Title: Deep Cover
Author: Clare London
Publisher: http://www.torquerebooks.com
Genre: Contemporary GLBT (M/M)
Length: short story (16 pages, 6400 words)
Rating: 4.50 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
Max is doing all the right things, as is his lovely girlfriend, Elisa. They don’t share a grand passion, but they know that they’re expected to get married, which would further Max’s military career, and secure Elisa’s social standing. Max does have one grand passion, though, for fellow soldier, Ryan. Will he live his life the way he wants, or will he and Elisa be forced to do what people expect?
THE REVIEW
This is one of the few times that I will start my review with my usual concluding paragraph. Deep Cover totally surprised me. This is the first book I have read by Clare London and it definitely will not be the last. I have to give the author full marks for her characterizations and the plot. These very short stories are usually “fillers” for me, but I was amazed at the author’s ingenuity and prose. I will provide very few details of the story except to say that I would have paid double the price for the book. It’s not often an author blows me away. Buy this book – Clare London rocks.
The plot is relatively ordinary – young, innocent 20 year old Elisa is from a very good military family and she’s preparing for the announcement of her engagement to her long time friend and soon-to-be lover Max who is an officer in the military. Max is on the fast track for promotion, mainly through his connections to Elisa’s family. There’s nothing wrong with this picture except that Max wants something entirely different – another officer. The author did an oustanding job on the characterizations, particularly Elisa who I was prepared to barely tolerate because she’s not my type of heroine, and she pulled the rug out from under my feet. The rest you can read for yourself if you buy Deep Cover. Now I’m off to check my TBR pile to see if I have any other books by this author.
Wow! Thanks so much for your lovely review!! I’m *really* glad you enjoyed it – it’s difficult sometimes to get feedback on short fics, to know whether I’ve struck the right note in that particular slice of life. I’m still blushing here and queuing outside your door with my humble back catalog *lmao*.
And more seriously, I know you’ve talked recently about why you seemingly post only good revews, but I would like to note that your reviews are not only ‘marking’ a book, they also give us readers a good idea of what worked and didn’t work for you, what the author’s style is like, what the book’s theme/intention is, where and who it might attract etc etc etc. That’s always more important to me than a mark.
Though I’m not complaining about mine *lol*. Thanks so much again.
Clare 🙂
Hi Clare
Thanks for a wonderful experience. You kicked my ass! Here I was, one minute reading what appeared to be a ho hum *yawn* story and the next thing I know is that you shot me right between the eyes. Great job.
Seriously, I’m going through my TBR pile to find other stories that you have written. I know they’re in there *g*
Your review was enough to send me to Torquere’s site check what this author had written. End result were adding this book, another by London (shorts anthology About Test Taste Horns and Halos – I love angels/demons stories) and a whole lot of Wedding sips (which I found out about while browing the site) to my wish list. Damn you, Wave! :-p
Sorry about that Mary. But if it helps I also bought Horns and Halos and several of Clare’s books from Red Rose Publishing and Dreamspinner Press. This one is different and I won’t say any more *g*
**holding hands over ears** I so didn’t hear anything about Red Rose and Dreamspinner which I didn’t check!!!!!!
(unfortunately my eyes weren’t blocked…damn)
I’ll help you out. I just bought a bunch of them – some are quite short and I’ll tell you which ones I have and when you can expect to see the reviews. Who knows, Deep Cover might be a fluke although I don’t think so! I also have an anthology called Flipped Fables from TQ and Clare has a story in it.
You have a ton of books that you haven’t read b/c you’ve been away for 2 1/2 months so I promise not to post reviews of any good books for a few days. (I’ll post them all on Saturday) *g*
*snort* I have a ton of books I haven’t read because I already had half a ton before I left for Europe, I kept buying smoe WHILE I was in Europe (and didn’t read anythign) and because I’ve bought yet MORE since I came back, faster than I can ever hope to read them. Plus, I seem to be uncannily lucky at contests. I had stopped entirely a few weeks before I left for Europe, and only entered one since I came back, because I felt it wasn’t fair to enter for books I might not have the time to read before months – and I learned today that I won! THREE books. I’m hopeless (and also over the moon :-DDDD Not even going to try to pretend the opposite)
OK, I’m heading home now so I can try to read at least one book tonight. 🙂
Mary, Mary, Mary
Deep Cover is a really surprising little story so I don’t think you can go wrong here. However, there is something called restraint *g*
What I want to know is how you manage to win so many books.
The fairy of restraint flew right past me when distribution time came. I was probably hiding under the basement stairs with a stack of books and lots of food. That was my favorite hidaway when I was a kid – until I found out there were spiders there.
As for the winning, no idea. Out the top of my head, I can remember 12 I won since last winter. I think the key is thinking you’re NOT going to win 😀