Title: The Time of the Singing
Author: Louise Blaydon
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Buy Link: n/a
Genre: contemporary m/m
Length: Novel (200 pdf pages)
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
A Guest Review by Feliz
Summary Review: This book took the stale plot idea of a priest falling into forbidden carnal love with one of his flock and turned it into a gripping, beautiful love story between two charmingly realistic men.
***First of all, a warning: this book features a twenty-nine-year old character having on-page sex with a seventeen-year-old. It’s totally consensual but it’s also graphic and detailed. Readers who are adverse to this kind of thing might want to stop here and avoid this book altogether.***
The Blurb: Raised by devout parents, Israfel Vacek is a teenager before he realizes he may be turning into someone his parents would shun. When he confesses his fears to his brother, Michael suggests Raf might be able to save himself if he joins the clergy.
Though Raf is well-suited to the clerical life, enjoying the piety of his parishioners, his homosexual desires don’t go away. Still, Raf is able to repress them, until one young churchman decides he wants Raf for himself. Nate Mulligan is a bundle of contradictions, a devout believer who insists their love can’t be wrong, and Raf finds himself powerless to resist.
At first, Raf puts his guilt out of his mind, but when a misunderstanding brings his relationship with Nate to Michael’s attention, Raf realizes he has to make a choice: give up Nate to serve the Church and save his relationship with his family… or find his own path to grace and save himself.
The Review: Israfel grew up in a conservative, very religious Catholic family. Unlike his outgoing, athletic brother Michael, Israfel has always been more a scholarly type. After he came out to them, and after all the Christian counseling and all the praying from his family and Israfel himself couldn’t help his homosexuality, the celibacy that comes with priesthood seemed to be the only way Israfel could reconcile his sinful desires with his faith.
Israfel found that he liked being a priest. The rituals gave his life structure, his position lent him status, and he used to wear his cassock like a suit of armor that would at once hide him and keep him safe from the temptations of the world. It worked for him. Actually, it worked so well that Israfel had almost convinced himself that being a priest was his true calling and not his last resort. It worked, that is, until the day Israfel first met Nate Mulligan.
The oldest son of a family as conservative and as Catholic as Israfel’s own, seventeen-year-old Nate nevertheless is Israfels polar opposite in many ways. Nate has been aware that he is gay for five years now, but unlike Raf, Nate came to terms with this fact all on his own without telling anyone. Where Israfel let himself be paralyzed by the Old Testament, Church dogma and the diatribes of St.Paul, Nate chose to only listen to Jesus, who placed love above everything and never spoke a word against homosexuals. Raf’s suit of armor is nothing before Nate’s determination to win his handsome priest over.
The writing style, third person present tense, took a little getting used to, and I’m still not really certain about it. In places, it worked just fine to lend the story more intensity. On other occasions the tense kept me from really going with the flow as it made the writing more noticeable to me than the story itself. In my opinion, it’s mostly a matter of taste, and I generally like past tense better.
Generally, the characterization was equally perfect for both Israfel and Nate.
Some of Nate’s persuasion methods had me cringe inwardly. Then again, keeping in mind how young Nate actually is, he acted in character, and given the prize he was aiming at, I could forgive him the sometimes rather dubious methods he resorted to. Even though he managed to retain the puppy charm of a troubled teenager who’s in love for the very first time, Nate was very, very mature for his age; in fact, he was almost too good to be true. At times, Raf even appeared the younger and more insecure of the pair, especially when it came to Raf’s interactions with his brother Michael. Which made sense, given that at the beginning of the book, Raf had still a long way to go until he arrived where Nate already is: comfortable in his own skin. There’s a vast, and beautifully worked-out difference between Raf the priest and Raf the man that emphasizes Raf’s inner disunity and totally won me over. The path he had to walk towards his personal epiphany was rough, and all the more realistic for that. I totally bought him. I can picture a man in Raf’s place acting like he did, making the choices he made, going through the struggles he did.
What amazed me most about this book, though, was the way it dealt with religious matters.
If you leave the religion out, you still got a well-done, character-driven story about a man coming to terms with his sexuality and finding his place in life with the help of a much younger man who loves him. It’s both characters being devout religious men what makes this book stand out. The religion is an intricate part of the plot – the lovers’s struggles are all the more painful, and all the more realistic, for the fact that a lot of what they stand in opposition to is part of who they are. Also, it would’ve been so easy to paint the Catholic church and her followers as bigots or caricatures like I’ve found it done in so many other books, but no – even their families honestly had their best interests in mind. Yet their families mostly remained caught in the tangles of dogma and yes, religious superstition if there’s such a thing, while Nate and Raf managed to wrestle free of those ties.
With all the philosophics about religion and the mountain of angst in here this sounds like a dark or even dull book. However it was not, there was a lot of humor right from the beginning, and in the end, the romance between Nate and Raf even scraped along just this side of sugary sweet. A beautiful, heartwarming and intense read I can only warmly rcommend.
(The title by the way, “The Time of the Singing” is taken from a verse of the Song Of Solomon that refers to the awakening of the land in spring after the winter. Very fitting.)
Lovely review Feliz. 🙂
I was put off of this book by the original idea that it was credible to hide sexuality within the church, so although I really like Louise Blaydon’s writing I gave it a miss………….you have changed my mind. 😮
Hi Raine thanks…
I don’t think hiding sexuality in the church is the original idea at all. Right from the beginning, Raf was shown as a man with feelings and desires like every one other healthy 29 year-old; him being a priest was rather a way his family deemed appropriate to “atone” for him being a homosexual.
