Title:Profound in His Silence
Author: G.R. Richards
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Buy Link Amazon:
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance, M/M/M
Length: 17k words
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
A guest review by Sirius
Summary: It started well with rehearsals of the opera, but it ended with a sexual encounter which infuriated me and made me dislike this story immensely.
Blurb:
Will an opera novice snag the leading role…or the leading man?
For a cocky young opera performer, there sure are a lot of things Charles has never done. Until he snags the title role in a new production of Debussy’s impressionist opera Pelléas et Mélisande, he’s never even played a part outside the men’s chorus.
Rehearsals are hell with a merciless director like Jean-Luc, but Charles’s conversations with co-star Bo make the days bearable. In fact, things just keep getting better when the director finally admits that his artistic vision involves strong homoerotic overtones. Charles can get on board with that idea, on stage and also in his budding relationship with Bo, but in this domain, too, there are things Charles has never done.
Can Bo assuage Charles’s fears on his own, or will the director need to take charge once again?
Review:
I love the stories which let me look behind the scenes of various performing arts and when I saw that this story takes place during the rehearsal of an opera, I decided to try it. The first part of the story was interesting enough. I did not know that Pelléas et Mélisande was a real opera, so it was educational for me as well. While I would have loved to have seen a more detailed look behind the scenes of the opera, but I realized that the story is short and was quite okay with what the writer chose to put on the page.
The blurb pretty much tells us the story (almost anyway); Charles is a young singer who is cast in a leading role for the first time in his life. Charles and his costar Bo start an affair while they are rehearsing with the very strict director. I did not think that they had much chemistry together, but I suppose I could buy that costars often have affairs to release stress if nothing else. Eh, the story was moving along to be somewhere around 3.5, maybe even 3.75 read for me. I even felt that I got to know Charles somewhat as a character.
That all changed drastically when we get to the last quarter of the story, which made me drop the rating to what you see it and made me wonder whether it should be even lower. Let’s just say that the sex scene that happens in that part of the story offended me. Read further if you want to know why:
[spoiler name=” <== expand for spoiler”] See, when Bo and Charles have sex, we learn that Charles is terrified of anal sex. In the past he was hurt after trying it. Not raped, but his partner was clumsy and Charles bled a lot from it. The guy stopped right away, but Charles does not have good memories and now he is terrified. While Bo seems supportive and thinks Charles needs a good experience to overcome his bad one, he does not want to hurt him, and of course he does not.Time goes by, previews of the opera approaches. The director pulls Charles into his cabinet and explains to him that he and Bo have known each other for some time — intimately that is — and he had been jealous. Basically he wants to fuck Charles in the ass, because Bo told him that Charles never had it, and he had been quite jealous of Bo.
“There is only one way to keep Bo in this performance,” Jean-Luc hissed, rubbing his erection against Charles’s hard cock. “Let me fuck your ass.”
Every muscle in Charles’s body clenched, and his breath caught in his throat. He thought about the blood and the pain and it made him nauseous but he was more baffled than anything else. “I don’t understand why. Since when do you want to fuck me? This doesn’t make any sense”.
So Charles tells the director to withdraw him from the part, but no deal, Jean-Luc wants his ass and Charles agrees. He would do anything for Bo.
I was quite angry at this point, and I did not know what would come next. After Jean-Luc makes Charles enjoy anal sex — and want more and more and more — Bo shows up. It was all a set up. See Bo did not want to be the man who hurts Charles, but he was sure that Charles needed to overcome his experiences, so he and Jean-Luc cooked up this plan. Oh, and the best was that Bo was not even sure that it would work, but if Jean-Luc were to hurt Charles again, Bo and Charles’ relationship would not suffer because it was Jean-Luc — not Bo — who did the hurting. So, let me get this straight, not only do we have what I see as rape masquerading as some kind of therapy for a prior bad sexual experience, but Bo is willing to betray his lover’s secrets knowing that he may get hurt again?
And have I mentioned that they end up having sex together? All three of them?
