Best Gay Historical (2° place): Lovers' Knot by Donald L. Hardy
Also Best Characters (3° place), Best Overall Gay Fiction (3° place)
Lover’s Knot is probably one of the best Gay Historical romance I have ever read, in the tradition of the classic romance, where explicit sex is an option, but sensuality and romanticism are a must.
At the beginning of the novel we meet Williams and Langsford-Knight; old college mates that after decided to share a room in London for convenience while both of them got settled in the city; and now, 9 years later, they are still together. Together like friends, obviously, they well know that anything else would be a ruin, and they don’t dare; they fear so much for the well-being of each other, that no one of them has ever had the courage to speak aloud their respective feelings, and so they guess, but they actually don’t know if what they bear is an unrequited love or not. Even if their friendship is lasting for almost 14 years now, their relationship has still the feeling of what you can find among college students, or convinced bachelors, and even if this story is set at the beginning of the XX century (1906), they still maintain the old fashioned way, calling themselves with their last name, and not with their first name. And here the “convenience” and custom, and maybe the need to maintain a certain distance, is quite clear, since the reader knows, and read, that Jonathan Williams, is not new to being in love with another man, and when he was young, before meeting Langsford, he was in love with Nat, a farmhand in his cousin’s property where Jonathan was spending the summer before college; with Nat, Jonathan was at first name relationship, he was Jonny for Nat, and with Nat he was daring and carelessness.
For this reason, and for other little details, the reader at the beginning wondered how was possible that a love so big, and ended in a tragic way (Nat died at the end of the summer, falling of a cliff), was so easy forgotten by Williams, that, for his own words, fallen almost immediately in love with Langsford at their first meeting in college. But little by little the reader understands that there was something not said between Jonathan and Nat, the memories Jonathan has are of course not happy, but it’s not the sadness to remember a lost lover; and it’s also clear that what happened prevents him to be happy with Langsford.
Happiness with Langsford that indeed seems easy and reachable, they are like a well oiled couple, Langsford knowing all Williams idiosyncrasies, and Williams covering for Langsford’s forgetfulness; Williams is serious and quiet, where Langsford is a friendly and charming. They are like night and day, but at the same time they are the same. When Langsford realized that Williams’s inheritance of the farm in Cornwall will bring his friend far from him, he understands that it’s time to speak his feelings; otherwise he will loose Williams forever. I think that, being them already a couple, in everything if not by law and in bed, Langsford would have been happy to stay like that forever; only the thought of losing Williams is pushing him to change that course, probably thinking that a bond of love would be stronger than friendship and a way to not have to renounce to the man that he is already considering his soul mate.
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762436859
Amazon: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance
Amazon Kindle: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
Cover Art by Larry Rostant
Lover’s Knot is probably one of the best Gay Historical romance I have ever read, in the tradition of the classic romance, where explicit sex is an option, but sensuality and romanticism are a must.
At the beginning of the novel we meet Williams and Langsford-Knight; old college mates that after decided to share a room in London for convenience while both of them got settled in the city; and now, 9 years later, they are still together. Together like friends, obviously, they well know that anything else would be a ruin, and they don’t dare; they fear so much for the well-being of each other, that no one of them has ever had the courage to speak aloud their respective feelings, and so they guess, but they actually don’t know if what they bear is an unrequited love or not. Even if their friendship is lasting for almost 14 years now, their relationship has still the feeling of what you can find among college students, or convinced bachelors, and even if this story is set at the beginning of the XX century (1906), they still maintain the old fashioned way, calling themselves with their last name, and not with their first name. And here the “convenience” and custom, and maybe the need to maintain a certain distance, is quite clear, since the reader knows, and read, that Jonathan Williams, is not new to being in love with another man, and when he was young, before meeting Langsford, he was in love with Nat, a farmhand in his cousin’s property where Jonathan was spending the summer before college; with Nat, Jonathan was at first name relationship, he was Jonny for Nat, and with Nat he was daring and carelessness.
For this reason, and for other little details, the reader at the beginning wondered how was possible that a love so big, and ended in a tragic way (Nat died at the end of the summer, falling of a cliff), was so easy forgotten by Williams, that, for his own words, fallen almost immediately in love with Langsford at their first meeting in college. But little by little the reader understands that there was something not said between Jonathan and Nat, the memories Jonathan has are of course not happy, but it’s not the sadness to remember a lost lover; and it’s also clear that what happened prevents him to be happy with Langsford.
Happiness with Langsford that indeed seems easy and reachable, they are like a well oiled couple, Langsford knowing all Williams idiosyncrasies, and Williams covering for Langsford’s forgetfulness; Williams is serious and quiet, where Langsford is a friendly and charming. They are like night and day, but at the same time they are the same. When Langsford realized that Williams’s inheritance of the farm in Cornwall will bring his friend far from him, he understands that it’s time to speak his feelings; otherwise he will loose Williams forever. I think that, being them already a couple, in everything if not by law and in bed, Langsford would have been happy to stay like that forever; only the thought of losing Williams is pushing him to change that course, probably thinking that a bond of love would be stronger than friendship and a way to not have to renounce to the man that he is already considering his soul mate.
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762436859
Amazon: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance
Amazon Kindle: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
Cover Art by Larry Rostant