Into the Light (Clear Water Creek Chronicles #1) by Scarlet Blackwell
07 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in authors, publishers, Scarlet Blackwell, Silver Publishing Tags: Scarlet Blackwell, Silver Publishing
Title: Into the Light (Clear Water Creek Chronicles #1)
Author: Scarlet Blackwell
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Pages: 151
Characters: Sean Keller, Eden Gray
POV: 3rd person
Setting: Contemporary
Sub-Genre: Drama
Cover Rating: 3
Kisses: 2.5
Blurb:
Sheriff Sean Keller hides a terrible secret – he watched a heinous crime committed eighteen years ago and did nothing to prevent it. Now he finds himself face to face with Eden Gray, the victim of that crime, who is now not so much the boy anymore, but the man. Eden makes Sean sit up and remember those forbidden desires he thought he had locked away forever and the guilt which has blighted his life.
Review:
At the age of seventeen, Sherriff Sean Keller was the witness to a horrific crime, one he didn’t participate in, but one in which he was just as complicit because of his inaction. Sean could’ve intervened, he could’ve gone to get help, he could’ve reported the crime afterward, but he didn’t. His cowardice and silence were every bit as much a defilement of Eden Gray’s humanity as the physical violation was an abuse of Eden’s body.
Sean was a teenage bully who, along with three of his buddies, repeatedly made Eden the target of their hatred. Sean instigated the taunting and the violence every bit as much as his gang did, but his reasons for doing so were very different. Sean’s aggression and anger were the things he used to hide his true feelings. The violence was Sean’s way of denying his other physical needs, desires Eden inspired but that Sean wanted very much to refuse.
For eighteen years, Eden went missing, his family disappearing from Clear Water Creek, and in that time, Sean, though tormented by his feelings of guilt, managed to carve a life for himself out of the remains of that one tragic night. His terrible secret kept safely between him and the one other person left in Clear Water Creek who knows exactly what happened that night—Sean’s best friend Paul—but then secrets do have a way of finding their way out of the shadows. When Eden returns to exact vengeance, Sean’s life as he knows it will end.
I have to give Into the Light full marks for its premise. Rape and its devastating after effects are not easy topics to address. This story begins in typical Scarlet Blackwell fashion, drawing the reader immediately into the promise of a potentially explosive confrontation between victim and abuser, introducing compelling, yet dysfunctional and emotionally damaged characters, something Ms. Blackwell does so well. But what began so provocatively soon declined into a story that overshot its plausibility for me.
Ms. Blackwell bravely chose to make her victim an unsympathetic character, which in turn made it very difficult to connect with him, or feel any sort of empathy for him. His abrasive and aggressive behavior is designed to mask his pain, of course, but his psychological damage didn’t translate well in his actions. Eden continues to be victimized throughout the story, this time more due to his own actions and behaviors than by anything Sean does to him. Eden plays like the bully against the respectable and virtuous Sean, turning the tables on their roles. There is no insight introduced to illustrate for the reader the way Eden’s life has played out over the years of his absence, so when Eden returns to town driving a Porsche, the picture of physical perfection, it’s difficult to make that necessary connection between his past trauma and his present.
In turn, Sean then becomes the sympathetic character, and in doing so, he becomes the victim. And to an extent, that worked for me. I liked Sean, but the problem with that is I didn’t want to like Sean. I wanted to feel for Eden, the true victim in the story, and that just didn’t happen. I love a good redemption story. I’m a firm believer in atonement and second chances. How much should the man suffer for the crimes of the boy? Ultimately, Sean does end up trying to make amends for his actions all those years ago, but the issue for me is that he doesn’t. He does suffer from the guilt and anxiety of his actions (or inaction) all those years ago, but the reader doesn’t get the picture that it has hindered Sean in any way. Sean gets his happily-ever-after, or at least, his happy-for-now, out of a situation that just doesn’t feel acceptable. Sean gets exactly what he’s always wanted, which feels very much like he’s being rewarded for his transgression.
The love story between these characters was ultimately unbelievable for me because of its disturbing dysfunction. The relationship between Sean and Eden made me squeamish, there’s no other way to describe it. I wasn’t invested in the two men, nor was I invested in their connection to each other. Simply put, it all just felt terribly wrong. Add to that Sean’s friend Paul, whose motivations and actions were nothing less than puzzling, and I was lost.
I’m such a big fan of Scarlet Blackwell, which makes this review particularly difficult to write. I give the author the utmost respect for always pushing the emotional envelope with her characters. But this one, unfortunately, only worked for me to the extent that the premise held so much potential. There’s no doubt this is a controversial story, it simply lost me in translation, which is a complete and total anomaly where Ms. Blackwell is concerned.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Anthology (Volume One) by Scarlet Blackwell
08 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in authors, Scarlet Blackwell Tags: Scarlet Blackwell
Title: Anthology (Volume One)
Author: Scarlet Blackwell
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Pages: 337
Characters: Multiple
POV: 1st & 3rd person
Setting: Contemporary/Historical/Alternate Universe/
Sub-Genre: Erotic/Fantasy/Romance
Cover Rating: 4
Kisses: 4.5 Overall
Blurb:
Scarlet Blackwell’s first collection of short stories is a mixture. Mostly contemporary, with a fantasy story and a Victorian setting thrown in for good measure, the stories feature love-lorn m/m couples from every walk of life – some sportsmen, some porn stars, some mentally challenged. The common theme is love, as always and the finding of that one special person.