I do not care if Charles enjoyed it afterwards, I do not care if it was not violent. He was tricked into having sex with somebody he never thought of having sex on his own. And if the writer meant to show me that Charles subconsciously wanted the director before, I did not notice any indication of that in the text.
Some will call this “dubious consent,” but not me. And I do realize that this is completely subjective, this major issue I had with this story. Rape, even in the form of therapy and even in a fictional story, offends me if the allegedly “good guy” does that. I do not enjoy the graphic descriptions of sexual violence — or any violence, for that matter — but if it fits the story, I will not shy away from it. I can and had read many stories where the main character was recovering from a rape done by the villain. But this was something else entirely. The good guy did it to Charles and it is portrayed as a healing and therapeutic act. It may not bother others, and if that is your cup of tea, then this will be a story for you.[/spoiler]
Not recommended. Cover is nice though.
oh shudders. The same thing that bothered you would me too – I’ll stay clear of this. Thanks for the warning.
Any time. And I still think that some warning to this effect should have been in the blurb.
Oh, dear god… Thank you! I’m sooooo skipping this.
Glad to be of service LadyM. Thanks for commenting :). This was one of the most surprising endings I have ever read, but not in a good way.
WoW. That sounds INFURIATING. I am gladly skipping this one.
Thanks
D
You are welcome Danielle. Thanks for commenting.
My head would have exploded reading that scene. It is rape and an abuse of power (Charles’ boss forces him to have sex to make sure his bf doesn’t lose his job). The resulting threesomes with the “rapists” would have been the final straw.
I am not sure why some authors think forced sex is romantic, have we not moved past the Rosemary Rogers plot of the 1970’s? Skipping.
Hi Lasha, I have no problem with rape fantasies books, and I know they are quite popular, just really not something what I enjoy. But as I mentioned to kiracee, IMO this book does not even count as rape fantasy, not that I am a big expert on what counts as erotic and sensual scene (if we forget what have lead to it), but to me it was not it.
Definitely the publisher should have labeled this as non-con. There are people who like to read rape and that’s okay – to each his own – but I’m not one of them. If Amber Allure doesn’t warn about content many readers find objectionable, then I will be leery of buying from Amber Allure in the future.
Thanks for the review, Sirius. And my e-reader thanks you – it doesn’t like being thrown against a wall. 😮
SPOILERS IN MY COMMENT, BUT I GUESS CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG ANYWAY 🙂
Hi kiracee, thanks for commenting. The wierd thing is that as far as I can see at least Amber allure usually warns for *too much* in their books. I mean, seriously, I feel that they usually warn for anything under the moon and I was puzzled about at least half of those warnings. I also feel that their blurbs is usually way too detailed and give away too much of the story. And here we have this story. And no warning comes with it, so my only conclusion was that publishers and/or writer genuinely does not think that this story is about noncon, or at least dubcon. Thats fine, the fact that writer wanted to portray one thing and I, as reader and reviewer took a different thing from the story does not really bother me, that happens sometimes. But see, I started doubting myself, you know? I started to wonder whether I missed ANY clue that this is a consensual sexual encounter. But unfortunately I did not find any. All I could think of was this young man’s first reaction as to the offer (or order) – thinking about blood and pain and how he is nauseated. After that it did not matter to me that his reaction so quickly changed to enjoyment, sorry, I still feel it is rape.
Oh and of course if people like to read about it, it is their cup of tea, but while I usually run away from rape fantasies like books, I have read a couple and believe me, this is not it either. I mean, it was not erotic (imo anyway) no matter how you look at it.
If someone forces another person to have sex, it doesn’t matter whether it is physical force or threats, it is still rape. The idea that force is okay if “it’s for your own good” is unconscionable IMO.
I’m sorry you had to read something you found so unpleasant. Hopefully your next story is something you enjoy. 🙂
Oh I agree with you kiracee and thank you 🙂
Great job Sirius, that must have been a really hard review to write and I’m so pleased you did it, cos I would have been tempted by that book. It’s so not for me.
Maybe Amber Allure need to take a look at Riptide’s clever system of book information.
Thank you.
