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Par-delà l'océan
Même si ça implique d’abandonner son boys band en pleine tournée, Troy Tanner ne laissera pas son petit frère gâcher son futur de la même manière que leur père a détruit sa vie.Décollant d’Australie à bord d’un jet privé qui le ramène chez lui, Troy et le pilote Brian Sinclair survolent l’immensité de l’océan Pacifique sud quand un cyclone venu de nulle part change leurs plans. À des milliers de kilomètres de toute civilisation, l’eau turquoise et la plage de sable blanc ont un côté de paradis. Et quand les jours se muent en semaines, sans personne pour venir à leur rescousse, Troy et Brian se rapprochent, et leur amitié se mue en désir.Alors qu’ils se découvrent, le monde qu’ils ont construit ensemble bascule dans le chaos.
Si Troy et Brian réussissent à quitter cette île, leur amour y résistera-t-il ?
Si Troy et Brian réussissent à quitter cette île, leur amour y résistera-t-il ?
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 9, 2016
409 people are currently reading
3572 people want to read
About the author
Keira Andrews
63 books3,064 followersKeira aims for the perfect mix of character, plot, and heat in her M/M romances. She writes everything from swashbuckling pirates to heartwarming holiday escapism. Her fave tropes are enemies to lovers, age gaps, forced proximity, and passionate virgins. Although she loves delicious angst along the way, Keira guarantees happy endings!
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March 25, 2016see links at the bottom to find out what happened to me when i posted this review.
JULIO'S JOT-TAKE™: GAY FOR YOU.
i got your irate messages. what the hell's the matter this time?
i'm not reading this book.
why not?
because its existence irritates me.
that's hardly a novel state of affairs.
go fuck yourself.
fine, fine—but why does this book irritate you?
because it's built on the GFY trope.
what's GFY? didn't you tell me to go fuck myself already?
GFY means "gay for you." usually you see it written as two heterosexual dudes coming to understand they have a homosexual attraction to one another and then, after a period of awkward and/or anxious sexual tension, lots of fuckin.
oh, i know books like that. they're pretty hot. so what's the big deal?
it's simple, but the explanation can get complicated.
we appear to have plenty of time. unless you'd rather talk about the issue of latent racism in frothy MM romances featuring horribly appropriated minority chara—
basically it's a problem because it reinforces homophobia and erases bisexuality and transgenderism.
whoa, whoa, whoa—i don't see how you get from hot dudes touching peen for the first time to ...all that.
i can explain, if you'd like.
i think you just like to be upset. aren't you latin types supposed to be spicy? you're pretty spicy on twitter. like that time someone called one of your reviews "Exhibit A for everything that's wrong with our fundamentally bankrupt reviewer culture" and you changed your twitter username to EXHIBIT A for a month out of spite! that was a good ti—
gay for you implies that the only way it is acceptable to have homosexual sex is for it to be completely involuntary and/or framed by problematic contexts. i.e.: prison. or: a desert island. GFY in this context means these two straight dudes wouldn't normally be inclined this way, buuuuuuuut... there's no pussy around, so... bom chikka bom pow!
i don't get it.
apparently. lemme try again. these guys have sex with one another not because they're open to having sex with guys already (yuck!), but because they have no choice. therefore, the logic is: having sex with dudes = gross... unless you have no choice because there's no chocha to hand and you just have to get your dick wet.
...that's. um. ok. this had not previously occurred to me.
omgnoway.
so that would seem to be implying that being gay is bad.
yes.
...which is the same as homophobia?
lookit you! with the learning things, n'stuff!
there's no need to be so snippy about it, my gosh, i'm trying here, ok, not like they taught this shit at sch—
even worse, GFY erases bisexuality and contributes to the kind of abuse bisexual people have to deal with every single day... from literally everyone. gay, straight, male, female, whatever. everyone hates bisexuals. everyone's scared of bisexuals. bisexuality = sorcery. kill the bisexok i'll stop now.
nowait, ezzplain. how does GFY erase bisexuality?
the same way it promotes homophobia: by suggesting the only time an ostensibly straight dude can fancy a bit of cock is when he's literally got no other option at all.
...like on a desert isl—
like on a desert island, yes.
wow. that's... that must suck. for bisexuals, i mean.
it does. in nearly every fucking story and nearly every fucking movie and in nearly every conversation you ever see anywhere about bisexuals, they're described as 'omnivorous' or 'rapacious' or, in one recent and appalling example, 'jungle cats' who are literally trying to poach a dude's boyfriend right in front of him while being black also. which reinforces irrational fears people have about bisexuals. namely, that you can't be in a relationship with a bisexual because they'll eventually fuck someone of another gender behind your back. or they'll steal your man. or they'll leave the toilet seat up idk, w.e., it's grody as hell and it's everywhere.
ouch.
yes.
that's a bummer.
yes.
and but what how with the trans whatever?
another way GFY is problematic is how it's almost exclusively deployed in male-male pairings. this further supports the insane and frankly insulting as hell notion that you can't be a man and have sex with another man unless 1.) it's by accident, catastrophe, or political strategy, and 2.) you have a penis. seeing as how many trans men do not have penises and one most certainly does not require a penis to be a man, a trans man might find this sort of thing aggressively unpleasant to have shoved in their face all the goddamned time.
*appalled silence*
yuuuuuuuuup.
that's...
yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup.
...hey, wait, isn't that also super-misogynist?
YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPP-PTPTPTP.
holy shit.
i told you.
i just... never thought of it like this before.
i don't blame you. you probably never had a reason to.
but... but... i read MM almost exclusively, and this kind of thing is practically everywhere!
yes. yes it is. and part of the problem is that mm has no idea what the fuck it wants to be. some people claim it's really slash, so it doesn't have to follow the basic rules of human decency and/or respect as, say, a genre of literature written by the people about whom it is written.
oh, fuck. not this again.
relax. i'm chill. i'm chill.
*wary look*
i said i'm chill, bitch, don't i fucking look chill?
i apologize.
no you don't, you lying hoor. moving on: mm runs into trouble like this because it doesn't know if it wants to be erotica or romance.
what's the difference?
in erotica, the point is kink. the point is fetishism. because the point of erotica is to get you off, and that (rightfully) encompasses almost everything under the sun, legal and illegal, for as long as people have been fuckin.
ok. and romance?
romance is aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy, like the idea of love.
...and the problem when they get mixed-up is...
...the problem is that kinks are by definition exclusionary. you can't have a kink without an element of selection. for instance, the fastest way to get me to come is to be tall, skinny, male, well-endowed, and in love with sucking my dick.
*awkward throat-clearing noise*
generally speaking, i am not turned on by short round women, whether they love sucking my dick or no. and i know this from experience. for a while i identified as a practicing bisexual man instead of just the philosophical bisexual man i am today.
*painfully awkward silence continues*
*vindictively allows painfully awkward silence to persist*
i'm so, so sorr—
so anyway, i'm really into tall skinny dudes with big dicks and big hands and feet and also a nice, articulated adam's apple in a long, long neck, and also maybe a strong nose and a broad mouth with suuuuuper-kissable lips and kinda romantic hair too, longish and curly and... and nice toes, tbh, i really love a man with lovely toes, like nice and groomed and kinda chubby, with maybe the odd vein here or there, and no bunions or callouses or anything like—
this can't be happening to me.
—so that's what i like. that's what turns me on. does that mean everything that doesn't turn me on shouldn't exist?
no, of course not.
and does that mean there shouldn't be porn about things that i do not myself find sexy?
no.
exactly. so in that way, erotica... erotica is by definition about literally every kink under the sun. and no one person with their one series of kinks gets to define what turns other people on.
okay?
in erotica, GFY is fine. because while that's not my kink, i certainly celebrate the right for it to be yours. feel me?
i see. whereas in romance...
whereas, in romance, that's not what it's about at all. you can have granularity. you can write for and about a very specific person and a very specific setting. i like romances set in the past, and i like romances set in the future, and i like romances between one big giant dude and a little scrawny little dude, and etc—but you can't exclude whole categories of people the way you could in erotica. because that's hurtful, where in erotica it's just classification. a romance doesn't even need to feature sex of any kind at all in order to be a romance. shout-out to all my asexual peepalz, 1love, RESPEK!!!!
wow. so in MM—
in mm you get erotica marketed as romance. as if nobody knows the difference between them. because some mm readers don't know the difference, and view gay sex as a kink, and not, say, a part of my motherfucking identity.
see, there you go. spicy.
go fuck yourself twice.
bien spicy.
go fuck yourself twice in the eye.
what happened next: https://storify.com/genao/they-d-bett...
discussion after eight friends, amy lane, damon suede, heidi cullinan, and a bunch of b-list bigots on facebook whipped-up a lynch mob on account of me choosing not to read a book: https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...
JULIO'S JOT-TAKE™: GAY FOR YOU.
i got your irate messages. what the hell's the matter this time?
i'm not reading this book.
why not?
because its existence irritates me.
that's hardly a novel state of affairs.
go fuck yourself.
fine, fine—but why does this book irritate you?
because it's built on the GFY trope.
what's GFY? didn't you tell me to go fuck myself already?
GFY means "gay for you." usually you see it written as two heterosexual dudes coming to understand they have a homosexual attraction to one another and then, after a period of awkward and/or anxious sexual tension, lots of fuckin.
oh, i know books like that. they're pretty hot. so what's the big deal?
it's simple, but the explanation can get complicated.
we appear to have plenty of time. unless you'd rather talk about the issue of latent racism in frothy MM romances featuring horribly appropriated minority chara—
basically it's a problem because it reinforces homophobia and erases bisexuality and transgenderism.
whoa, whoa, whoa—i don't see how you get from hot dudes touching peen for the first time to ...all that.
i can explain, if you'd like.
i think you just like to be upset. aren't you latin types supposed to be spicy? you're pretty spicy on twitter. like that time someone called one of your reviews "Exhibit A for everything that's wrong with our fundamentally bankrupt reviewer culture" and you changed your twitter username to EXHIBIT A for a month out of spite! that was a good ti—
gay for you implies that the only way it is acceptable to have homosexual sex is for it to be completely involuntary and/or framed by problematic contexts. i.e.: prison. or: a desert island. GFY in this context means these two straight dudes wouldn't normally be inclined this way, buuuuuuuut... there's no pussy around, so... bom chikka bom pow!
i don't get it.
apparently. lemme try again. these guys have sex with one another not because they're open to having sex with guys already (yuck!), but because they have no choice. therefore, the logic is: having sex with dudes = gross... unless you have no choice because there's no chocha to hand and you just have to get your dick wet.
...that's. um. ok. this had not previously occurred to me.
omgnoway.
so that would seem to be implying that being gay is bad.
yes.
