Jeffrey Ricker

This was a well written adventure story they played heavily on the mythological. The three main characters, Jamie, Billy and Sarah were well developed average teens dealing with the pressures of growing up. The story starts moving when Jamie's mother comes on the scene. Jamie has to cope with meeting this woman he believed to be dead and learning that she is an amazon. Billy's step-mother is also an amazon. The story boils down to a battle of good vs. evil in the amazon's mythical city. The oracle has foretold that the future of the amazons depends solely on Jamie but that a death will occur. The transformations that takes place in Jamie, Billy and Sarah are amazing. The story is not a romance per se though Jamie and Billy have a young love. The story is about personal growth and life decisions that change everything. The story is an easy read with good underlying message. Mr. Ricker us a new author to me but one that I will keep an eye on. This adventure story is easy to get caught up in and well worth the time.… (lisätietoja)

For such a short story, 'Straightening Up' delivers quite a punch. The situation as such is bad enough: Greg and Michael live together, but Michael has only told his father the truth about them being lovers. When Michael's mother announces a surprise Christmas visit, Michael rushes back into the closet, and forces Greg into a role as roommate. What impacted me even more though is the quiet sadness with which Greg reacts. Yes, he gets angry, but overall he is sad and pretty much resigned to his fate.

It isn’t until Greg has to live through the indignity of being relegated to the guest room, Michael not even coming for a 'visit' once his mother is asleep, followed by Michael's mother cooking roast because Michael hasn’t even told her Greg is a vegetarian. As much as Greg loves Michael, that is just one step too far. So he leaves to stay with a friend. At that point, it was probably the only thing he could have done to get through to Michael.

Michael is too caught up in 'keeping the peace', not upsetting his mother and risking her scorn, or whatever other excuses he has come up with to justify his lack of standing up for himself – and Greg. The thing is, the woman isn’t even horrible! It just goes to show that the prejudice against gays can do tremendous damage to some gay men by undermining their self-confidence to the point where they deny themselves at any cost.

If you like stories that will make you think, if you're looking for a high dose of realism, and if 'walking in another's shoes' means something to you, this story is a great opportunity to see the world from a gay man's perspective – the one who becomes an outcast because his lover is afraid of confronting what he believes to be his mother's disapproval.




NOTE: This book was provided by Untreed Reads for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
… (lisätietoja)

A Hearts On Fire Review

In Jeffrey Ricker's Straightening Up", it's the Christmas season and an established gay couple have to pretend to be straight roommates due one partner's reluctance in coming out of the closet to his dear old mama.

So hmm...holidays...closet re-hiding...possible alcohol imbibing...sounds like Christmas chaos and fights, right?

Wrong!

This story was really good (and pretty clean, so smut lovers will have to put their toys away briefly for this one) ;) Michael and Greg live together and Michael has only come out to his father. So when his mother decides to visit for Christmas on short notice, Michael panicking his way back into the proverbial closet and poor Greg has to make the short trip there too. The formula for the low level drama is simple and gets to the point. There's a continued HEA and ends with what could be room for more but left me satisfied with the realistic way it ended.

Other than the obvious complaint of 'I wish it were longer' (because I do-but for less than 20 pages-it did not leave the main plot line to question), the only other issue were the lack of details on character's descriptions (I like knowing on how to visualize my characters), how long were Michael & Greg together, how old were they or setting (what town or state?), the author delivered in everything else to make the story interesting and entertaining.

Are you a fan of good in-between-novels short stories?

You will enjoy Jeffrey Ricker's "Straightening Up". I did."… (lisätietoja)