tried chaining up, but I ruined one chain and it didn’t work, and I ended up having to get towed into that one driveway you see there. We got the car Sunday, but the whole ordeal took a toll on me, and I can still hardly move. When did I get old? I’ll be 39 later this month, but damn.
So, my only book read in January:
I picked this one up because I liked Try by Ella Frank, which I read in November. It was on one of those lists of book that are similar for m/m romance. Since the Goodreads list had it in first place, I bought a copy and read it pretty quickly.
Griff and Dante are firefighters, and like family. Griff was more or less adopted by the crazy Anastagio clan when he was in high school. Since 9/11 everything in Griff’s life has fallen apart, including his marriage. Single and living with his father, he’s having trouble with another thing that happened after 9/11: interest in Dante. But Dante’s a straight ladies man, and Griff doesn’t want to do anything to mess up their friendship, or his relationship with his adopted family.
When Dante comes to Griff with money problems, and a potential solution, Griff is concerned. Dante’s plan is to go on HotHead.com, a gay porn website, and do a few solo shows. The money will save his house, and everything will be fine, right? Except that after the first time, he wants Griff to come along, and Griff’s worried about what that will reveal.
The book is cute, and seems rooted firmly in the land of New York and New Jersey, with real nods to firefighters and what they have to do, as well as a good dose of PTSD, and what the firefighters, EMTs, and other emergency personnel must have gone through during that time. The characters seem real and fleshed out, and Griff’s awkwardness comes through on cue, which is cute and endearing. Poor red haired giant.
Ultimately though, I found this to just be okay. It’s a friends, then lovers book, with a dose of “Straight guy falls for his best friend” but the story itself just felt as awkward as Griff did in it. The author is male, and his characters act like males do, but that’s often frustrating. There’s constant needs to change the conversation because one of them, usually Griff, doesn’t want to have that conversation. It’s frustrating, but not really in a good way. It’s not the sort of frustration that builds to relationship status changes, or romantic gestures.
In the end, the book us fun enough, and a quick read. Not as satisfying as I had hoped, but also not disappointing.