...which is the same as homophobia?
lookit you! with the learning things, n'stuff!
there's no need to be so snippy about it, my gosh, i'm trying here, ok, not like they taught this shit at sch—
even worse, GFY erases bisexuality and contributes to the kind of abuse bisexual people have to deal with every single day... from literally everyone. gay, straight, male, female, whatever. everyone hates bisexuals. everyone's scared of bisexuals. bisexuality = sorcery. kill the bisexok i'll stop now.
nowait, ezzplain. how does GFY erase bisexuality?
the same way it promotes homophobia: by suggesting the only time an ostensibly straight dude can fancy a bit of cock is when he's literally got no other option at all.
...like on a desert isl—
like on a desert island, yes.
wow. that's... that must suck. for bisexuals, i mean.
it does. in nearly every fucking story and nearly every fucking movie and in nearly every conversation you ever see anywhere about bisexuals, they're described as 'omnivorous' or 'rapacious' or, in one recent and appalling example, 'jungle cats' who are literally trying to poach a dude's boyfriend right in front of him while being black also. which reinforces irrational fears people have about bisexuals. namely, that you can't be in a relationship with a bisexual because they'll eventually fuck someone of another gender behind your back. or they'll steal your man. or they'll leave the toilet seat up idk, w.e., it's grody as hell and it's everywhere.
ouch.
yes.
that's a bummer.
yes.
and but what how with the trans whatever?
another way GFY is problematic is how it's almost exclusively deployed in male-male pairings. this further supports the insane and frankly insulting as hell notion that you can't be a man and have sex with another man unless 1.) it's by accident, catastrophe, or political strategy, and 2.) you have a penis. seeing as how many trans men do not have penises and one most certainly does not require a penis to be a man, a trans man might find this sort of thing aggressively unpleasant to have shoved in their face all the goddamned time.
*appalled silence*
yuuuuuuuuup.
that's...
yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup.
...hey, wait, isn't that also super-misogynist?
YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPP-PTPTPTP.
holy shit.
i told you.
i just... never thought of it like this before.
i don't blame you. you probably never had a reason to.
but... but... i read MM almost exclusively, and this kind of thing is practically everywhere!
yes. yes it is. and part of the problem is that mm has no idea what the fuck it wants to be. some people claim it's really slash, so it doesn't have to follow the basic rules of human decency and/or respect as, say, a genre of literature written by the people about whom it is written.
oh, fuck. not this again.
relax. i'm chill. i'm chill.
*wary look*
i said i'm chill, bitch, don't i fucking look chill?
i apologize.
no you don't, you lying hoor. moving on: mm runs into trouble like this because it doesn't know if it wants to be erotica or romance.
what's the difference?
in erotica, the point is kink. the point is fetishism. because the point of erotica is to get you off, and that (rightfully) encompasses almost everything under the sun, legal and illegal, for as long as people have been fuckin.
ok. and romance?
romance is aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy, like the idea of love.
...and the problem when they get mixed-up is...
...the problem is that kinks are by definition exclusionary. you can't have a kink without an element of selection. for instance, the fastest way to get me to come is to be tall, skinny, male, well-endowed, and in love with sucking my dick.
*awkward throat-clearing noise*
generally speaking, i am not turned on by short round women, whether they love sucking my dick or no. and i know this from experience. for a while i identified as a practicing bisexual man instead of just the philosophical bisexual man i am today.
*painfully awkward silence continues*
*vindictively allows painfully awkward silence to persist*
i'm so, so sorr—
so anyway, i'm really into tall skinny dudes with big dicks and big hands and feet and also a nice, articulated adam's apple in a long, long neck, and also maybe a strong nose and a broad mouth with suuuuuper-kissable lips and kinda romantic hair too, longish and curly and... and nice toes, tbh, i really love a man with lovely toes, like nice and groomed and kinda chubby, with maybe the odd vein here or there, and no bunions or callouses or anything like—
this can't be happening to me.
—so that's what i like. that's what turns me on. does that mean everything that doesn't turn me on shouldn't exist?
no, of course not.
and does that mean there shouldn't be porn about things that i do not myself find sexy?
no.
exactly. so in that way, erotica... erotica is by definition about literally every kink under the sun. and no one person with their one series of kinks gets to define what turns other people on.
okay?
in erotica, GFY is fine. because while that's not my kink, i certainly celebrate the right for it to be yours. feel me?
i see. whereas in romance...
whereas, in romance, that's not what it's about at all. you can have granularity. you can write for and about a very specific person and a very specific setting. i like romances set in the past, and i like romances set in the future, and i like romances between one big giant dude and a little scrawny little dude, and etc—but you can't exclude whole categories of people the way you could in erotica. because that's hurtful, where in erotica it's just classification. a romance doesn't even need to feature sex of any kind at all in order to be a romance. shout-out to all my asexual peepalz, 1love, RESPEK!!!!
wow. so in MM—
in mm you get erotica marketed as romance. as if nobody knows the difference between them. because some mm readers don't know the difference, and view gay sex as a kink, and not, say, a part of my motherfucking identity.
see, there you go. spicy.
go fuck yourself twice.
bien spicy.
go fuck yourself twice in the eye.
what happened next: https://storify.com/genao/they-d-bett...
discussion after eight friends, amy lane, damon suede, heidi cullinan, and a bunch of b-list bigots on facebook whipped-up a lynch mob on account of me choosing not to read a book: https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...
December 29, 2019
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
HELL YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
DEAR BOOK:
Keira Andrews, I want to kiss you and possibly give you money/anything else you want for writing this book. It's like you crept into my brain and pulled out my fantasies and made a book out of them!!
