After the First Taste of Love

Title & buy link: After the First Taste of Love
Author: Talon Rihai and Salome Wilde
Cover Artist: Yana Goya
Publisher: Storm Moon Press
Genre: M/M contemporary
Length: Novella (118 pages)
Rating: 2 stars out of 5

A guest review by Leslie S

Review summary: Well written but ultimately forgettable friends-to-lovers story.

Blurb
In high school, Nick Torres and Angelo del Valle were inseparable, outsiders who found strength in friendship. The bond between the gay, mixed-race teens turned isolation into brotherhood. Overachieving loner Angelo became “big bro,” looking out for cocky, mischievous “little bro” Nick. But everything changed when Nick fell in love and moved away. Angelo tried to be happy for his dear friend, seeking solace in his college studies and a lonely string of one night stands.

Then, one late night two years later, Angelo’s phone rings. Nick is back in town, and he needs his big bro’s help. Nick’s dream life has become a nightmare, and he’s come to the one person he could always trust for shelter. But when Nick looks to Angelo for more than brotherly affection, Angelo is left to wonder if Nick’s feelings are genuine or an effect of his trauma. And if those feelings are genuine, Angelo must then decide if his own feelings for Nick have grown into something deeper as well.

Review
There’s not much to add to the blurb. Mexican-Jew Nick and Korean-Latino Angelo were both outsiders at school, often beaten up because they were gay, but they’re both out and proud and have the support of their families. Nick is the more adventurous and flighty of the pair and rushes into situations headlong, while Angelo is more scholarly and serious. When Nick falls in love with a guy called Barrett and moves away, Angelo is hurt but stoic and embarks on a series of short-lived relationships with jocks and closeted guys.

But Barrett is abusive and hurts Nick physically and emotionally. Finally Nick gets away and goes straight to Angelo rather than returning to his parents. Angelo takes him in without question, and soon their old friendship turns to romance—even if that seems like both the best idea and also the very worst idea.

This is one of those books in which nothing much happens. It’s a slice of life story, but the lives aren’t particularly interesting. Literally a few hours after I’d finished reading, I’d forgotten the characters and events of the book and so I had to re-read it for the purpose of this review.

Looking at it again, I have quite a lot of issues with the book. It’s well written and it’s a light, easy read, but there’s no real conflict. There’s no tension. The protagonists are nice enough, but I don’t care about them because of the lack of conflict. All the way through the book I was waiting for a confrontation with Barrett, but it didn’t happen. The romance angle is resolved pretty much straight away. There’s a moment of external conflict when Angelo finishes things with one of his on-off fuck buddies, but because Angelo is such a good guy, the ex is okay about the break-up and they all sit down and have a beer. This chapter felt engineered just as a way to create tension; it didn’t actually add anything to the story and the resolution was just as pointless. Finally the internal conflict between Nick and Angelo reaches a ridiculous apogee that stretches the limits of The Big Misunderstanding trope. I did actually roll my eyes at this part, it was so unnecessary.

For all the backstory we’re given on Nick and Angelo, I didn’t feel that we got to know them. And that’s a problem throughout the book. The characters are all rather superficial, more like stock characters or stereotypes, specifically stereotypes from manga. There’s a definite yaoi aspect mentioned in the book, which felt very random, especially the inclusion of the yaoi-inspired love scene right at the end, which was completely gratuitous and did nothing for the story.

Another gratuitous moment is the email exchange. This took up a whole chapter and drove me crazy. I can see that the conversation the guys were having needed the detachment of email for them to be honest with one another, but at the same time I really hate seeing the whole email address headers thing going on, it just feels like padding and it adds nothing.

We’re never told much about Barrett, who caused Nick such trauma. We don’t know how they met or why Nick fell for him. Barrett is apparently a District Commissioner. I don’t know what that is, exactly, but it sounds legal/governmental, which suggested to me that Barrett was older, but we’re simply not told anything about this guy other than that he’s possessive and abusive.

That brings me onto the biggest issue I had with this story. Nick has been raped, beaten, and emotionally damaged during his time with Barrett. He has trouble dealing with tasks like going to the supermarket, he has nightmares, and if he does something ‘wrong’ (like burn stuff while he’s cooking), he reverts back to expecting abuse even though he knows he’s safe with Angelo. He refuses to accept hospital treatment and he only talks about what happened obliquely, and yet for all this, he jumps straight into a sexual relationship with Angelo within 24 hours of making his escape from Barrett. And though Angelo isn’t sure they should be doing this, he still goes for it.

I have a lot of problems with that. I could probably buy it if we had a lot more characterisation and a deeper understanding of Nick’s motivations, but because it’s all rather superficial, none of this works for me at any level.

This book follows a classic yaoi trope and it’s classic hurt/comfort, so die-hard fans of these tropes will probably enjoy this because it hits all the right marks, but for me this really, really didn’t work. It’s well written so I would try these authors again, but this particular story didn’t do anything for me.