I read a lot of gay romance, a lot and so when I finally got
to meet Damon Suede last week and actually talk to the man I knew I wanted to
read something he'd written and he suggested I start with Hot Head. This book was written in 2011 and Mr. Suede
has released more books since then and if I'm not mistaken this was his first
published work and it was good. Having
read many, many gay romance books I appreciate the fact that this book has been
somewhat of a front runner and lead the way for other gay romance books to be
accepted and published. While I did
enjoy this book at times the story seemed to be a little long winded,
especially at the beginning and to be honest I wanted more once these two men
realized that in each other they had found what had been missing in their
lives. I wanted to see how their fellow
firefighters accepted or didn't accept their intimate relationship, I wanted to
know how the rest of Dante's family reacted to their news and Griff's father
and more important I wanted them to discuss what they saw in their future if
Griff's dream of having children with Dante was something they both
wanted. To be honest, I also would have
like a few more steamy intimate scenes between them once they professed their
love as well. All in all, this story had
good bones; the characters were charismatic, and their story compelling.
Griff and Dante have been friends for years honestly they
are even closer than friends because Dante's large Italian family pretty much
adopted Griff after his mother died and his father couldn't seem to find the
time to parent him. They've been through
a lot together including the aftermath of 9/11 in which Dante was hurt and
Griff saved him. Griff married and
divorced and now years later he's fighting the fact that he wants his best
friend to be more than a friend something he is sure his very heterosexual
friend would balk at. Throughout this
book we see time after time that Griff will do anything for Dante because truth
of the matter is he loves the guy (and there isn't anything brotherly about
that love). When Dante needs money he
ends up doing some online porn and ends up getting Griff involved where they
share some very erotic scenes together all in the name of earning money (or so
Griff thinks). I'll admit that the back
and forth between these two with them both running away and refusing to talk
about what was going on with them drove me a bit nuts and I'm going to go out
on a limb here and say that while this bugged me I can't help but wonder if
because this book is written by a gay man rather than a woman writing gay
romance that this is more accurate in how men react. Keep in mind that's not a bad thing; it is
simply me trying to figure out if this is normal for two men trying to figure
out a relationship and men are just not as good at talking about admitting to
or talking about their feelings.
There were some interesting secondary characters including
Alek the man who ran the porn site who was professional, polite and as it turns
out a good guy. Tommy, a paramedic whose
life is turned upside down in this story but begins to understand that true
friends are worth so much and I'm so hoping at some point we'll get his
story. Dante's large family who add some
Italian flair, a whole lot of love and gives excellent advice even from one of
the youngest in the bunch. All of these
add a whole lot to this story not to mention help these two men see things from
different sides and offer some sage advice when the time is right.
It took Dante and Griff a long time to get to their happy
place in this story and even after they both finally admitted they wanted one
another there were still a few tense times as they worked through Dante's hot
jealousy but like I said I wanted to see more of them after this point and yes,
now is the time to point out that I'm just a nosey, greedy beyotch. It's okay I can take it.
I enjoyed this story and after speaking with the author I
could hear his voice in this book and because of his exuberance for gay romance
and romance in general I will be checking out this other offerings. As for Hot Head; it was funny, touching, and
downright sexy and it is NEVER a bad thing when two people find love especially
two people who had denied themselves for so long.
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