I’m too spammy, am I, so? 😯
I’ve found this credo in other places, among more “liberal” Christian fundamentalists, that being homosexual in and of itself isn’t evil since it might be God’s plan for the individual in question; it’s acting on those desires that are the sin. St. Paul says “Take wives or burn”, so any kind of extramarital sex is banned, and since homosexuals can’t marry…it’s the dogma Raf acted on.
Great review, Feliz. I read this book a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I agree that the religious aspect of the story was very well done; it wasn’t done in a judgmental way and it was a really intricate part of the story.
Thanks Kate,
this book really got me at the non – judgemental. I hate it when stories take the easy way out; portraying religious people as bigoted assholes ONLY because they are religious, to me, feels just that.
There are better ways – see this book here.
Thanks so much Feliz I love this writer’s style but the idea felt so unoriginal (as much as I love religious themes) that I passed. Will get it.
Oh if you like religious themes you’ll love this Sirius, of that I’m certain 🙂 ! I’d be very interested in hearing what you thought
I really really do love religious themes Feliz 🙂 – I love unorthodox twists on the traditional religions, completely made up ones, in depth look on traditional religion, when it fits well within the story of course. The reason why I hesitated is because I was worried it would be what Barb so eloquently described – priest molesting a kid. That disgusts me and I do not consider that angle to be a religious theme, just a criminal one, you know? I am not bothered at all by consensual sex with seventeen year old though, so I am definitely going to give it a try. I am more worried that it is in present tense, but I have read two stories by this writer and going to try and give her a benefit of the doubt that she will pull it off for me. Thanks again, I will let you know what I thought when I will get to it.
Although I’m not a practicing Catholic, I have to admit the description of the book gave me the squicks. But then reading your review, I think I may try it because it sounds like it doesn’t make the relationship into the creepy ‘priest molesting the kid’ type of book. Thanks for the info!
Hi Barb,
nothing of that sort, I assure you. It’s actually the priest who’s fighting the attraction the hardest with himself.
I wish I’d read the full review instead of the short blurb as I would never have bought this. I won’t make that mistake again. First, it’s told in present tense which I find tedious and ruins any possible story flow. But I decided to settled in to read anyway. The age issue was another issue for me. Cringeworthy. I admit, I had to speed read this one to get to the end. The sex was not tasteful – and entirely too much. No plot, irritating characters, present tense (sex told in present tense is awkward to say the least) – just not my cuppa.
Hi Madonna,
the present tense bothered me, too; as you said, it’s a bit….awkward.
As for the age issue: this book created quite the stir of wildly differing opinions on Goodreads, too, either for the age issue or for the priest-and-altaboy trope or both. I must say, in this particular context it didn’t bother me personally, but I can see how it might affect others. Sorry I didn’t put the warning more prominently; didn’t mean to mislead you. I’ll fix that immediately.
Not your fault Feliz. My fault. I read the first few lines and the cover also caught my eye. I enjoy fiction with a bit of a religious theme, but this novel just hit all my squick buttons.
I really enjoyed reading this book a couple of weeks ago 🙂 The age difference didn’t bother me, because Raf came across as a much younger person “mentally” then 29. It might also be because the age of consent in Sweden is 15 so I don’t imagine Nate as “underage”, and also he’s a very mature seventeen year old. I thought the author handled the religious bit very well (and for me very believeble even though I’m not religous).
Same here, Madde. I think the age of consent in Germany is 16, 14 in some cases (not really sure about the latter) so Nate’s age didn’t bother me at all.
Feliz
I will definitely be reading this because as a lapsed Catholic I love books with religious themes and am looking forward to it.
Two things in the book don’t bother me as much as the other readers. I reviewed a few books with present tense and to me it all depends on the writer. Some I’ve loved more than others. As for the underage sex, I just reviewed a book with a 42 year old and a 17 year old and that one gave me pause because of the significant age difference – I kept thinking that the 17 year old could have been the son.
However in this case it seems that the age difference is only a decade and the 17 year old is the predator and very mature for his age. Most kids today have sex with each other in their teens and if the adult in this relationship is not a predator like some Catholic priests who have been doing this for decades, and this is really a romance between the protagonists, then I have no problem with it. In many countries in Europe and also in some states in the US, 17 is above the age of consent I believe.
Thank you for a very thoughtful, in-depth review.
Thanks Feliz!
I copy what Wave so eloquently wrote!!
(Although I was so biased I couldn’t even read the review of the 42:17 y.o.)
I put this on my to read shelf. It sounds interesting and thoughtfully done.
Thanks for your well thought out review!
What is it with all the seventeen year olds lately? There seem to be an awful lot.
This sounds interesting, so I may read it in a bit, but I read another recently featuring a pastor and a young man. (Not this young.) So I will let some time pass.
I have to admit, I’m not a fan of kids in fiction, and I consider a 17 year old a kid. The fact that Raf seemed mentally younger is a squick for me as well.
I like my characters to be older, 30s, 40s, 50s… I don’t care if they’re not athletically built, short, tall, built, geeky; I don’t care what their profession may be, although I have a fondness for cop/sleuth. Under 20 holds little to no interest for me.
I wish there were more novels with mature characters.
Madonna, have you read Jesse Ashworth mysteries by Stephen Stanley? It features police chef and former teacher turned private investigator and both guys are over fifty. I think these are lovely. The fourth book was out recently and I heard it is a little more descriptive in sex department, but in the first three sex completely fades to black. It did not bother me, but in case it may bother you – a warning. If you want mature characters, these series definitely fit though.
Thanks Sirius, I’ll certainly give them a read!