Title: Calendar Boys January: Miami’s Perfect Weekend
Author: Jamie Craig
Publisher: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure
Genre: Contemporary, Interracial, GLBT (M/M)
Length: Short Story (19K words)
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
The weekend of the championship game, all football star Tre Griffin wants is to escape Miami and the reminder that he’s not playing. When his flight out of town is delayed, he meets Michael Pappas in the hotel bar. Their attraction is immediate, and when he discovers Michael has no idea who he is, Tre decides to act on it.
One night of no-strings-attached passion stretches into a whole weekend, but with Tre all too visible in the public spotlight, he can’t risk hoping for anything more. A single perfect weekend is all they have.
Until Michael discovers the truth. And they both begin to think it could be something more.
THE REVIEW
When Tre met Michael he was hiding out in the hotel bar trying to escape football fans who blamed him for the team not making the playoffs. His flight out of Miami was delayed and he was just passing time when he was struck by the man who sat beside him, and after checking each other out they decide to get to know each other a whole lot better. They both thought it was going to be a one time thing – after all, they had nothing in common – Tre was an NFL star and Michael who taught freshman History knew nothing about football and had no idea who Tre was. But the first time they touched each other something got in the way, an attraction they never expected. So they spent the night, and then the weekend together holed up in Tre’s hotel room
Tre could not get over how much he welcomed the fact that Michael had no idea who he was, which meant that his feelings were real, and Tre reciprocated with a love he never knew he could have for another man. Michael, on the other hand, was excited to be with Tre initially because he was going through a dry spell, but the fact that Tre really looked at him and clearly liked what he saw soon made him feel something much deeper as they got to know each other better.
The guys had issues around Tre’s schedule because he was on the road 5 months of the year with his team. They also lived in different cities, which was a problem when Tre was not playing . In addition, being a Major League ballplayer meant that he could never “come out” if he wanted to continue in his high profile career. But love has a way of conquering all.
I really enjoyed Calendar Boys January: Miami’s Perfect Weekend and highly recommend it. It was fun, there was family interaction, Michael and Tre were great together and the love between them was quite apparent. The sex was some of the hottest by this writing team so be warned! These characters were definitely three dimensional and I felt that they were so real I would not have been surprised to meet either or both of them on the street. What I like best about the story is there was no issue about the fact that the protags were of different racial backgrounds – the book didn’t make a big deal about the black/white thing and the reader was therefore able to see them just as men in love with each other.
Once again Jamie Craig have written a terrific book which I really enjoyed. The sequel to this book, Calendar Boys December: First and Always is available now and is also reviewed on the blog.
Does sounds good, but…read answer to sequel story. My head says it has to be really good, but my heart just doesn’t feel much enthusiam. It happens. Mistaken identity, guys jumping into bed straight away…nah, just don’t feel like it. I do like how they Chistmas-ized this cover for the December sequel thought 😀
Mary
You have to remember that in real life guys don’t need weeks of courting before they do the deed.
Bobby Michaels wrote a very interesting post a few weeks ago and I’m enclosing the link
http://looseidauthors.blogspot.com/2008/11/bobby-michaels-realities-of-sex-from.html
This post outlines the differences between books written by gay men and those written by female M/M authors. I have a few gay friends and this is exactly what they do. But I understand if you want the fantasy *g*
Lol. Getting the fantasy is the point of reading for me :). Remember, I’m the Gay for You fan :-DD As long as it’s believable, I don’t mind if it’s not completely realistic, if that makes sense. I rather expect that unattached gay men who are attracted to each other would see no harm in having sex right away… if straight men had the chance to do that with women, I’m sure they would too. It’s not that I dislike stories when they have sex immediately, they are just not the ones that have my preference. Especially with the encounter in a bar. It’s too… common. Too everyday. As you said, I like the fantasy :). But I’m sure the characters are more than worth it.
Funny you should mention “Gay for You”. I came across a post on the Loose-id authors’ site which I saved for you. Here’s the link. I guess it’s validation for your point of view – you will notice that I didn’t comment *g*
http://looseidauthors.blogspot.com/2008/11/gay-for-you.html
So many of my gay friends beat me up about this and other unrealistic themes in M/M books. I enjoy a few of them like a couple of the Heaven Sent stories by Jet, but on the whole I avoid this theme.
I do realize that many women just want the fantasy in contemporary M/M stories, regardless of whether it makes sense. I try to save my fantasy reading for the genre of the book (paranormals, etc). but I do understand the lure 🙂
Thanks for the link 🙂 I feel like I’ve seen that post before, except it wasn’t on that site. Weird.
Anyway, in return I can absolutely undertsand why some people, and most gay men, would not like the gay for you storyline…but I can’t get over the “romantism” of one person turning your whole view of the world upside-down and making you willing to do things you would do for no one else in the world. I’m just wired that way :).
Jet blogs on Fiction with Friction so that’s probably where you saw this post. I hear you about the romanticism of the “gay for you concept” *snicker*