Yup, it's 2 am here, folks, and it would have taken a band of armed robbers to pry my kindle out of my hand before the last page of this book was turned. This book was simply divine! It took my favorite things in M/M and romance in general and combined them together in a fabulous, sexy package.
One of my all-time favorite books is On the Island. This is basically like a gay version of that!! Plane-wrecks, slow-burn romance, age gaps... DIVINE.
Hyperventilating over here!!
Okay, here is the deal. Just because this book combined being stranded on an island and suddenly being attracted to dick doesn't make it a good book. I've given many a sexuality-discovery story 1-star in my day. However, Keira Andrews just pro-leveled the crap of out this story. I mean, she just wrote its ASS OFF.
One of my favorite things about this book is the slooooowwww burn romance. You absolutely NEED slow-burn in this kind of story. It is simply a requirement. Here, the attraction built super slowly over time, and the sexual tension was allowed to just build and build. I was dying alongside these guys as things started headed towards sexy-land, and I was loving every second of their journey.
And once we got to their journey.... I was in HEAVEN! No, the sex isn't especially ground-breaking or kinky or dirty, but you know me and my butt-virgin kink. Yup, I'm a perv, I am! I thought that their connection was off the charts! Hot, emotional, tender, intense... it was just everything.
Aside from the relationship between the two MCs, the writing and the plot was really fascinating. No matter how many times I read these survival-ish stories, I'm still awestruck by challenges of surviving outside of civilization. These guys had it rough and it felt totally authentic.
I adored every second of this story. Will it be as much of a hit with every reader? Maybe. The writing is superb, and the two MCs are amazing together. However, for me it was just the perfect fit for my particular tastes and mood. On to my favorites list you go!!
*Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*
HELL YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
DEAR BOOK:
Keira Andrews, I want to kiss you and possibly give you money/anything else you want for writing this book. It's like you crept into my brain and pulled out my fantasies and made a book out of them!!
Yup, it's 2 am here, folks, and it would have taken a band of armed robbers to pry my kindle out of my hand before the last page of this book was turned. This book was simply divine! It took my favorite things in M/M and romance in general and combined them together in a fabulous, sexy package.
One of my all-time favorite books is On the Island. This is basically like a gay version of that!! Plane-wrecks, slow-burn romance, age gaps... DIVINE.
Hyperventilating over here!!
Okay, here is the deal. Just because this book combined being stranded on an island and suddenly being attracted to dick doesn't make it a good book. I've given many a sexuality-discovery story 1-star in my day. However, Keira Andrews just pro-leveled the crap of out this story. I mean, she just wrote its ASS OFF.
One of my favorite things about this book is the slooooowwww burn romance. You absolutely NEED slow-burn in this kind of story. It is simply a requirement. Here, the attraction built super slowly over time, and the sexual tension was allowed to just build and build. I was dying alongside these guys as things started headed towards sexy-land, and I was loving every second of their journey.
And once we got to their journey.... I was in HEAVEN! No, the sex isn't especially ground-breaking or kinky or dirty, but you know me and my butt-virgin kink. Yup, I'm a perv, I am! I thought that their connection was off the charts! Hot, emotional, tender, intense... it was just everything.
Aside from the relationship between the two MCs, the writing and the plot was really fascinating. No matter how many times I read these survival-ish stories, I'm still awestruck by challenges of surviving outside of civilization. These guys had it rough and it felt totally authentic.
I adored every second of this story. Will it be as much of a hit with every reader? Maybe. The writing is superb, and the two MCs are amazing together. However, for me it was just the perfect fit for my particular tastes and mood. On to my favorites list you go!!
*Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*
August 10, 2016
Okay, I'm a dirty ho. There, I said it.
When I first saw the blurb for Keira's new book, "Beyond the Sea," of course my filthy mind went directly to thinking that the plane would crash, the questionably-straight guys would immediately land on one another's dicks and sexy times would ensue.
Wrong.
This is not that book and I absolutely loved Keira's unique approach to the story.
Instead, what I got was a story that was extremely compelling and completely held my attention. Not a lot of books do that for me.
I didn't even realize that said 'sexy times' were held off for half way into the book until they began and I looked at the percent complete status. But that didn't matter in the slightest, as the story was just that damn good.
At 26, Troy is the half Filipino, half Caucasian veteran of both a teen TV show and popular boy band, who's always done what he's told and never made any real life decisions for himself.
And at 39, Brian is an ex-commercial airline pilot who's been through a traumatic event, unable to forgive himself, since several passengers died while on his watch, so now he will only ever sit in the co-pilot's seat.
I truly loved the give and take dynamic between Troy, who has the world at his feet when they first meet, and Brian, who's basically at his own rock bottom mentally, hiding from old friends and the world in general.
While stranded and trying to survive, Brian helps Troy realize that he did his very best for his drug addict father and Troy helps Brian come to terms with the airline crash that sent him fleeing to the other side of the globe.
What I also loved was how the two were always there for one another when trying to survive day to day on the island and how natural their interactions felt. Nothing was ever one sided between them, even when it came to sex.
And yes, there was sex. Eventually. I snorted so hard at their first 'touch' and immediately had to ping Keira on Facebook to tell her how funny I found that opening sexy scene.
Then things actually got pretty steamy, but never felt gratuitous or that the guys were only 'worked up' and that the sex was only a means of getting off. It was about their deep personal connection to one another, which just happened to overflow into the physical.
(But the dirty ho in me still found those scenes smoking hot. Just sayin'.)
Plus, I thoroughly enjoyed the epilogue, from 4 years down the road, where we see the guys happily together, dissenters be damned, and in careers that make them both very happy.
