Eli Easton Reads

I was in the mood for a gfy story and so I surfed the listopia list looking for a likely-looking candidate I hadn't already read. (here's the list, FYI: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2546.Best_Gay_For_You_Romance)

I settled on Plan B. It's my first read by SJD Peterson, and I was impressed. This book rates 5 stars from me for a few reasons.

First, the writing was very good, which I always appreciate in a solid, sexy m/m book.

Second, I loved the character of Danny. Though he likes to wear make-up and sometimes a piece or two of girl's fashion, he has no desire to be a woman and is just as comfortable in sweats and stubble. He just has his own sense of style. I loved that he had no angst or trauma with his parents or his school and was just positive and out and happy to be himself.

Third, there was a nice amount of sexual tension in the story and the sex scenes were realistic and therefore, sexier than usual. For example, closeted, curious Lance starts out fairly slow in the sexual exploration department. The level of their activity ramps up slowly. I always find it so annoying when a virgin or first-time-with-a-guy character ends up bottoming in the first sex scene. No problem with that here.

The main angst/plot in the story comes from sort-of-curious, closeted jock Lance coming to terms with his attraction to Danny at all (firstly) and then the decision whether or not to be public with it. Though this is not a new theme, nor was the progression it took especially unique, it was a solid take on the theme and the writing and characters made it an enjoyable read.

A few things -- the entire story is 1st person from Danny's POV. So we never get to see Lance's friends, his football side, or anything about his family other than his sister. So it made the problems he was facing and the fact that he was stuck in the closet feel rather remote. I also felt like the epilogue, though cute, left a lot unanswered about what had happened to Lance and what he was going to do now that he was ex-NFL and living in NYC

I definitely recommend Plan B and look forward to reading more from this author.