Pomegranate

Title: Pomegranate
Author: Vic Winter
Publisher: Torquere
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: short story (10K, 26 PDF pages)
Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5

Summary Review:  Too much wedding planning and not enough romance.

THE BLURB

Davey is proud of his business, Pomegranate weddings. He’s built it from the ground up, and couldn’t be happier to be putting on his best friends’ wedding and reception. He’s even hired his best photographer, Alan to work the ceremony and reception.

Alan would love to be more than an employee to Davey, but he’s not sure how to get close enough to make it happen. What he doesn’t know is that Davey shares his desires. Can Davey find a happy ending for them like he had for so many of his clients?

THE REVIEW

Pomegrante Weddings was very successful and Davey was happy to comp his best friends’ Darren’s and Peter’s wedding because they had been good to him when he really needed a friend, after his family threw him out when he came out. His favourite photographer Alan would be attending to take the pictures and Davey could not be happier.

I learned a lot about the wedding planning business, as the author gave us what I thought was way too much information – from the description of the centerpiece on the cake, a statue of Persephone carved in ice with real pomegranate seeds spilling out around her feet, to the decor of the Reception Hall, and every single detail of what was on the menu. Davey even checked on the coat-checker to make sure that everything was according to plan. I did understand his anxiety since this was a special wedding, but some of the information seemed a bit of a overkill.

Alan, who had been photographing Davey’s weddings for almost a year, took so many pictures of the grooms I thought it was lucky that he was taking digital photographs or he might have run out of  film if he were using a conventional camera. Here’s how the author described his activities that day, and this was only the beginning of his photography marathon:

Alan took pictures of Darren and Peter each getting ready for the ceremony. He took pictures of them getting into the Model T Ford replica, which would take them to the park where they were having their ceremony. He took pictures of them getting out of the Model T at the park. He took pictures as they walked up the makeshift aisle to where an arched trellis stood, covered in vines with red berries. In other words, he was a picture taking fool.

Both men seemed to want a deeper connection so I couldn’t understand why nothing had happened between them in the year they had known and wanted each other, since neither had a significant other. It could have been the boss/employee relationship but that didn’t seem to be an impediment once things got going.

I really wanted to like Pomegranate a lot more. For starters it was set in Toronto where I live, something that doesn’t happen often, but I found too many things wrong with the story. First, Davey was characterized as the stereotypical fussy, flaming queen and I thought that was too easy for a wedding planner. There was not enough information about Davey’s and Alan’s romance until almost the end of the book so I didn’t really get to know them as a couple. Also, there were too many spelling errors for such a short story, which prevented me from fully enjoying it. However the end of the book did make up for a few of my issues and I thought that Davey’s and Alan’s HEA was quite appropriate for a wedding planner and his photographer BFF.

To be a wedding planner I suppose one would have to be a bit anal, but I was overwhelmed with  the details of the wedding at the expense of the romance, although the sex was good and the love between Davey and Alan seemed genuine.

If you like weddings you will love Pomegranate.