Is gay for you a real thing? Who knows? Who CARES!
Unicorns and shifters aren't real, but I love the crap out of some books in those genres, too.
This is fiction , people, so it really twists my nipples (and not in a good way) when people read a blurb, but not the book, then get out the nails to start hammering an author to the cross.
*This* story is not written as "this island is pussy-free, so where's the peen?" And I don't remember a single scene that came across as, "Ewwww, there's a hard, throbbing cock in my hand, gross." I've never seen Keira write stupid shit like that.
So if you haven't actually read *this* book, then you're talking out of your butt, as you don't know how *this story* was written.
And this one was done really well, so it rates a solid 4.5 stars for me and I highly recommend it for the story, not for any possible titillation regarding GFY.
------------------------------------------------
My ARC copy of the book was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.
March 7, 2016
Two men. One island. A love story for the ages.
Fed up with his brother’s drug abuse, Troy hires a private plane to take him from Sydney back to the States, world tour be damned. He is a pop star after all and can afford such luxuries.
Brian treats Troy like any other passenger. He could care less about a boy band idol. For Brian, this is just another job.
Just another job, just another day … just another flight.
Until the plane falls out of the sky.
Stranded on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific, Brian and Troy have to work together to survive. They figure out how to build a shelter and start a fire. They spell out SOS with rocks. They learn how to crack open coconuts and cook the pulp.
There are fish to catch, wood to chop, and clothes to wash. Fortunately, papayas are plentiful. Unfortunately, the parrots are damn loud and star squawking at an ungodly hour every morning.
Troy isn’t the spoiled rich boy Brian expected, and Brian knows that as far as being lost in the middle of nowhere goes, he could do much worse than Troy.
Brian and Troy take care of each other. They talk and dream and laugh. They name their island Golden Sands after this Sinatra song.
Troy has always been a people pleaser, and he’s still catering to the ghost of his dead father, a real showman who pushed his sons to succeed and snorted their money up his nose. With Brian, Troy can finally sing for himself.
Brian, emotionally scarred by a past tragedy, has been existing, not living. Isolated from friends, Brian has been hiding from the world in his nondescript Sydney flat. He feels guilty for surviving, especially since the pilot, Paula, who tried to be a friend to him even as he pushed her away, perished in the island crash.
The first half of the book is about the mundane day-to-day tasks of staying alive. There are no lingering glances, no unfulfilled sexual tension. The men are too busy catching rain water and staying dry to worry about getting off.
But there are moments of awareness, Troy looking at Brian’s hairy chest, Brian attempting to masturbate to an image of two women only to have his thoughts stray to Troy time and again. Troy offers to get Brian off, and then there’s kissing and caressing and raw, passionate sex.
This isn’t a GFY story, not really. The men don’t spend time fantasizing about women and talking about exes. Troy realizes that if he’s sexually attracted to a man, he must be bi. But it isn’t about labels. It’s about friendship and trust. It’s about love.
I adored Troy’s close-knit, supportive Filipino family, especially his mother, all five foot nothing of her, who calls Troy “Bongbong” and asks him if he’s had “the sex.” Troy’s little brother finally gets his ass into rehab and never gives up the search for Troy.
There is no melodrama here, no homophobia, no big internal struggle over sexual identity, no bitchy ex-girlfriends. This book is fuckery free!
Instead we get: sex in a lean-to, the most erotic shaving scene ever written, two gorgeous men who spend most of their time naked, and an epilogue worthy of a Grammy.
Fed up with his brother’s drug abuse, Troy hires a private plane to take him from Sydney back to the States, world tour be damned. He is a pop star after all and can afford such luxuries.
Brian treats Troy like any other passenger. He could care less about a boy band idol. For Brian, this is just another job.
Just another job, just another day … just another flight.
Until the plane falls out of the sky.
Stranded on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific, Brian and Troy have to work together to survive. They figure out how to build a shelter and start a fire. They spell out SOS with rocks. They learn how to crack open coconuts and cook the pulp.
There are fish to catch, wood to chop, and clothes to wash. Fortunately, papayas are plentiful. Unfortunately, the parrots are damn loud and star squawking at an ungodly hour every morning.
Troy isn’t the spoiled rich boy Brian expected, and Brian knows that as far as being lost in the middle of nowhere goes, he could do much worse than Troy.
Brian and Troy take care of each other. They talk and dream and laugh. They name their island Golden Sands after this Sinatra song.
Troy has always been a people pleaser, and he’s still catering to the ghost of his dead father, a real showman who pushed his sons to succeed and snorted their money up his nose. With Brian, Troy can finally sing for himself.
Brian, emotionally scarred by a past tragedy, has been existing, not living. Isolated from friends, Brian has been hiding from the world in his nondescript Sydney flat. He feels guilty for surviving, especially since the pilot, Paula, who tried to be a friend to him even as he pushed her away, perished in the island crash.
The first half of the book is about the mundane day-to-day tasks of staying alive. There are no lingering glances, no unfulfilled sexual tension. The men are too busy catching rain water and staying dry to worry about getting off.
But there are moments of awareness, Troy looking at Brian’s hairy chest, Brian attempting to masturbate to an image of two women only to have his thoughts stray to Troy time and again. Troy offers to get Brian off, and then there’s kissing and caressing and raw, passionate sex.
This isn’t a GFY story, not really. The men don’t spend time fantasizing about women and talking about exes. Troy realizes that if he’s sexually attracted to a man, he must be bi. But it isn’t about labels. It’s about friendship and trust. It’s about love.