Review:
Anyone who is familiar with Scarlet Blackwell knows the author excels at two very distinct themes in her writing: the first, the gay-for-you romance. Ms. Blackwell has a knack for taking a straight man entirely out of his element, then very deliberately and believably shows the reader that by finding his perfect male counterpart, love is entirely capable of crossing boundaries, not creating them.
The second of her various talents lies in her ability to create antagonistic men. Don’t believe me? Read Rescue Me if you want an example of what I’m talking about. These characters are at times, quite frankly put, a bit difficult to tolerate. These men are sometimes portrayed as homophobic; sometimes they are egocentric. They are frequently aloof one moment, then hostile the next. But they each have one thing in common—they each, when confronted by something or someone they perceive as a threat to their sexuality, react out of fear for their physical and emotional responses.
That’s not what makes Scarlet Blackwell’s writing unique, though. No, what makes the author’s abilities strike a chord in the reader is that she, through twists and turns, revelations and epiphanies, somehow always manages to make these men utterly likeable and sympathetic in the end, sometimes literally at the eleventh hour. Faced with loss, they are able to dig deep inside of themselves and finally mine the strength to admit that love is not a weakness. How does she do it? By creating partners who are the other half to the whole, men who are entirely worthy of receiving love, men who are comfortable in their own sexuality and whose strength evolves from that place of knowing precisely who they are. There is one thing for certain, when it comes down to it, I’m never disappointed I’ve soldiered through to the very end to see how she’s going to tie everything together.
Within the dozen short stories that comprise Anthology (Volume One), you’ll find a whole host of characters who share one commonality, whether they are Kester and Melek in the AU/fantasy The Long Road Home, rent boy Jacob Doran and William Brock in the historical short The Rent Collector, or Jude and Charlie in the positively sublime tale Charlie, the story of a man who, unwittingly and unwillingly, falls for a developmentally delayed man; whoever they may be, each of these stories revolve around two men who make a connection, whether through circumstance, through fate or coincidence, or through deliberate machinations.
Each of these stories revolves around the erotic connection between the two protagonists—sometimes the emotional connection leads to the physical, sometimes it’s the physical connection, the press of flesh against flesh, a feral attraction which leads to a need that becomes an emotional bond. Through the use of humor, temptation, loss, regret, betrayal, hostility, tragedy, misfortune, and misperception, Scarlet Blackwell presents characters who share the basic human need to relate with another person, a person who shares the longing to love and to be loved in return.
Through the use of characters who each embody our own strengths and weaknesses, Anthology (Volume One) examines the difference between what it means to be alone and to be lonely. It explores the wants and needs, the thoughts and desires, the black and the white, and the sometimes gray area of love, sensuality, and desire, and does so in stories that range from fabulous to outright stellar.
I’m a fan of both the short story and of Scarlet Blackwell, and now I’m one very anxious fan awaiting the release of Anthology (Volume Two).
Reviewed By: Lisa
Secondhand Heart by Scarlet Blackwell
03 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in authors, Scarlet Blackwell Tags: Scarlet Blackwell
Title: Secondhand Heart
Author: Scarlet Blackwell
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 350
POV: 3rd
Book Cover Rating: 4
Kisses: 4
Blurb:
Conrad Muller’s heart is the center of a web of friendships, fights, and love lost and found in a close-knit group of gay men in Orange County, California. Six months ago, Conrad died, and his organs were donated for transplant. A month later, Conrad’s lover, Christian, receives a letter from the recipient of Conrad’s donated heart.
Christian can’t stop thinking about the letter, and he’s not the only one affected by loss. Conrad’s best friend Eban is also brokenhearted, and he’s struggling with his lover Damien, who has always resented living in Conrad’s shadow. Though Conrad is gone, his friends and his lover will have to cope with their grief to move on and find new love.
Review:
Talk about heartbreak, missed opportunities, love lost, angst, feelings of loneliness and despair? Wow, this book here has it all and then some. I want to warn you right off the start that Scarlet created a story that plays on your emotions in ways you need to be prepared for. Grab tissue, a glass of tea, and your favorite blanket. You’ll need all of them.
I cannot imagine ever being in the lives of any of these men, I don’t ever want to be either. Their story is a complicated sad one from the start. Christian lost his lover of ten years in a nasty car wreck, but that’s just the start of this story. We are taken to seven months after Conrad’s death and into the lives of Christian, Eban, who was Conrad’s best friend and now Christian’s, along with several secondary characters.
Eban grew up with Conrad, they were best friends, and when they were sixteen, they had sex. And when Conrad died, not only did Christian fall apart in ways that I could understand to a point, but so did Conrad. He seemed as if he went on a mission to kill himself as well.
This is a long story, and it plays hard with your heart, but it also can grate on the nerves as well and I imagine it does this to me because I lost a couple family members myself. It brings up the pain, the loss, the non-closure feelings, all of it. Knowing how hard it is, and reading this story made the pain sharp and it made me feel the characters on a deeper level.
The secondary characters play very important roles in the story, and without them, I don’t know that this would have been half the story it is. As it stands, you’ll need to pay close attention because things get very complicated and I mean this in a good way. I won’t give it away but let me just say that Conrad touched a lot of people in different ways. Even ones who were jealous of him. And then wait till you find out just who Conrad was in love with!
In the mean time, life must go on for those alive, but it’s hard to get to a level where it doesn’t have to hurt every waking moment and for Christian, who was a brat by saying and doing dumb things, he finds a way to open his heart to go on, and he does this with a guy named Luke and he is actually my favorite out of this big cast. I wanted to reach out and hold him and slap Christian a few times.
Scarlet did a great job with this story. But now I want to see what her secondary characters are up to. I hope she’s busy with them!
Reviewer: Michele
