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Trouble & The Wallflower (2014)

by Kade Boehme(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

162798447X (ISBN13: 9781627984478)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

review 1: Tiene momentos buenos, pero la mayor parte de libro es lenta y repetitiva. Muchas escenas de sexo, de las que te cuentan paso por paso cada segundo. Seré una siesa, pero no necesito una página de descripción de un beso, no necesito una descripción segundo a segundo de cómo hacen el amor. Me gustan las escenas de sexo, pero cuando hay tantas, son tan largas, repetitivas y pormenorizadas sencillamente acaban aburriéndome. Lo mismo digo sobre las charlas sobre los sentimientos: largas, repetitivas, excesivamente detalladas... aburridas.Me pareció ver varios fallos al escribir. Estar leyendo una frase y al siguiente párrafo de pronto te cuentan lo contrario o algo que no cuadra con lo que está sucediendo... pero estaba demasiado aburrida y tenía demasiadas ganas de t... moreerminar como para volver atrás y confirmarlo, así que igual son imaginaciones mías. Llegó un momento en que dejé de prestar atención a lo que leía.El principio está bastante bien, el final es muy típico pero no está mal, el resto podía haber pasado sin él, o con un breve resumen de los acontecimientos.
review 2: I read Kade Boehme’s “Trouble and the Wallflower” on the heels of Jamie Fessenden’s “Screwups” (also four stars). I was struck by both the similarities and by the differences that made each of these books a pleasurable, emotionally satisfying read. I’m also interested that both books are by men, and are classic examples of the m/m genre. Indeed, this brings to mind a comment made by one of my (straight, male) book club friends at our most recent gathering: “But aren’t those gay romance books all the same?”My response to my friend at the time was, “Well, all landscape paintings are the same, aren’t they?”So, let’s consider the landscape of the gay romance. I think one of the joys of this genre—certainly for me (a late-middle-aged gay man in a decades-long relationship with two teenaged adopted children—is the expectation that there will be familiar landmarks. But, as with every painting I see, I also expect to see unique features, attributes of style and detail, that make the work distinctive and unique.Boehme’s “Trouble and the Wallflower” is set in Seattle, where the author lives, so he has no trouble creating a vivid sense of place. His two twenty-two-year-old protagonists are both orphaned, one by choice, one by death; and each of them is finding his way in this new freedom. (I confess, the absence of supportive fathers in both this book and Fessenden’s “Screwups” bugs me. I’m a father, so I guess it cuts too close to the bone.)Outwardly, Davy and Gavin are opposites, the socially awkward shy-boy and the slutty hipster bad-boy. Gavin approaches Davy like he’s just another conquest to be gotten out of his system; and Davy resents and fears Gavin for exactly that reason. But Boehme’s carefully orchestrated story arc gradually reveals that in fact these two young men are far more alike than outward appearances would suggest. The stripping away of these young men’s defenses—barriers to their happiness in fact—is what builds the emotional power of the narrative. Another essential thing that makes this book work is the way Boehme puts us into these guys’ heads and hearts. Gavin is kind of a dick—cocky, sure of his own allure—but Boehme lets us see the man behind the smug façade. Davy is sort of a prig, pathologically shy and fearful of embarrassment, but again there is more to him than that. I am fascinated that Boehme writes his characters with a level of emotional effusion that one stereotypically associates with women writers. I love that—I love that male writers can refuse to accept the “guys hide their emotions” premise and really embrace the romantic side of the male psyche. Because that’s where I find myself in these landscapes. Even at 59, with a loving husband and two kids, I am still that twenty-something struggling to find his place in the world, yearning for the emotional connection that will change my life forever.It’s not the same reason women read m/m fiction; but it’s a good reason. less

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