I adored Troy’s close-knit, supportive Filipino family, especially his mother, all five foot nothing of her, who calls Troy “Bongbong” and asks him if he’s had “the sex.” Troy’s little brother finally gets his ass into rehab and never gives up the search for Troy.
There is no melodrama here, no homophobia, no big internal struggle over sexual identity, no bitchy ex-girlfriends. This book is fuckery free!
Instead we get: sex in a lean-to, the most erotic shaving scene ever written, two gorgeous men who spend most of their time naked, and an epilogue worthy of a Grammy.
honestly-ill-never-get-around-to-it
March 11, 2016Your dichotomy is problematic
In Julio's takedown of Keira Andrews's Beyond the Sea and the GFY trope, there was one rather large detail I couldn't let pass by without challenge.
Julio positions romance in opposition to erotica.
"...in erotica, the point is kink. the point is fetishism. because the point of erotica is to get you off, and that (rightfully) encompasses almost everything under the sun, legal and illegal, for as long as people have been fuckin[g] . . . romance is aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy, like the idea of love ...the problem is that kinks are by definition exclusionary. you can't have a kink without an element of selection. for instance, the fastest way to get me to come is to be tall, skinny, male, well-endowed, and in love with sucking my dick... erotica is by definition about literally every kink under the sun. and no one person with their one series of kinks gets to define what turns other people on... in erotica, GFY is fine. because while that's not my kink, i certainly celebrate the right for it to be yours. feel me? whereas, in romance, that's not what it's about at all....but you can't exclude whole categories of people the way you could in erotica.because that's hurtful, where in erotica it's just classification...in mm you get erotica marketed as romance. as if nobody knows the difference between them. because some mm readers don't know the difference, and view gay sex as a kink, and not, say, a part of my motherfucking identity."
In truth erotica and romance are closely entwined, and both involve fetishization.
In general, erotica fetishizes physical expression of psychological pleasure, expressed through sexual acts, physical attributes, clothing and toys, or concepts like humiliation.
Romance fetishizes emotional expression of biological processes: through making stories where deep human meaning comes from minute quantities of dopamine, norephinephrine, and serotonin rocketing around our mesolimbic pathways. Romance stories tell us that we are more than our chemistry.
The problem with separating them, and saying that kink is okay in erotica, but not in romance, is it does precisely what a lot of Western culture does - it says sex and emotions are two different things with two different rules. If you want to get off with your genitals - if you want to fap - then you're allowed to have your kink and, according to Julio, "GFY is fine." But if you want emotional pleasure then you're not allowed to have your kink. And this is a huge problem because of the way love and sex are gender-coded by Western culture.
Genital pleasure i.e. sex: pleasure coded as male by our culture and lets you "get off" = your specific kink is OK.
Emotional pleasure i.e. love: pleasure coded as female by our culture and lets you squee = no, you may not have your specific kink.
(Additionally, given that many women readers show clear preference for emotional involvement before the fapping can happen, you can see the problem in trying to separate the two out.)
Saying romance must conform to different rules than other forms of fiction is a dangerous false dichotomy. Setting romance up as the genre that "should be" "aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy"... well, it grates in the same way it does when I get told to "Smile, honey."
The erasure of bisexuality in M/M is currently being hotly debated in our community. I hear you, bisexuals, when you say that you're not welcome in M/M. I see this as a true thing. I acknowledge that just because something is a romantic or sexual fantasy does not exclude it from influencing culture in general, in ways that are detrimental to marginalized groups. Yes, I see that my faves are problematic.
Just don't tell me you get to have your faves because you fap to them, and I don't because I braingasm to them.
In Julio's takedown of Keira Andrews's Beyond the Sea and the GFY trope, there was one rather large detail I couldn't let pass by without challenge.
Julio positions romance in opposition to erotica.
"...in erotica, the point is kink. the point is fetishism. because the point of erotica is to get you off, and that (rightfully) encompasses almost everything under the sun, legal and illegal, for as long as people have been fuckin[g] . . . romance is aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy, like the idea of love ...the problem is that kinks are by definition exclusionary. you can't have a kink without an element of selection. for instance, the fastest way to get me to come is to be tall, skinny, male, well-endowed, and in love with sucking my dick... erotica is by definition about literally every kink under the sun. and no one person with their one series of kinks gets to define what turns other people on... in erotica, GFY is fine. because while that's not my kink, i certainly celebrate the right for it to be yours. feel me? whereas, in romance, that's not what it's about at all....but you can't exclude whole categories of people the way you could in erotica.because that's hurtful, where in erotica it's just classification...in mm you get erotica marketed as romance. as if nobody knows the difference between them. because some mm readers don't know the difference, and view gay sex as a kink, and not, say, a part of my motherfucking identity."
In truth erotica and romance are closely entwined, and both involve fetishization.
In general, erotica fetishizes physical expression of psychological pleasure, expressed through sexual acts, physical attributes, clothing and toys, or concepts like humiliation.
Romance fetishizes emotional expression of biological processes: through making stories where deep human meaning comes from minute quantities of dopamine, norephinephrine, and serotonin rocketing around our mesolimbic pathways. Romance stories tell us that we are more than our chemistry.
The problem with separating them, and saying that kink is okay in erotica, but not in romance, is it does precisely what a lot of Western culture does - it says sex and emotions are two different things with two different rules. If you want to get off with your genitals - if you want to fap - then you're allowed to have your kink and, according to Julio, "GFY is fine." But if you want emotional pleasure then you're not allowed to have your kink. And this is a huge problem because of the way love and sex are gender-coded by Western culture.
