VGL Male Seeks Same

Title: VGL Male Seeks Same
Author: Rick R. Reed
Publisher: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure
Genre: Contemporary GLBT (M/M)
Length: Novella (21K words)
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

THE BLURB

Poor Ethan Schwartz. It seems like he will never find that special someone. At age 42, he’s still alone, his bed still empty, and his 42-inch HDTV overworked. He’s tried the bars and other places where gay men are supposed to find one another, but for Ethan, it never works out. He wonders if it ever will. Should he get a cat?

But all of that is about to change. At work, Ethan hears about a website that promises to deliver more than just the tawdry hook-ups associated with so many other sites. Ethan wants romance, and although he’s always been a little shy about the whole cyber-dating scene, he figures he has nothing to lose. Well, maybe he does have something to lose: his self-esteem. After he posts his profile, he gets zero responses. But Ethan realizes one thing about the cyberworld that isn’t true in the real one: Online, Ethan can be anyone he wants to be.

And a new persona is born. The new Ethan is handsome (with someone else’s pic) and the sudden recipient of dozens of online come-ons. What Ethan doesn’t count on, however, is finding—among the propositions and the flattery—his one true love. Not just a gorgeous man, but one who suits him in almost every way. How does Ethan turn his budding cyber love into a real one? And can he hang on to his mystery suitor without turning him off with his deception?

THE REVIEW

Ethan is in a similar situation as most middle aged, single, gay men whose television size is the same as their age . He is competing with hard bodied twenty somethings who are busy text messaging each other checking out the slim pickings available on the “meet” market. He’s frustrated that he hasn’t had sex in three years other than with his own hand, despite doing all the right things. He’s moved to a gay-friendly neighbourhood, gone to gay bars to try to hook up but had given up after being a wall flower too many times, he kept his body in the best possible condition for his age, moisturized and waxed the areas that needed it, he went to the gym regularly and adopted healthy eating habits. He’s done everything recommended by the experts to get his man, to no avail. He’s now desperate, as his dreams of a lifelong companion fade and he faces a lonely old age.

Grim picture isn’t it? But Ethan is not the type of man to give up, so he comes up with a plan after overhearing a conversation at work about a new website for singles. He put together a profile for “Stagedoorjohnny” complete with picture, uploaded his information to the online dating site and sat back to wait for all those responses to come rolling in. But there are no nibbles on his baited hook! No one was interested in poor Ethan other than spammers trying to interest him in a bigger penis (his own). Was he going to accept the “loser” tag once again? No siree. He conceives another plan described by the author “like a sperm penetrating the walls of an egg” This new plan is somewhat daring – he revises his profile and changes his picture to that of a hot looking forty something he had ripped off another site, Hot or Not, and waited for his new life to begin. As his in-box overflows with propositions ranging from guys who wanted to suck, f**k, and be f**ked by him and even lick his feet, one response from someone named Brian seemed like the answer to his dreams. But was going down this road going to lead to a heartbreak hotel?

The author, Rick Reed, has a wonderful sense of humour and timing. His characterization of Ethan was superb and consequently I had no difficulty imagining him sitting in his tiny, fussy, bachelor apartment getting mad at all the action he was missing out on. He had a boring job, the gay office receptionist “Bubbles” who was not at all helpful, had no respect for Ethan’s position and gets on his last nerve, sex was non existent and generally life sucked. Then out of the blue comes Brian who just might be his knight in shining armour but there is an emerging problem, a major fly in the ointment, when Brian has flowers delivered to Ethan’s office and he realizes that his cover is about to be blown before anything else gets a chance to be blown 🙂

This is the first story I have read by Rick R. Reed and if this is at all representative of his writing he’ll become an auto buy for me. His timing is superb, his prose is exceptional and his characterizations are to die for. I was totally invested in Ethan and I felt every slight, imagined or real, that he experienced. Parts of this story were so poignant as Ethan looked at his life stretching before him with no one to share it that I could feel his pain. For such a short book it really moved me and there was even a surprise ending that Ethan found when he had to pee. I could do no less than give VGL Male Seeks Same five stars. Buy this book.