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Border Roads
The road home from Iraq leads to America's Borderlands, harsh desert lands ruled over by smugglers and drug runners. Marines cannot help but serve, standing tall in dangerous lands to protect the people and the country they love.
Clayton and Luke walk the border roads together, trying to recapture a love that was almost destroyed by pride and anger. Chris finds love and salvation with a lost girl who needs a savior, and Gary comes home to find a world he does not understand, one changed beyond his recognition.
The bonds of love and brotherhood, forged on the battlefields of Iraq, will be sorely tested in the Borderlands.
Clayton and Luke walk the border roads together, trying to recapture a love that was almost destroyed by pride and anger. Chris finds love and salvation with a lost girl who needs a savior, and Gary comes home to find a world he does not understand, one changed beyond his recognition.
The bonds of love and brotherhood, forged on the battlefields of Iraq, will be sorely tested in the Borderlands.
124 pages, ebook
First published July 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 26, 2011
I seriously do not have a shelf to put this one. Different with other Sarah Black's stories that I have read, this involves several characters, all part of the same platoon, but not all of them gay (so I cannot put them on my usual M/M shelf). We have the heartbreaking couple, Clayton and Luke ... Luke has been seriously injured, part of his jaw and ear missing, but Clayton loves him with everything he has, and he doesn't care about it. All he wants is with Luke, and Clayton knows that if Luke is not in his life, he can easily kill himself. Their part is squeezing my heart throughout and all I want is to bawl my eyes out. Things like these ...
Luke was unbuttoning Clayton’s plaid flannel shirt, running warm hands against his chest. Then he was tracing letters against Clay’s skin. I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-S-U-N.
Clayton shrugged. “I don’t want to hide. I want to slow dance with you again. I want to dance with you forever.”
Then, there's Chris and his young lover, Melody. Melody who has been forced to prostitute herself in the age of 14 and she's only 18 when she meets Chris. Chris takes Melody along with him to Arizona. Melody who later finds out that she's pregnant but also contracts HIV due to her life being a prostitute. Their story also breaks my heart.
He put a hand over her mouth. “Listen to me now. No abortion. Never. You’re mine. The baby’s mine. I’m not giving up either of you. And I’ll make love to you every day for the rest of my life if I want to.” He hesitated. “If you want me.”
Their stories are the strongest for me. Other characters, involving Gary (Chris and Clayton's platoon mate), Mike, Henry, and Juan ... well, they're not as appealing for me as these two. So the stories are a bit unbalanced, and I sort of skimming their part. I just wish actually that this story is expanded into a full length novel. I can see this being one of those novels that can make me feel, it's so beautiful and profound. The language, the story, and the ending. I love it so ...
Luke was unbuttoning Clayton’s plaid flannel shirt, running warm hands against his chest. Then he was tracing letters against Clay’s skin. I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-S-U-N.
Clayton shrugged. “I don’t want to hide. I want to slow dance with you again. I want to dance with you forever.”
Then, there's Chris and his young lover, Melody. Melody who has been forced to prostitute herself in the age of 14 and she's only 18 when she meets Chris. Chris takes Melody along with him to Arizona. Melody who later finds out that she's pregnant but also contracts HIV due to her life being a prostitute. Their story also breaks my heart.
He put a hand over her mouth. “Listen to me now. No abortion. Never. You’re mine. The baby’s mine. I’m not giving up either of you. And I’ll make love to you every day for the rest of my life if I want to.” He hesitated. “If you want me.”
Their stories are the strongest for me. Other characters, involving Gary (Chris and Clayton's platoon mate), Mike, Henry, and Juan ... well, they're not as appealing for me as these two. So the stories are a bit unbalanced, and I sort of skimming their part. I just wish actually that this story is expanded into a full length novel. I can see this being one of those novels that can make me feel, it's so beautiful and profound. The language, the story, and the ending. I love it so ...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2011
Not an easy or pretty book. SB tells wonderful stories of beauty and love to be found in some of the most desperate and ugly places and situations. A second read for me was still as emotionally charged as the first.