Genital pleasure i.e. sex: pleasure coded as male by our culture and lets you "get off" = your specific kink is OK.
Emotional pleasure i.e. love: pleasure coded as female by our culture and lets you squee = no, you may not have your specific kink.
(Additionally, given that many women readers show clear preference for emotional involvement before the fapping can happen, you can see the problem in trying to separate the two out.)
Saying romance must conform to different rules than other forms of fiction is a dangerous false dichotomy. Setting romance up as the genre that "should be" "aspirational and positive, meant to reinforce ideas that make you happy"... well, it grates in the same way it does when I get told to "Smile, honey."
The erasure of bisexuality in M/M is currently being hotly debated in our community. I hear you, bisexuals, when you say that you're not welcome in M/M. I see this as a true thing. I acknowledge that just because something is a romantic or sexual fantasy does not exclude it from influencing culture in general, in ways that are detrimental to marginalized groups. Yes, I see that my faves are problematic.
Just don't tell me you get to have your faves because you fap to them, and I don't because I braingasm to them.
September 12, 2016
Big thanks to Alona for reading with me.
I loved this. It's Keira Andrews and I love me some Keira Andrews. She writes the sexiest sex and the romanciest romance. The woman is a genius.
Now, on to the subject at hand, which is sadly not this great book. This author found herself at the center of a controversy because of her wording in the blurb and the concept of "gay for you." I don't know what that term means to Keira Andrews. I don't know what it means to each individual who reads it. When I read it, I find it very romantic. I like the idea of someone finding themselves surprisingly in love. The whole concept just makes me swoon.
The words in the blurb caused some upset. They also caused some people I have a lot of respect for to write some very intelligent things. This is the thing I love most about GR - literate people coming together to discuss the power of language and our mutual love of words.
Here are three pieces of writing on the subject that I really enjoyed:
Erika's great post.
Emma's great post.
Vivian's great post.
I'm not going to pretend that this has all been sunshine and rainbows as there has been some ugliness involved. I lost a friend because of my support for the book, but... that's okay. I will always support writers who are doing their best to entertain and make my heart go pitter pat. I'm proud of Keira Andrews for staying above the fray and proving herself to be a class act. I'm also proud of the people who voiced their opinions eloquently and with restraint.
Final thoughts - give the book a shot. It's a winner!
I loved this. It's Keira Andrews and I love me some Keira Andrews. She writes the sexiest sex and the romanciest romance. The woman is a genius.
Now, on to the subject at hand, which is sadly not this great book. This author found herself at the center of a controversy because of her wording in the blurb and the concept of "gay for you." I don't know what that term means to Keira Andrews. I don't know what it means to each individual who reads it. When I read it, I find it very romantic. I like the idea of someone finding themselves surprisingly in love. The whole concept just makes me swoon.
The words in the blurb caused some upset. They also caused some people I have a lot of respect for to write some very intelligent things. This is the thing I love most about GR - literate people coming together to discuss the power of language and our mutual love of words.
Here are three pieces of writing on the subject that I really enjoyed:
Erika's great post.
Emma's great post.
Vivian's great post.
I'm not going to pretend that this has all been sunshine and rainbows as there has been some ugliness involved. I lost a friend because of my support for the book, but... that's okay. I will always support writers who are doing their best to entertain and make my heart go pitter pat. I'm proud of Keira Andrews for staying above the fray and proving herself to be a class act. I'm also proud of the people who voiced their opinions eloquently and with restraint.
Final thoughts - give the book a shot. It's a winner!
March 18, 2016
***4 Stars***
Troy is part of a boy band with his younger brother.Fed up with his brother's drug use he leaves in the middle of a tour.Not wanting to attract the paparazzi and all the questions he hires a private jet to take him back to America.
Brian is the co pilot.He is dealing with issues of his own.He used to be a pilot on commercial flights but after an emergency he has low self esteem and is quite content to be second in command.He's kind of shut himself of from the world....
When the private jet crashes the two men are thrown together when they are stranded on an island.
Because of the nature of the story it's definitely a slow burner.They both struggle to come to terms with what's happened to them and start to re evaluate their lives.
Their story was beautiful.I loved how their friendship developed and how they began to rely on each other before anything sexual happened between them.
They are both straight but the way their story developed was actually believable.The sexy times happen quite late on in the story but that actually didn't bother me.
A really enjoyable M/M story with two brilliant characters...
Troy is part of a boy band with his younger brother.Fed up with his brother's drug use he leaves in the middle of a tour.Not wanting to attract the paparazzi and all the questions he hires a private jet to take him back to America.
Brian is the co pilot.He is dealing with issues of his own.He used to be a pilot on commercial flights but after an emergency he has low self esteem and is quite content to be second in command.He's kind of shut himself of from the world....
When the private jet crashes the two men are thrown together when they are stranded on an island.
Because of the nature of the story it's definitely a slow burner.They both struggle to come to terms with what's happened to them and start to re evaluate their lives.
Their story was beautiful.I loved how their friendship developed and how they began to rely on each other before anything sexual happened between them.
They are both straight but the way their story developed was actually believable.The sexy times happen quite late on in the story but that actually didn't bother me.
A really enjoyable M/M story with two brilliant characters...
March 11, 2016
Stinger/summary: In Andrews’s novel, both heroes are stranded on islands long before that’s literally true. One man is a reluctant part of a boy band, dutifully letting himself be shuttled through life in a glass hamster wheel, plastering on a smile while the paparazzo click away. The other is a celebrated pilot hero unable to process his survivor guilt, shutting himself off from the world to the point it’s almost dangerous. Neither one of them in any way is repressing their sexuality or orientation. Both have had relationships with women, and they’ve been real relationships, not disappointing attempts where everything felt wrong, especially once they opened up to the idea of being with a man.
