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Amor En Retrogrado (2008)

by A.M. Riley(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1596326107 (ISBN13: 9781596326101)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Loose Id

series

Bill Turner

review 1: Wow. JD and Roberto, the MCs in this book, have to have one of the most dysfunctional relationships in M/M, and yet... and yet, under the crazy and the lies and the anger, there's an intense passion that has kept them together for fifteen years, and apart for one. Until an injury to JD, with a temporary loss of memory, gives them one more chance.I really appreciated that this book didn't rehabilitate either of the MCs in the end. Roberto was a hot-headed, possessive, suspicious, and yet totally besotted lover. JD was a flirty, wounded, secretive alcoholic. They came together hot and wild, and fought the same way. Neither one really talked about what mattered. Both hid hurt in anger, questions in accusations, doubts in alternately clinging and shoving each other away. Rober... moreto ran away from his problems into his work. JD ran to a bottle. And at the end of the book, neither one comes out looking like a paragon. But human. Definitely human.There is a mystery here that took me most of the book to solve. It was well done, intriguing, and yet totally a side-show to the flaming disaster that was Roberto and JD's relationship. The memory loss was one of the most believable I've read, not a drastic life change, but a temporary shift of viewpoint. It fit without feeling like a wholly manufactured plot device as it so often does. The book isn't perfect. There are flashbacks that have to be fit into their time frames, and some shifts of POV, sometimes from deep third to more omniscient, where for a moment it's hard to know whose head, if any, you are in. There are intriguing secondary characters who need their own book, but spend a bit too much time in this one. But it pulled me in and dragged me along. My sympathies shifted back and forth between the MCs, as past and present, thoughts and actions, were revealed. I desperately wanted these guys to get their HFN (not HEA; even I'm not that much of an optimist) and wavered between thinking it was happening, and being sure it wasn't. The end was painful, satisfying, and just a new beginning of its own. It left me wanting more, but knowing that for these two men, trust and communication will always be a struggle, and always worth it, if they can succeed. I'll definitely read more by this author.
review 2: I didn't like it. Period. I give it props for a well-researched setting but that's it. The characters were unlikable, downright hateful people and that completely spoiled any joy I could've taken from reading this book. JD was a self-hating, passive-aggressive drunk. Robert was a possessive, obsessive, jealous bully. Bill was a closeted gay whose internalized homophobia made him treat other gays and especially his lover like shit. Christopher allowed Bill to treat him like a doormat. And Kate was always making an issue of her race and gender yet she kept throwing around homophobic remarks, calling gay people 'faggots' etc. Ugh. I actually felt vaguely dirty, like I wanted to scrub myself clean, when I finished it. I won't be reading any more books in this series, that's for sure. less

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