Title: Conventional Education
Author: T.C. Blue
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance.
Length: 74 pages
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
THE BLURB
When good friends and sometime-lovers-of-convenience meet again at a convention, sparks fly, but between Trent’s new job working for Neverwhere Games and Lucas’ co-star shocking the world, things get complicated.
Months later, during another convention, Trent and Lucas are faced with betrayal and manipulation from an unexpected source. Can they find a way to make things work or will their whole relationship suffer from an unexpected Conventional Education?
THE REVIEW
Conventional Education is the sequel to the excellent Conventional Wisdom (reviewed HERE) which I had enjoyed a great deal. That particular novella had ending with a promise of things to come and so I was very much looking forward to spending some more time with Trent and Lucas and seeing how they have managed their long distance relationship.
The book begins a few months after the previous story. Trent, the geeky goth, is now working from home in DC as a programmer for a games company based in LA. The boss of the company, Mac, is putting pressure on Trent to move to LA, which is making the rather stubborn Trent dig his heels in a bit. Trent is also concerned that Mac doesn’t really seem very interested in his ideas and keeps trying to get him to work on an entirely unsuitable shoot-em-up for young children. Lucas is still the lead actor in a well received paranormal detective show. The pair meet up again at a convention in Michigan where they are keen to act on all the frustrating phone calls they’ve experienced since they last met.
The story follows three different themes. Firstly there is that of Trent and his increasingly uncomfortable relationship with his boss, Mac, and the games company he works for. I quite liked this storyline, even if I was disappointed for Trent. I thought it showed a certain naivety in Trent’s character which is slightly at odds with the confident exterior he shows to the world. I was less happy about the way the story progressed because the whole thing became a little overblown and slightly unbelievable and I began to wonder whether what happened would be something that reflected real life. However, never having had experience with big business, I couldn’t be sure, so I let it pass.
The second theme is that of Lucas and his co-star, Richard, who suddenly comes out to the world. I liked this theme a great deal. Richard was a very sympathetic character, as was his partner, Terence, and I thought that the way this contrasted with Lucas’ closeted life was cleverly done. There was lots of comedy to be had when Lucas realises that Richard has already cottoned on to his relationship with Trent and I found myself giggling at Lucas’ expense a few times.
The final theme is that of the relationship between Trent and Lucas. I had mixed feelings about this. Their interactions are mostly made up of rampant sex, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I found myself wishing that I could have at least some interaction between them with them wearing clothes. It is mentioned several times that the two men do talk to one another outside the bedroom, off page, but I would have liked to see that happen a bit more than it did. That way, when they start to develop feelings for one another, it would have seemed less to do with sexual compatibility than it did. Even their commitment to each other seemed less about ‘I love you’ and more about bareback sex, and the romantic in me would have liked to have seen a little more emotional as well as physical engagement. I was a little worried about the ending too. I can’t say too much about this as I don’t want to give away spoilers, but it did seem that Trent had to give up an awful lot, whereas Lucas got to have his cake and eat it. I’m hoping that there may be a third book about this pair as I still had a lot of unanswered questions about their relationship which need answering before I can be happy with their HEA.
So overall, whilst this book is well written, with sympathetic characters and hot sex, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Conventional Wisdom. I’d still recommend it as a great book to read, especially for those who, like me, are already fans of Trent and Lucas, but would suggest that you read Conventional Wisdom first as this book does assume a little knowledge of the previous story.
Jenre
>>but I found myself wishing that I could have at least some interaction between them with them wearing clothes. << * Whenever I read an M/M romance I always try to put myself in the place of the protagonists, who are men. I'm reminded all the time by my gay friends that men are not prone to angst and romanticism, and the way their relationship goes most of the time is pretty well what seems to be the theme in this book. Not that men aren't capable of being romantic, and sometimes they may do all the things that we (as women) expect, but it only happens about 25% of the time, if that. 😀 * I guess what I'm saying is that this book probably runs true to form for many M/M relationships, and maybe we (and I include myself) sometimes are disappointed because a book is not the story we wish the author had written.
Hi Wave
I think my problem stemmed from the fact that we are told that they do interact with their clothes on but this was not really shown on page.
*
I know that many men are not too good about talking about their feelings and I appreciate that in a m/m book then a lack of communication will always be an issue, but if a book is going be flagged as a romance, then that romantic attachment must be shown in ways other than sexual interaction.