Title: Nowhere Diner: Finding Love
Author: TA Chase
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: Novel / 130 pages
Rating: 2 out of 5
A guest review by Kassa
THE BLURB:
Leaving Minnesota, Timothy Gapin doesn’t have any plans except getting as far away from all the memories as he can before his money runs out. His secret lover has married, breaking his heart and making him chose a life in the open rather than a relationship built on lies.
Little does Tim know that four days later he would grab dinner at a diner and find a place to stop. Somehow this diner in the middle of nowhere becomes his home and the people who work there his family. In addition to the workers at the diner, Tim meets Bernie Capley, a long-haul trucker who isn’t all he seems to be.
Falling in love with Bernie is easy for Tim, but the past has a way of barging into the present, forcing decisions that affect their future…
THE REVIEW:
This unfortunate offering is sadly boring, stereotypical, unoriginal, and lacks interest even during the sex scenes. The characters are flat, one-dimensional at best and most often reflect staid, predictable reactions that lack energy, vitality, and emotional depth. Not to mention, the last 30 pages are unnecessary, gratuitous and offer nothing to the story itself except prolonging the happy ending. I can’t recommend this book and I’d suggest even fans skip this offering and stay with one of Chase’s better stories.
The premise is that Timothy Gapin is fleeing Minnesota after his closeted lover/best friend has gotten married. Trying to find a new life for himself, Tim lands in Gay Utopia and finds immediate work at a diner. He also finds a rich, new boyfriend. When Tim’s uncle suddenly falls ill, Tim must go back to Minnesota and face not only his ex-boyfriend but also his ex’s new wife.
The story itself lacks any interesting action and contains almost no tension or conflict. If the characters and action had actually had some depth of conflict and originality, the common place themes would get a fresh spin. Told in first person, past tense from Tim’s perspective, the narrative opens as Tim leaves behind the love of his life Aaron and gets on a bus to find a new life. A few days later Tim is at a bus stop in Texas and happens to be in the right place at the right time to immediately get a job and a place to live in what appears to be the Gay Paradise of Texas. Everyone in the diner is either gay or gay friendly and is best described by this quote from the book:
I shook my head and chuckled. “It’s like falling into a gay fantasy land. Everyone’s either queer or they don’t mind people being gay. I didn’t think Texas would be so open to differences.”
“Don’t expect things to be the same when you go elsewhere. Cookie’s Diner is one of the few places where you’ll be accepted for who you are. Cookie doesn’t allow anyone to talk bad about anyone else, and I, for one, appreciate it.” Cynthia jumped to her feet. “Got a new customer. Hey, have fun on your date tomorrow night.”
It was a gay utopia populated by a bunch of gossips.
So here in Nowhere, Texas, everyone is gay from the cops to the waitress and so on; lucky Tim landed in such a safe, happy place. This sets the story up to have an entirely too easy feel and shows there will be nothing in the context to draw the eye and keep the reader interested. Even when Tim has to go back to Minnesota and his sexuality is exposed, there is almost little to no backlash. The one person who may have an issue with the situation is predictable, stereotypical, and utterly flat as the typical, hate mongering gay basher. This marks the very lack of originality, creativity, and interest that plagues this entire story. There is nothing fresh or new in this story that hasn’t been told numerous times before and there is almost no real action. The story can’t quite decide what the purpose is – a sweet, easy love story or a troubled, young adult learning what true love is after hardship? Neither one actually fits the story but it seems to dance between the two superficially.
The characters themselves are weak and severely underdeveloped. They are mostly empty placeholders to express the right emotion or acceptance as Tim moves around the story. From Bernie’s instant love and financial help to Aaron’s shift towards the end to make Tim’s moving on acceptable, even to Valerie (Aaron’s wife) and her bizarre friendship with Tim – there is no emotional depth to any of the characters nor any personality. All of the characters, including Tim, are somewhat bland, boring, and completely homogenized so they lack any spark or anything unique and interesting. The story offers little to no depth either as Tim is over the love of his life and in love with Bernie in a matter of weeks mostly due a series of very convenient details. This use of the convenience takes any tension or conflict out of the story, as even the uncle’s illness is easy, handled quickly and without drama.
There are several disconnected and contradicting details added from Bernie’s explanations of his military past and exercise regime to Tim’s later Oprah like advice and public outing of another person’s sexuality. These contradictions are obvious and glaring, which jars the reading of the story even more. The last thirty pages are gratuitous and for the sole purpose of adding more sex, prolonging the happy ending and setting up a future sequel with other characters. None of it added to the already happy, in love couple or the sequel.
Overall this isn’t a difficult story to read but it lacks any interest and I found myself bored almost immediately and that never seemed to let up. I’ve explained the problems I had with the book and perhaps others will find the story more interesting than I did. It reads very much like an older novel with the classic issues and characters. I would suggest skipping this book and perhaps fans of the author can re-read a favored classic of Chase’s.
Hmmmm. I don’t agree (:P). I read this book when it first came out and loved it. Yes, it might be a bit stereotypical, but I read very few e-book that aren’t these days. It is not so much the plot itself as how it is told and I found it refreshing.
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The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the lack of development around the Aaron story. The news about what happened in the past didn’t go with how the story started.
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I do know what you mean about often being bored with stories. I recently took a little hiatus in reading e-books and went back to reading paperbacks for a while. Sometimes after reading a lot of e-books it can all become a blut and you get the “been there done that (a lot)” feeling.
Hi Larissa,
I’m glad you liked it! I do agree there is a feeling of been there, done that to most books and therefore it’s usually something new or refreshing on a classic theme that makes the book enjoyable. Here (unlike you) I didn’t find it refreshing but instead staid. It felt recycled to me in many ways and thus I didn’t enjoy the book unfortunately.
