Friends To Lovers by D.H. Starr & Sedonia Guillone
A collection of three novellas, all of them dealing with the theme of friends with benefits, or better from friends to lovers, as the title suggests.
I know it’s bad to have a favorite in a class ;-) but indeed I have one, and it’s the first novella “It Was Always You”, about two long-time friends who were always too shy to confess each other love, or better one was shy and the other was not ready. Caleb and Kevin were the gay kids at school, but Caleb was nerdy and wallflower and instead Kevin was exuberant and always in the middle of life, whatever life was. Despite their difference they moved their friendship from youth to adulthood, and Caleb was always there for Kevin, pining after the man without having the courage to confess his love. And now Kevin has called telling him he is in love with another man and he wants for Caleb to meet him.
I have to say, don't even think I fell for it: it was clear Kevin had something in mind and that was what made me reconsider him and winning point for this novella to be my favorite of the three.
The second one, “Blind Love”, about 18th century samurai, was almost a fairy tale, even if there wasn’t any fantasy element. It was very refined, with a delicate them, almost if the author was dealing with fragile feelings, although into strong bodies. What impressed me more was, more than the two men, the reaction of the others to them: take Hirata’s father, he wasn’t really worried or upset that Hirata was following his heart and search for his love, Sho, a man, but more than he was leaving his future in his father’s dojo. It was apparently more important their differences in social status, than their equality in sex.
And finally there was “Skating For Gold”, about Olympic skaters. Here the sport theme led me to imagine a story with a grandeur sense, and instead it was almost cozy and familiar, maybe since Lance and Devon are country boys, living in a farm. Sure there was the fighting hard for your dream theme so common to these stories, but all in all, this was more a small town romance than some in the public spotlight story.
Amazon Kindle: Friends to Lovers
Publisher: Ai Press (October 27, 2012)
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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