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Best Gay Romance 2013
Best Gay Romance 2013 has both heat and sweet. These stories of meet-cutes, first times and long time loves are tales well told with relatable characters you root for from beginning to end. Cream-of-the-crop editor Richard Labonté gathers the very best in gay romance each year for a collection that runs the gamut from hearts and flowers to down and dirty. In Best Gay Romance, the chocolate you may give to your lover will likely be used in many other creative ways! What Labonté does best is represent gay men of every age and every walk of life experiencing every kind of love. These heady, head-over-heels, heart-pounding stories of gay romance make for inspiring bedtime reading!
232 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 21, 2013
3 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
Richard Labonté
64 books53 followersi read a lot of books. i review many of them. i edit many anthologies. i edit technical writing so it reads more like real english. i live on a small island with a man and a dog (tiger-lily, r.i.p). once upon a time, i was a bookseller.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 4, 2013
Brenda Knight's introduction tells us that for romance to be romance, at least as far as a story is concerned, it simply has to have a happy ending. I enjoyed the anthology, some stories more than others (as one might expect), but I was rather surprised at the amount of fucking and sucking going on. Don't get me wrong, I like fucking and sucking as much as the next man, but in my naivete I simply wasn't expecting it in an anthology of romantic stories. I guess, thinking about it, a lot of romantic encounters lead to fucking and sucking (and vice versa) - as this anthology ably demonstrates. Anyway, I liked it, depsite it not being wholly what I was expecting. I'm the first to admit I'm not a gay lit officionado and the only author I recognised on the table of contents was Jameson Currier. Worthy of shout out, from my point of view (obviously), are Martin Delacroix' Cody Barton, Shanna Germain's What We Leave Behind, Doug Harrison's Lonely Boy and Jamie Freeman's Charming Princes. In the erotica stakes, I would say my favourite is Fyn Alexander's Precious Jade. My absolute favourite as far as pure romance is concerned is JM Snyder's Henry and Jim. Snyder's written a beautiful tale of a senior gay couple towards the end of their lives after fifty years together and looking back to how it all began. Immensely touching and poignant.
June 29, 2013
I stopped reading a third of the way through when, in the middle of a story, SUPRISE INCEST! No, thank you. It put me off all the rest of the stories which, if the first few were anything to go by, isn't a great loss.
February 5, 2015
Romance is the key word. Erotic or not, it's the sweetness that'll make you fall in love.
The big winners in this anthology are Natty Soltesz and J.M. Snyder. Both of these authors have a writing style that grabs you and makes you ache for more. Funny enough each of their stories has the passing theme of "I shouldn't be with this guy because he's my sister's." While Soltesz's takes on the voice of in-the-moment lust, Snyder's is the definition of kindled romance. It's exactly what you'd want to read if you picked up the book.
With that said, there is a lot of variety to choose from.
Some authors explored strange fetishes. I'd like to highlight T. Hitman here because, wow, there were things in there I usually gag at, yet the strength of the storytelling made it all tolerable, even endearing. Another highlight is Shane Allison, who, unfortunately, is the equivalent to the token black friend. It's the only romance with an explicitly non-white main character, and that's a big shame since the use of the food fetish didn't work for me.
Other authors chose to work with difficult topics: suicide attempt, rape, or fatal illness. Those were hard to get through without some tears, but I believe the authors handled it tactfully, really delving into the emotions of the aftermath without sounding preachy or fake. Props to Martin Delacroix, C.C. Williams, and Shanna Germain for taking that risk.
It's worth noting that one of the stories in this anthology contains incest. It sneaks up on you, and by the time you find out you're already invested in the characters. I think the use of incest was a poor choice by the author, and it spoiled an otherwise potent narration. How you deal with this revelation is up to you. I pretended it wasn't actually incest because, damn it, why did you have to go there?
After going through the studs and the duds, this anthology has something for everyone. Whether you're into witty banter or romantic gestures, the smooth or the awkward, the silly or the serious, you'll find at least one author you'll want to read more fiction from, and that's a real accomplishment. Enjoy!
The big winners in this anthology are Natty Soltesz and J.M. Snyder. Both of these authors have a writing style that grabs you and makes you ache for more. Funny enough each of their stories has the passing theme of "I shouldn't be with this guy because he's my sister's." While Soltesz's takes on the voice of in-the-moment lust, Snyder's is the definition of kindled romance. It's exactly what you'd want to read if you picked up the book.
With that said, there is a lot of variety to choose from.
Some authors explored strange fetishes. I'd like to highlight T. Hitman here because, wow, there were things in there I usually gag at, yet the strength of the storytelling made it all tolerable, even endearing. Another highlight is Shane Allison, who, unfortunately, is the equivalent to the token black friend. It's the only romance with an explicitly non-white main character, and that's a big shame since the use of the food fetish didn't work for me.
Other authors chose to work with difficult topics: suicide attempt, rape, or fatal illness. Those were hard to get through without some tears, but I believe the authors handled it tactfully, really delving into the emotions of the aftermath without sounding preachy or fake. Props to Martin Delacroix, C.C. Williams, and Shanna Germain for taking that risk.
It's worth noting that one of the stories in this anthology contains incest. It sneaks up on you, and by the time you find out you're already invested in the characters. I think the use of incest was a poor choice by the author, and it spoiled an otherwise potent narration. How you deal with this revelation is up to you. I pretended it wasn't actually incest because, damn it, why did you have to go there?
After going through the studs and the duds, this anthology has something for everyone. Whether you're into witty banter or romantic gestures, the smooth or the awkward, the silly or the serious, you'll find at least one author you'll want to read more fiction from, and that's a real accomplishment. Enjoy!
April 2, 2018
A wonderful collection of short romantic stories, and you can't end on a better note than 'Henry & Jim".
March 19, 2020
Boring, simplistic, undeveloped characters, too short, very little actual romance. Some are really poorly written, others get you a bit excited but there's nothing "best" about this.
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August 18, 2016Remarkably, half the stories in this edition were printed in previous editions of "Best Gay Romance". "The Baker", "Cody Barton", "Precious Jade", "One", "The Prisoners", "What We Leave Behind", and "Charming Princes", were all in previous editions. Don't know why. Maybe there was no one writing gay romance short stories.
Of this edition, I liked all to some degrees. Except for "Closer to the Sky" and "You're a Dog". Those I just didn't understand. Most of the stories were more sexual than romantic, in my opinion.
Of this edition, I liked all to some degrees. Except for "Closer to the Sky" and "You're a Dog". Those I just didn't understand. Most of the stories were more sexual than romantic, in my opinion.
February 18, 2015
The selection of stories in this anthology was quite varied. The diversity of topics and writing styles makes it quite an interesting read, especially if you like reading a wide range of different texts. Some of the stories in this anthology were slightly darker than I personally prefer, but the authorship was still quite masterful and kept me reading. All in all, quite a pleasing collection.
July 30, 2015
If you love reading about men loving men, you'll enjoy this selection. So many men with so much to give! I look forward to reading more of the authors showcased in this book.
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November 11, 2013it is good
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews