Calendar Boys September: A Simple Truth

Title: Calendar Boys September: A Simple Truth
Author: Jamie Craig
Publisher: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure
Genre: Contemporary GLBT (M/M)
Length: Novella
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

THE BLURB

Falling in love is harder than coming out…barely.

Shy and privately conservative, Charlie Labrecque has lived a lie for most of his adult life, choosing to marry a woman and father a child rather than come out of the closet. But now that he is divorced and sees his young son only half the year, he decides it is time to start being honest with himself. And his friends. Starting with his best friend, openly gay Bryce Hanson.

Bryce responds with his encouragement, and promises to be Charlie’s training wheels through the difficult transition. But now that both men feel like they can be honest with each other, new desires are found, and new truths are spoken…

THE REVIEW

Charlie Labrecque is going through a deep personal crisis and the optimum resolution will change the course of his life. He has been living a lie all his adult life and now he has come clean to friends and family about his sexual orientation. He finds it difficult to troll the clubs and other hook-up places where gay men hang out in order to meet other men. His very good friend Bryce Hanson, who thought Charlie was hot since they first met over a decade ago, seizes the opportunity to help his transition into the lifestyle and maybe help himself in the process.

There was enough of a back story for Charlie in terms of his life before he met his wife and during his marriage that I got a good sense of his motivations. Bryce was a little less well drawn but again there was sufficient information about him to make his character come alive.

The authors who make up the writing team of Jamie Craig have always impressed me with their excellent writing and character development and this book is no different. They did a really good job on Charlie’s and Bryce’s characters giving them a lot of depth and the pace moved along quickly, although there was not a great deal of conflict in the story. Both protags were appealing and the sex was hot and very sensual. However, I did have a problem with the concept that a gay man, even one who was as conservative as Charlie, would wait 3 years after divorcing his wife of 11 years, before seeking out male sexual partners. In this Internet age where so much information is readily available I don’t find it credible that he couldn’t figure out where to go for male companionship that met his needs.

Part of the rationale offered in the book is that he wanted to tell his son first, before he “outed” himself. However, he only had him during the holidays so his excuse wasn’t quite plausible. Presumably he could have had relationships with other gay men during his ‘off’ time with his son. There were other inconsistencies but I can’t discuss them because that would reveal too much of the storyline.

I really liked this book and perhaps that is why I’m giving it a “pass” on something in the plot that I didn’t find all that credible but I do have to point out to the readers my major sticking point with the story. Obviously there are other ways to satisfy one’s sexual urges but Charlie was a comparatively young man and it just seemed to me that regardless how conservative he was he would not wait 3 years to start dating and suffer a long drought in the meantime, especially after 11 years of marriage to the wrong sex. Someone quoted Tom Clancy a few days ago and I’m stealing the quote “The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense”. I guess that excellent comment makes my point.

I have given this book 4 stars out of five because I liked the characterizations and I think others will as well. I would have rated it a little higher but for the views I expressed earlier in this review. Jamie Craig is a terrific writing partnership whose books I have always enjoyed and perhaps I’m being a little generous in my rating because I really like their writing.