December 22, 2011
This was both an amazing book and a hard read. It is also especially timely given that the war in Iraq is just now over and troops are coming home. Plus we still have so many men and women fighting in Afghanistan. This is, above all, a story of 4 members of a Marine platoon in Iraq. Half of the men are het and the other 2 are gay. It takes place briefly at the end of their tour and the rest of the book concerns their lives once they get home. These are not men that came home and seamlessly melded back into society, in fact I am not sure anyone who has served can ever do that. Perhaps some just put on better fronts than others. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the Marines as well as including the pov of a young reporter and illegal alien. In other hands that could have become confusing and off putting. But once again, Sarah Black demonstrated her knowledge and love of those in pain, those who served, and those so easily tossed away by society. She had me in tears for than once.
The men return from a hard desert overseas to the heat and unforgiving landscape of the border lands of the Southwest. You can almost feel the heat beating down on you and the dust start to coat your skin as you delve into the story. Those who people this land are equally hard and hard up. From the constant tension of the border patrol looking for drug smugglers as well as "walkers" (illegals) to the desolation and poverty of a Indian reservation, it is all captured here. The people here are memorable and heartbreaking.
One of the issues I hear when reading blogs or reviews is the subject of het sex in a book advertised as m/m. Some won't read a book if het sex is included, sometimes they aren't even reviewed, as the feeling is that het sex does not belong in a m/m romance. Perhaps. But while this book does include sex of both the gay and straight variety, it needs to because of the sexual makeup of the Marines featured here. To include one and not the other would do a disservice to those she is depicting. One hetero relationship is the salvation of one of the Marines and is central to his story as much as the relationship of the two gay Marines. Please don't let this deter you from reading this book.
If you pick up this book looking for your typical m/m romance you will be disappointed. It is the story of four Devil Dogs and the friends and family around them. There is romantic love here but it is not for the fainthearted. It is hard won, stressful, deep love. Love for their country, of each other, their mates.....all that is complex, excruciating, and worthwhile. And that is how I feel about this book. Drained but finally rewarded at the end.
The men return from a hard desert overseas to the heat and unforgiving landscape of the border lands of the Southwest. You can almost feel the heat beating down on you and the dust start to coat your skin as you delve into the story. Those who people this land are equally hard and hard up. From the constant tension of the border patrol looking for drug smugglers as well as "walkers" (illegals) to the desolation and poverty of a Indian reservation, it is all captured here. The people here are memorable and heartbreaking.
One of the issues I hear when reading blogs or reviews is the subject of het sex in a book advertised as m/m. Some won't read a book if het sex is included, sometimes they aren't even reviewed, as the feeling is that het sex does not belong in a m/m romance. Perhaps. But while this book does include sex of both the gay and straight variety, it needs to because of the sexual makeup of the Marines featured here. To include one and not the other would do a disservice to those she is depicting. One hetero relationship is the salvation of one of the Marines and is central to his story as much as the relationship of the two gay Marines. Please don't let this deter you from reading this book.
If you pick up this book looking for your typical m/m romance you will be disappointed. It is the story of four Devil Dogs and the friends and family around them. There is romantic love here but it is not for the fainthearted. It is hard won, stressful, deep love. Love for their country, of each other, their mates.....all that is complex, excruciating, and worthwhile. And that is how I feel about this book. Drained but finally rewarded at the end.
August 24, 2010
Overall it was a good book. It is very easy to connect to all the characters and to sympathize with their problems even if you're as far away from their world as it's humanly possible.
There is some romance, but mostly it's a story about the hard side of life and 'brothers' overcoming their troubling past as well as facing the uncertain future.
For me it's more 3.5 stars, mostly because I felt as if something was missing. There are too many characters and it's not a very long read. The other thing that bothered me was the abrupt ending.
There is some romance, but mostly it's a story about the hard side of life and 'brothers' overcoming their troubling past as well as facing the uncertain future.
For me it's more 3.5 stars, mostly because I felt as if something was missing. There are too many characters and it's not a very long read. The other thing that bothered me was the abrupt ending.
June 11, 2021
Wow thats good!
March 5, 2015
Made me cry and cry.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews