The 51st Thursday by Mercy Celeste
First of all, I like this romance but I think someone else will probably complain for the attitude of one of the two men regarding bisexuality and homosexuality. Deacon, the sexy almost forty years old pub owner, basically says he is bisexual but leaning more towards being gay since he doesn’t like commitment, he doesn’t want kids, he wants without strings attached relationships, and on and on, and he matches all his needs with a gay sex… now, I have to be true with Deacon, he maybe talked like that because he was scared by his feelings for an almost stranger, he wanted to protect his heart, like denying the love he was feeling before Shelby denied it first. But in any case there is a lot of talking about man meat, big man attributes, about being rough and ready where else sex with women is more emotional, almost like you are weak if you let feelings get at you.
Both Shelby and Deacon had relationship with women, actually they were both married to women, but Shelby has never had man on man experience (even if he was tempted), and instead Deacon lately leaned more on that type of sex (“lean” is exactly the verb he is using to define his preferences). Shelby is recently widower and maybe he is feeling guilty not since he betrayed his wife (he did not), but since he really didn’t love her as he should have; basically he doesn’t miss her, and maybe that is what is eating him alive, the guilty sense.
Deacon instead did not have a good relationship with his ex-wife, she cheated on him, and he is aware their two children are not his natural offspring, but in any case he loves them, while instead he doesn’t have a so great opinion for women in general, maybe due to what his ex-wife did. Deacon is probably bisexual, while instead I think Shelby is gay. I don’t see Shelby being able to marry again, or having children, while instead I don’t exclude that on Deacon’s future; I don’t see it really happening only since Deacon is pushing forty and he is comfortable with his life as it’s, he doesn’t need any other children to prove his masculinity, not to him neither to anyone else. Different matter for Shelby whose family would like to see him being a father, they can probably accept his homosexuality, but they would like for him to be a father.
I have to be true, sometime, especially during sex, I didn’t like so much when the men highlighted so much their “manly” attitude, it was like they were trying to prove that “manly” sex was better than gay sex (if that has any sense to you). But again, maybe the author was only trying to let it arrive to the reader that both men were scared by their feelings for each other, and not since they were feeling that for another man, but since they were feeling it, point, love is scaring.
Amazon Kindle: The 51st Thursday
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services (Kindle Edition - Jan 25, 2012)
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