Simon Murray is an out and proud gay man and the director of an Australian independent film festival. But the thing he's proudest of (and most ashamed of) is he's an avid life-long Richmond Tigers supporter. (Australian Rules Football for us non-Assies) When he meets superstar footballer Declan Tyler at a party the two are smitten with each other despite Declan's playing for the rival Tasmanian Devils.
The two main characters are well-written, likable guys guys who just happen to be gay. But as with most guys when it comes to talking about emotions you sometimes just want to smack them. Both of them have good friends that are supportive and caring and just the kind of people you'd like to have in your life as well.
But the life of a sports celebrity, particularly one who's breaking new ground is not always easy and a good deal of this book deals with the problems surrounding what happens when a sports star comes out under the scrutiny of the media and the paparazzi. Adding to the novelty of the story is the novelty of the language as the books set in Melbourne Australia and the footy language and the antipodean variations on the Queen's English were both sometimes a bit thick for this Midwestern Yank to understand.
The first gay novel I ever read was The Front Runner and since both deal with the hyper-masculine worlds we create around sports there are some similarities but many years have passed between the two and it's good to see the kind of progress we've made.
This story is probably not for everyone as the sports aspects and the closeted celebrity aspects do take up a good deal of the book's focus but this is at heart a romance and a good one. It's also much more than just an excuse for the few relatively tame sex scenes that are mild enough that no one should feel uncomfortable reading them.
I loved it.
The two main characters are well-written, likable guys guys who just happen to be gay. But as with most guys when it comes to talking about emotions you sometimes just want to smack them. Both of them have good friends that are supportive and caring and just the kind of people you'd like to have in your life as well.
But the life of a sports celebrity, particularly one who's breaking new ground is not always easy and a good deal of this book deals with the problems surrounding what happens when a sports star comes out under the scrutiny of the media and the paparazzi. Adding to the novelty of the story is the novelty of the language as the books set in Melbourne Australia and the footy language and the antipodean variations on the Queen's English were both sometimes a bit thick for this Midwestern Yank to understand.
The first gay novel I ever read was The Front Runner and since both deal with the hyper-masculine worlds we create around sports there are some similarities but many years have passed between the two and it's good to see the kind of progress we've made.
This story is probably not for everyone as the sports aspects and the closeted celebrity aspects do take up a good deal of the book's focus but this is at heart a romance and a good one. It's also much more than just an excuse for the few relatively tame sex scenes that are mild enough that no one should feel uncomfortable reading them.
I loved it.