Hey Raine, yes it was hard review to write and I totally realize that it is rantish, but thats what the book inspired unfortunately :(. Right, as I mentioned to kiracee, it is very wierd because usually I wish Amber Allure to tone it down with their warnings. I guess there are exceptions to every rule.
Why do authors do that?? Why do they trot out issues like post rape and callously “solve” the victim–frankly it really does sicken me–people who have been raped go through hell–hell! and that should not be mocked by a “healing” threesome. Sorry–this subject is touchy for me! Thank you Sirius for exposing this one before I jumped in–so grateful for your honest review!
Hi Sammy, to be fair, it is stressed that Charles’ first bad encounter was not rape, his partner was just exceptionally clumsy and stopped the second Charles started bleeding, it was definitely consensual, etc.
But he bled more than one day (not sure how it is possible to be honest, if it was not a cruel tearing him up, but thats what story says) so of course he has terrible memories. It is how they decided to *heal* him was what I thought was rape. It does not make it any better of course, I just wanted to clarify. Thanks for commenting.
Seriously…you’re demanding that AQP (whose been around 9 or 10 years) follow the example of Riptide [who!!!] (a company who haven’t even made a dent in the industry yet or paid out their first royalty checks)??? Are you kidding me? Any Riptide wannabe authors and owners trolling this site…hum??? Give me a freaking break! I think AQP does a pretty thorough job with their warnings, so if one slipped through the cracks, then just deal with it. Give me a break!
Hi K.E.
Sirius asked me to post her comment since she’s having problems posting from her Blackberry:
“Hi, K.E. Thanks for commenting. As far as I can see Raine, who is a fellow reviewer on the site, and not one of the Riptide owners or wannabe authors, have not demanded anything. She politely suggested that maybe Amber allure needs to take a look at Riptide’s warning system. I actually also find their warnings awesome, that does not mean that I have any special interest in them. Amber allure is usually very good with their warnings, but any established company can always find room for improvements, as “the no warning” on this story suggests.
I just read this review and I can’t believe that there was no warning on this book about dubious consent. Reviewers request books based on the publishers’ blurbs and warnings on their sites and many of them refuse to review books with content that they feel is inappropriate based on their personal tolerance.
Amber Allure is usually pretty good about warnings and this one book appears to have slipped through the cracks. I too would have been upset if I had read this book and came upon dub con without any warning.
Readers AND publishers benefit when appropriate warnings are included with their books.
Well said, Wave.
Hi Wave, thanks for posting my comment and yes, what you said.
Warnings aside, it just wasn’t a terribly good book and the scene in question just hammered that point home. It did not seem at all necessary.
Hi Jen, for me before I have read that scene the book was a mediocre read, maybe slightly above mediocrity. When I say slightly, I mean that, it is just performing arts is truly one of my favorite topics and I appreciated some behind the scenes exploration. Overall it was mediocre I agree though. That scene, which I so agree was not necessary at all just did me in and made the book way below mediocre read for me.
It is funny that few days ago I have had a conversation elsewhere that women writers often attach the significance to the anal sex that gay couples often dont. Here I was thinking, oy, how about NOT doing it at all, if one partner is so scared of it, not all gay couples do, as far as I heard and read (obviously have no personal knowledge of gay couples’ experience).
On the other hand, I kind of understand that if bad experience is mentioned in the story, he needs to overcome it. I am talking strictly from the dissecting the story point of view, if that makes sense. It is often a given that if bad experience is mentioned, character needs to overcome it, be it a sexual one or not sexual experience. So, how about just showing Bo being extra patient and kind with him and then show that time passed and he finally felt that he was able to trust Bo because he was so patient.
But I do not want to give the impression that I disliked it because I wanted to see a story going in the different direction. I disliked the story as it was written on page.
Thanks for commenting Jen 🙂
I suspect sensitivity is not one of this author’s strong points. I had forgot about having read Descent in to the Mailroom when I purchased this one.
I have not read Descent in to the Mailroom or anything else by this writer. Was there a similar scene to this one?
well supported reasons for your rating…
-kkm
Thank you kkm, as I mentioned I honestly feel that review turned out to be rantish in the second half, but this is the only way I was able to express how I felt about this book unfortunately.