Feuer und Wasser

Officer Red Markham deals with rough business every day in his job. So when he connects with Terry, a lifeguard at the local Y who saved a young boy who was drowning, he doesn't expect anything special to come from it. And he soon learns that Terry is dealing with some rough business of his own. But Red is not one to run away from a problem, and it turns out the two might be able to help each other in ways neither expected. There are some really cute moments here from characters that you might not expect it from. And it's certainly the kind of relationship-focused story with all sorts of chaos going on around them that I've come to expect from Andrew Grey.

One thing I know for certain is that when I pick up an Andrew Grey book, I'm going to be swept away by the characters and locations that he's written about. This book is no exception.

It's a story about not judging a book by it's cover. About looking beyond the surface and about second chances... Terry initially seems shallow and callous. Red, scarred, huge and a bit scary. Neither men are as they seem on first glance. Luckily they both find that they were mistaken.

I've read books by this author before and really enjoyed his characters and his writing style. Another one from my giant box of books from my two friends. Odd the box of books appears to be having babies...or is that where "novellas" come from? :)

Insecurity, whatever its source, can be much like a debilitating disease. It affects the mind, but the consequences, like a lack of self-confidence or an inability to have meaningful friendships and relationships, have an effect on every aspect of someone’s life. In this book of what looks like another promising new series by Andrew Grey, Terry and Red are both dealing with insecurity. The causes may be different, but the effect on their lives is very similar. It takes them a while to figure this out, to recognize and overcome the protective walls they have each built around their hearts, but once they do and the healing begins, it becomes obvious how good they are for each other. Unfortunately nothing is ever that easy, and Terry’s controlling ex-boyfriend, amongst other things, makes sure it’s as difficult as possible. Luckily this doesn’t stop Terry and Red from trying, and made for a suspenseful story that kept me fascinated until the last page.

Red knows about loss, his parents having died in a car accident when he was seventeen. He has also experienced pity, disdain, and ignorance from people who looked at his scared face and never saw past the damaged exterior to see the person Red is. As a police officer, he is competent and knows what to do but in a social situation? Not so much. People not looking at him gets old after a while, and when he first meets pretty boy Terry, Red believes him to be shallow and doesn’t expect to see him ever again.

Terry’s scars are not physical, but he carries them just the same. Being pretty has isolated him because people are jealous or assume he is stupid. He used to believe his good looks would carry him through life, but ever since he realized the smothering “love” from his ex was just a form of control, Terry has been fighting to become himself again. He lost most of his friends, his will to swim competitively, and doesn’t know where to go with his life now that he left the ex behind. Meeting Rex shocks him for all the wrong reasons, but his first reaction also makes him realize how shallow he is (with some help from a good friend), and he sets out to change himself.

On the face of it, Terry and Red have nothing in common. I loved to watch how they discovered the truth about themselves and each other and fell in love while they did it. Neither of them believes it is possible, and they don’t have an easy or “perfect” relationship right off the bat – but who does? They have to work for it, deal with the idiot ex, a case that is haunting Red at work, and struggle through a few crises to realize how well they fit. Admitting life is better shared than alone may not be easy but in their case, it certainly is rewarding.

If you like stories about “damaged” characters, if you want to find out more about two men who have been disappointed and are borderline disillusioned about relationships, and if you’re looking for an emotional read filled with disappointment, tender moments, and a few surprises along the way, then you will probably like this novel as much as I did. It is moving, touching, and very memorable.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

I am a total sucker for Beauty and the Beast retellings, no matter how loosely they are based on the fairy tale, and since I am on a m/m romance kick right now (for reasons that I'm still not sure of - I will probably end up blaming Supernatural for this at some point), I thought that I would absolutely love this book - or at least like it. And I didn't.This book reads like a cheesy bodice ripper romance - and if you're a fan of that genre, then more power to you, but I'm not. The characters in the book felt more like two-dimensional caricatures than actual people. The plot was rushed and sloppy, and the reader can see who the bad guy is a mile away (even though Red, a seasoned police officer, can't). Basically, this book takes place in something like four or five days (I didn't keep an exact count, mainly because I got to 44%, said fuck this shit, and skimmed through the rest). When Red and Terry (whom I always pictured as Terry the news guy from Family Guy in my head) first meet, Terry is repulsed by Red's scars. But, hey, the very next day, he's sleeping with the guy and is pissed when Red withdraws into his shell and acts like it was a one-night hookup. The next day, he's talking about how he can see Red's "true beauty" and that the scars don't even really bother him all that much. What the fuck; I about got whiplash watching Terry's character do a 180 like that. And hey, by the end of the week, they're in true wub. Holy instalove, Batman!Red is incredibly sulky about his physical disfigurement. I do like a broody scarred hero, but he was less brooding and felt more like he was channeling a teenaged girl. There was also the overuse of the word "whine" during the first sex scene; it was used three times on the same page, and I got a mental image of an abused dog. Not sexy. I was also bothered by Terry's reaction to James, his ex - surprise, he's also a drug dealer lol, which the reader could see coming a mile away. Anyway, when he gets a phone call from James during a meal with Red and Red's great-aunt, Terry gets super pale and freaks out so badly that he runs home, where he's promptly accosted by James. But then Terry says that James was never physically abusive to him. His reaction to James just felt really suspect and strange if he had never been physically abused by the guy. I know that emotional abuse is horrifying and is often worse than physical abuse (growing up, I preferred it when my dad smacked me around rather than getting on a roll with criticizing me), but his reaction to the guy just felt...odd. And then James, who had never laid a hand on Terry before, just ratcheted up to wanting to kill him. Wut.This book could have been so freaking good, and I was expecting it to be...but it really didn't do a thing for me, except make me roll my eyes repeatedly.