I do know that many readers enjoyed the book. Hey, I check goodreads. So each person is different and if this is another book I’m a lone tree in a sea of “i loved it!” thats ok too. I am very interested in hearing what parts readers liked best or not.
Kas, that’s the thing with stories. Sometimes you like them and sometimes you don’t. I didn’t mean to say your review wasn’t good or anything! In fact it is quite the opposite, I just didn’t agree with it 😉
Hi Kassa
This is a very thoughtful review and you have explained clearly which bits you didn’t like. I haven’t read this book so I can’t comment but well done for sticking your head over the parapet and telling us why this book didn’t work for you.
I haven’t read it, either, so can’t comment on the book itself. But Kassa, you really did make every effort to explain your stance as thoroughly as possible. It’s this degree of detail that sets apart Wave’s reviewers.
Hi, Kassa, I think the hive-mind may have been in effect with you and me when we each read this book. 🙂 You had the same reaction I did, but more so.
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The total lack of conflict — well, not just that, but what seemed to me to be conscious choices to dampen opportunities for natural conflict to develop — just floored me. I couldn’t understand it, and I tried to guess at some reasons in my review.
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For example, maybe the author wanted to present unflawed gay characters in a gay-friendly world to help effect change by fictional example? “Be the change you want to see,” or whatever it was that Gandhi said. But who knows?
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Excellent review! It was way more detailed and analytical than mine. I learn a great deal from your reviews. If I can ever get any fiction published, I truly TRULY want you to review it in the same don’t-hold-back way you did this one. I think that an honest, fearless, perceptive reviewer can be the best instructor a writer can hope for to help him or her improve. 🙂
I’m really going out on a limb here, and I don’t mean to be presumptuous by ascribing motives with which I’m wholly unfamiliar, but…
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Maybe this was intended to be a kind of contemporary, real-world “fantasy” that depicts a utopian vision (hence the name of the town and diner: they’re too good to be true and therefore don’t really exist). Guess this is along the lines of what Val said.
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Just an authorly thought. I suppose the thought would carry more weight, though, if I actually read the book. (Oy, forgive me!)
“(hence the name of the town and diner: they’re too good to be true and therefore don’t really exist).”
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Oooh, I like that connection / interpretation of the title. I hadn’t thought of that …
Kassa,
Thank you so much for the review. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it at all. As an author, I could wish that everyone loved every single book I wrote, but alas, that doesn’t happen. 🙂 And I’m smart enough to know that.
Your review was well thought out and helpful in many ways as I figure out what worked and didn’t work in this story.
Hopefully, this didn’t turn you off my books. 🙂 And you’ll give me another try.
Thank you again.
Kassa
I am fan of this author but hadn’t read this book so can’t comment on the elements of the story to say whether or not I agree with the review. However, you always do such a thoughtful, incisive and insightful job on your reviews, which is one of the reasons I admire them. Reading the review I saw where the story did not endear itself to you and I probably would have come to the same conclusion but my review would not have been as eloquent. Sean Kennedy said “There is no gaytopia and if there were they are keeping it a secret from me” or something along those lines, and he also mentioned that he wanted to live in a well rounded society.
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I guess the lesson here is that we live in a world where there will be differences of opinions and outlook, and books, even fantasy M/M books, should at times reflect the world we live in.
Thank you for the comments Jen and KZ. It’s always difficult to write negative reviews (especially knowing others liked the book) so I’m glad that my review was thorough and explained my point of view. Emphasizing it is MY point of view – not everyone’s.
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Thanks for the comment Val! I was wondering if we had a mind meld on this or come to blows *grins*. I’m still thinking of a book for dueling reviews so if you have ideas, offer please!
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OOo you know KZ if that was the intention, I can say I totally missed that. To me, the purpose was to focus the story on the characters rather than a potentially anti-gay setting but that’s just a guess. Very interesting idea.
“I’m still thinking of a book for dueling reviews so if you have ideas, offer please!”
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Oh, we totally could have done it on Cultivating Love had we only known! 🙂
[“I’m still thinking of a book for dueling reviews so if you have ideas, offer please!”
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Oh, we totally could have done it on Cultivating Love had we only known! 🙂 ]
Ha! We don’t really need Kassa’s thoughts on Cultivating Love getting more air time, do we? LOL! Although if posted alongside yours, Val, I suppose I could relive that experience. 😀
I just want to point out, I didn’t bring it up! My thoughts are welcome to stay in obscurity and I have let them stay there. *just wants to yanno point that out!*
Soon there are going to be Kassa voodoo dolls passed out before my reviews.
I’ll pass on the voodoo dolls since you’re rec’ing my short stories. 😀
“I just want to point out, I didn’t bring it up!”
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Very true. I’m afraid that it just popped out of my mouth, ha, ha!
You’ve got to admit, Addison, it definitely was a case of totally opposite reviews, ha, ha! That kind of thing can be fascinating when it happens — well, not the negative part to the author, true, but more the unpredictable presence, and then absence, of the reviewer hive-mind! 🙂
TA,
Thank you for the very kind words. I’m sorry this was my reaction, never want to read a book I don’t like but it’s not put me off your work. In fact, Tabloid Star is in my TBR pile. I’m glad the review was helpful to you but it’s just my opinion. Trust me, not everyone agrees with me :D.
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Hi Wave, thank you for the kind comments. Perhaps this one would have been good for a dueling review. Either way it’s only my opinion and I’m glad that I was able to articulate why and let others make their own decisions.
Having not read it (yet), I cannot say for sure but… maybe this would fall under what I call “brain candy”. No real thought on the reader’s part is required. It is just a nice easy read like a stroll on a sunny day. I admit I like that sometimes, but I would want to know it is like that going into it. So now that I am aware – I will read it when I am in “that” kind of mood.