Title: Positive Possibilities
Author: Shayla Kersten
Publisher: jasminejade.com
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: novella
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
Chicago attorney Gabe Layton’s life has just turned upside down. His lover of six years is cheating and his supposedly straight best friend of twenty-something years claims to be in love with him. Throw in that his cheating ex has possibly exposed him to HIV and Gabe’s world is a confusing place.
Paramedic Dean Bannon has always been attracted to both sexes, but after seeing his lifelong friend Gabe deal with prejudice and hate, staying on the straight and narrow seemed an easier path. But his deepening feelings for Gabe push him to reveal his hidden side. Now to convince Gabe of the positive possibilities of taking their friendship to another level.
THE REVIEW
Gabe Layton walks into his apartment preparing to surprise his live-in lover with a home cooked dinner to make up for not being available due to his work schedule, but he was the one who was surprised because Lou, his partner, was busy having sex bareback with another man. The twink with Lou even has the gall to ask Gabe whether he wants to have a threesome. When the red in front of his eyes cleared Gabe told Lou that it was over and he would have to find another place to live immediately, since the apartment was in Gabe’s name and he paid for everything. They had been together for 6 years and Gabe’s main concern was whether his health had been compromised because he had no idea if Lou was HIV poz since this was obviously not the first time he had had bareback sex with other men.
Gabe calls his best friend of 20 years, Dean Bannon, to tell him about the breakup, and then proceeds to get drunk at the closest bar, which is where Dean found him. After taking Gabe home with him Dean realizes that the attraction he had been feeling for some time for his best friend was getting out of hand that night because of Gabe’s constant touching in his drunken state. By the time they were settled in his apartment Dean’s arousal had reached critical mass and he and Gabe ended up kissing and touching each other intimately. The next morning Gabe had only a fuzzy memory of the previous evening but he knew that something was up, and eventually Drew told him what had happened the night before.
Gabe could not understand how his very straight friend had suddenly switched from het to gay, but Drew confessed that he had had bisexual leanings since high school but he never followed through, and he hadn’t told Gabe because he didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.
I had some difficulty (in terms of believability) with the plot because Dean and Gabe were over 35, they had been best friends for most of their lives, they shared secrets with each other as best friends do, Dean always knew that Gabe was gay, yet he had never told him that he was either bi curious or bisexual? On the other hand, it took only one drunken night on Gabe’s part for Dean to admit that he was in love with him. Also, I could understand that while Gabe was still with Lou Dean would not want to come between them and tell Gabe about his feelings, but just a few hours after the break-up he was declaring himself in love. It just seemed a bit premature to be doing so while Lou had not yet moved out of Gabe’s apartment, and there was the possibility that Gabe could be on the rebound.
I enjoyed this book despite it’s very thin and somewhat implausible plot because the writing was very good, the dialogue was funny, the story was fast paced, and Shayla Kersten did an excellent job on the protagonists. The entire story took place within 48 hours so I guess the storyline had to be rushed. I thought that Gabe was very reasoned in his approach to Dean, who became the aggressor in initiating a sexual relationship and wanting to rush into making it permanent.
Dean and Gabe were great characters and quite likable and Lou played the part of the sleazy ex boyfriend very well. I think you will enjoy the guys and their transition from long time best friends to lovers.
Some of that plot sounds familiar, I guess as we know there are only so many variations out there. I read this author for the first time when it was my “Choose it for Me” book on Good Reads last month. I enjoyed the style although there wasn’t any humour in the books I read as they were darker in tone than this sounds. Sometimes if the rest is good you can get past the incongruities in a plot. Might be worth checking out. Great review.
Tam
She’s a pretty good writer. I have 3 more books of hers that I read and will be reviewing soon (I was just in that kind of mood, and while they were not sequels they had some of the same characters reappearing in each book, so I was hooked)*g*
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I quite liked the characters, so in the end the plot, or lack of one wasn’t of prime importance to me. Happens sometimes.:)
Good review, Wave! This sounds interesting. I’m surprised that it’s coming out through Ellora’s Cave. I’d heard awhile back that they specified they no longer wanted m/m submissions because the m/m “trend” in e-publishing is supposedly over. I mean, whoa! Seriously?
Val
1. This is not a new book – it’s at least 6 months old.
2.When I reviewed Private Dicks, I told the author that EC was no longer going to be publishing M/M. The publisher or one of the editors had told their M/M authors not to submit any more ms, since that boat had sailed. Her Editor in Chief dropped by the site and indicated that I must be mistaken because EC had no such policy, so I emailed her and sent along a copy of the memo from EC which several of their authors had forwarded to me.
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They have now reversed said policy (because of the popularity of M/M and nothing to do with the discussion on the site, I’m sure) so we can now expect a lot more books in this sub genre from EC.
Wow, and you had evidence (a copy of the memo)! This still gives me the impression that Ellora’s Cave is chasing a money-making trend rather than having a deeper commitment to publishing m/m, but … I guess there’s nothing wrong with making money. 🙂 As long as m/m books keep coming out, I’ll be happy.
You said it Val. As long as quality books keep coming they can make their money off them.