Safe in Paris

Title:Safe in Paris
Author: Shara Bloodstone
Cover artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Amazon buy link: N/A
Genre: contemporary mm romance
Length: Novella (26k words)
Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

A guest review by Sirius

Summary: For me, this novella felt like the weakest entry in this publisher’s Masquerade series that I have read to date.

Blurb:

Indiana farm boy Thomas Waldron’s dream of going urban has finally been realized. After graduating from NYU, he moves to Paris to study the art and science of perfume-making. Surrounded by beauty, culture and the promise of a bright future, each day in that city reminds him how far he’s come. The only thing missing is someone special to share it with.

When Thomas contacts an old friend of his uncle’s, he meets the man’s handsome son, Paul, instead. And, when Paul Duchamp opens the door to his inner circle of friends, Thomas gets a taste of how lavishly the “other half” lives. Mutual attraction between Thomas and Paul quickly blossoms into something deeper.

One night, at a party in the Duchamp’s luxurious apartment, Thomas suspects that two of Paul’s supposed friends have plans to break into Paul’s father’s safe and steal from the family. Thomas wonders if he should alert Paul, but as a newcomer, he fears he might be in error, or come off as a snitch, or even be perceived as trying to push old friends apart. Thomas is torn over what to do…say nothing, or reveal the plans to the man he’s coming to love, either cementing a bond of trust or driving a wedge between them.

When the college where Paul studied art hosts the Bal des Beaux Arts, a masquerade ball notorious for unbridled eroticism, Paul invites Thomas to attend with him. As the night progresses amid carnal pleasures in secret catacombs beneath the college campus, Thomas sees Paul’s thieving friends in attendance, and the entire affair comes to a head…

Review:

I have come to love Amber Allure Masquerade series. As previously stated, these are completely stand alone novellas, and the only thing the stories have in common is that the guys meet their future loves during a masque ball and the masque featured on the cover will make appearance in the story. Unfortunately Safe in Paris was the most boring and forgettable entry in these series for me. The blurb tries to give you the impression that there is intrigue, tension and conflict in this story, but this is not the case. The whole affair with the theft comes to light quite fast and there is not much, if any, suspense, or anything to that effect. Tom’s “to say or not to say” does not last for a long time at all. Additionally, I did not notice any other attempt to create conflict in the story and this attempt to me felt weak.

Tom is attracted to Paul right away, but for a little while tries to hide his attraction, and when he realizes that Paul is just as attracted, all is well pretty much. It is too bad I did not really care whether they would get together or not, partially because their interactions felt so wooden to me. Liana, Paul’s former girlfriend, to me was one of the most annoying and borderline offensive portrayals of women in m/m fiction. The most charitable words I can call Liana would be a selfish, ungrateful, homophobic biotch. I wonder if a bisexual woman could be called homophobic and I do not see a reason why not.

Paul’s attitude towards Liana’s bisexuality was no less annoying and bizarre to me. Here is how he describes to Tom his past relationship with Liana:

“You know,” Paul drawled, “it’s not like I ever judged her for going off with girls. I put up with it for years. One day, I just got sick of it. I mean, if you are going to be with one person, be with that person, for God’s sake. Cheating is still cheating, I don’t care which sex you are with. If you are going to be monogamous, be monogamous”.

I mean on one hand it is all very nice, and I totally agree that cheating is cheating no matter which sex you are with, but Paul’s tirade as a whole just felt bizarre to me. I thought it felt like he was wanting to have his cake and eat it too. He did not judge Liana for going with the girls? That’s great, but isn’t that what he is doing in this paragraph? Just say you are fed up of her cheating ways, and that is why you broke up. I felt like I was missing something.

In any event, this story, while technically decently written, bored me out of my mind and every more or less important character — Paul, Tom and Liana — took their turns as being annoying at one time or another during the story.

I also for the first time did not like how the masquerade theme was used in this story, which was my main initial attraction to these series (for some reason I love the idea of meeting the love of your life at the masque ball). But in this story, the masquerade happens sort of after the fact; the guys already know each other and quite in love. Nothing really important happens there, and while the blurb will tell you that it does, I just do not agree.

Recommended only if you are the fan of the author and with reservations at that.