Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "lgbt"

Magnetic Reverie by Nico J. Genes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


She is beautiful; she is young, and she is torn between two loves—a perfect husband who adores her and cannot live without her and a mysterious young and attractive woman in her dreams. As she travels on a super-fast reality-fantasy track from one continent to another and back, Lana discovers herself as a person, as a desirable woman and a lover, and as a mother.

Will one love die and discard its petals on the shores of unexpectedly discovered female attraction? Will the initial confusion give in to the emotional and physical yearnings and cravings that defy the set norms and rules of our society?

Magnetic Reverie by Nico J. Genes is a passionate and erotic novel, a cocktail of mixed emotions, things supposed to be logical and insatiable desires of the heart. Just as you think you've finished your drink and are ready to leave the bar and go, a hand appears in front of you and serves you another glass. Surprised, you realize the story is yet to unfold.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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Offstage by Jonathan Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A kiss and drunken lips. Is it a close friendship between Daniel and Nathan or the birth of the first love?

Who speaks the truth when youthful lust gets the cold shoulder?

Love cannot be killed. If it cannot be reciprocated it must be endured.

In Offstage Jonathan Hill gets more sexual, more erotic, more sensual, more emotional, more unforgiving, more everything.

More a writer.

I needed a break after reading this story. And a few moments of solitude. Jonathan Hill can do that to you. There lies his brilliancy.

Read him!

BJ
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Bernard Jan

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What would you do if you got a call telling you you’d die today? You have less than twenty-four hours to say goodbye to everyone you love and decide how you’ll spend your remaining hours, or, maybe even minutes.

They Both Die at the End is an amazing human story about Mateo and Rufus, two teenage boys and total strangers who met through an app to spend their last day together as Last Friends. It is the story that sticks to us like the strongest glue as we watch their relationship develop in a shocking speed toward the final countdown and ultimate end.

Adam Silvera is one of a few authors today who has the knowledge and power to play with our hearts and emotions with the ease of a child playing with its toys. He does it gentle, caring, but he goes all the way until he dries our eyes from tears.

His stories will shake our insides and awake our strongest and deepest feelings and emotions, making us feel so alive. His novel They Both Die at the End is no exception. It is a masterpiece of sadness and glorified humanity.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan



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The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Words are like emotions and in The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley Shaun David Hutchinson portrays with great attention and knowledge every stage of heartbreak, guilt, recuperation, laughter, desperation, apathy, hope. And love.

Drew is a boy who doesn’t want to leave the hell of the hospital in which his family died. He hides, draws and works there in his self-induced punishment driven by a strong sense of guilt. He is also a boy whose heart is full of love for two other terminally ill children, his friends Lexi and Trevor, he is trying to save from the claws of death. But he also is a boy who is pulled to Rusty, another teenage boy who is wheeled into the ER in a loud agony with half his body burned.

Drew’s and Rusty’s worlds collide and shape into a new reality of hope and happiness that can happen outside the walls of the hospital, a reality which is not completely devoid of painful pasts and sadness which linger anchored to it.

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley is a beautiful Young Adult dark book about finding the way out of dark with the comic book by Christine Larsen inside it and the ending which could last a few heartbeats (or heartbreaks) longer.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan



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The Unbroken Circle by Thomas Grant Bruso

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I devoured this book in a day, which doesn’t happen often lately. But when I opened The Unbroken Circle, I reminded myself how much I loved Jay Bird and how I missed reading more about Jay and Rocco.

The Unbroken Circle is a perfect sequel in which Jay and Rocco cross the threshold of adulthood. It is a story of two young teenage boys who stay together through thick and thin to keep their love alive. But it is also a story of their parents, control freaks and dominant individuals, their mothers especially, who rule their families by the book or enslaved by tradition.

There is a moral of this capturing and emotional story with strongly portrayed characters who became more alive with each spoken sentence. Or, better to say, underneath it runs a subtle and justified critique to our society which doesn’t accept any kind of diversity. This society is harsh and unforgiving and shows no tolerance for those who are “different” and don’t fit into the general pattern of living, loving, and existence.

I do not know if Thomas Grant Bruso, the author of Jay Bird and The Unbroken Circle, plans to write another book in the series, but I hope this is not the end. Jay and Rocco deserve that, as well as all the readers and fans who enjoy their company.

BJ
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Bernard Jan



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FAG by Jonathan Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


FAG is Jonathan Hill’s capital work. I’ve read many of his later books, but this one strikes to your core the hardest. With most precision.

As it was emotionally draining for the author to give a painful birth to it, it was emotionally challenging for me as a reader to finish reading it. But it was fulfilling, rewarding, and enriching too. For now I know better Jonathan Hill. And why he writes so freaking marvelous stories.

If you are (not) afraid of the darkness within you, your fears and secrets, read this book. It will shake you, true, and make you watch your tears roll down your cheeks in the mirror of your soul. But it will also comfort you, give you strength and a much-needed hug as it helps you face yourself and raise from your own personal hell, which is not Brierley’s Boarding School for Boys, as it encourages you to embrace your real you. With all your oddities and differences.

I wish every author writes such a brutally honest and impactful book in their lifetime. Books like this make their legacy to this world priceless.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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