This means when they do fall for one another, it’s all the more magical. Their relationship isn’t about orientation but about connection. It’s not about surrendering identity but shedding old lives to make new ones. About finding themselves and each other amidst a harrowing ordeal—talk about a tale of hope!
A charming, heartwarming breath of fresh air, Beyond the Sea allows us to imagine we too can sail past our boundaries and into the ocean of our own happily ever after.
Full review (and a lengthy discussion/set of interviews on the trope) on my blog: https://heidicullinan.wordpress.com/2...
Highly recommended.
This means when they do fall for one another, it’s all the more magical. Their relationship isn’t about orientation but about connection. It’s not about surrendering identity but shedding old lives to make new ones. About finding themselves and each other amidst a harrowing ordeal—talk about a tale of hope!
A charming, heartwarming breath of fresh air, Beyond the Sea allows us to imagine we too can sail past our boundaries and into the ocean of our own happily ever after.
Full review (and a lengthy discussion/set of interviews on the trope) on my blog: https://heidicullinan.wordpress.com/2...
Highly recommended.
April 12, 2016
As someone who has come to an understanding of her queer identity rather later than some do, I found this book to be a lovely exploration of discovering bisexuality at different points in life. One MC is a young man who's never really felt what he's considered to be strong romantic emotions for the girls he's dated. The other MC is older and has a failed marriage and some relationships with women under his belt, but he's never felt the sexual drive he thinks he should toward them. Cue plane crash and desert island with these two MCs together. Gradually, over time, their friendship and burgeoning attraction turns to love and desire, and the realization that they are bisexual. Any review that implies that this is a tasteless or tawdry tale is incorrect. It's a discovery of truths.
The desert island is symbolic in a way of the place many eventually reaches before they "come out" to themselves or others: they have nothing left to lose and everything to gain by being honest about their feelings and needs. This goes beyond sexuality and romance for both of these characters, and delves into the psychology of the many painful truths they've ignored about themselves or buried for years.
As always, Keira Andrews writes with a clear heart and mind, and her characters discover their true selves with a deep poignancy that will resonate, I believe, with anyone who has stopped ignoring their own truths and "come out" to reveal the true person they are inside. Someone that isn't exactly how they would have identified at the beginning of their life-story.
The desert island is symbolic in a way of the place many eventually reaches before they "come out" to themselves or others: they have nothing left to lose and everything to gain by being honest about their feelings and needs. This goes beyond sexuality and romance for both of these characters, and delves into the psychology of the many painful truths they've ignored about themselves or buried for years.
As always, Keira Andrews writes with a clear heart and mind, and her characters discover their true selves with a deep poignancy that will resonate, I believe, with anyone who has stopped ignoring their own truths and "come out" to reveal the true person they are inside. Someone that isn't exactly how they would have identified at the beginning of their life-story.
September 1, 2024
It's 🌈GAY CASTAWAY🌈 + 🌈DOUBLE BI-AWAKENING🌈
(but neither of them go crazy, there's no Wilson, and they still work out an acceptable lube situation considering they're stranded on an island after a plane crash. NEED I SAY MORE??)
I did love this book, but I also think I had to go a little bit into delulu land to fully enjoy it because not that anyone probably cares, but it feels relevant to explain for my reviews purpose...
But one time, a plane I was in hit an air pocket whilst I was in the bathroom and I flew into the ceiling before I came crashing down and broke my foot...
(I flew with the most DODGY budget of budget airline Australia ever used, and I'm pretty sure they used sticky-tape and bubblegum to hold their planes together)
AND THE TRAUMA I HAVE TO THIS DAY, IS OFF THE FUCKIN CHARTS. I STILL have a panic attack on EVERY SINGLE TIME I EVEN LOOK AT MF PLANE...🤢🤢🤢
So the fact this bitch(the MC who is a pilot), literally been in TWO PLANE CRASHES, both which involved people dying, and then still continues to get on many planes for many reasons at the end of the book...... NUH UH. NUP. BIG FAT NOPE. ABSOLUTELY NOT.
And I won't get into it, but I can't imagine that you'd smell nice stranded on an island for like 2 months.........
No one likes a sandy asscrack.
So let's just... DELULU THOSE TWO FACTS AWAY FROM MY MEMORY BANK.
Brian and Troy are actually so sweet that all the issues I had with overthinking the book, completely fell to the side and I enjoyed them a lot.
Their interactions were always cute and tender, and the fact they did not really appear interested in each other until after 50% of the book and were just existing together as 2 dudes at first deserves MAD RESPECT.
Because if they longing glances and staring at the others eyes or commenting romantic shit started early, I would have checked out.
The fact they were almost disappointed to be rescued because they'd just discovered anal 🌈 ICONIC 🌈
(but neither of them go crazy, there's no Wilson, and they still work out an acceptable lube situation considering they're stranded on an island after a plane crash. NEED I SAY MORE??)
I did love this book, but I also think I had to go a little bit into delulu land to fully enjoy it because not that anyone probably cares, but it feels relevant to explain for my reviews purpose...
But one time, a plane I was in hit an air pocket whilst I was in the bathroom and I flew into the ceiling before I came crashing down and broke my foot...
(I flew with the most DODGY budget of budget airline Australia ever used, and I'm pretty sure they used sticky-tape and bubblegum to hold their planes together)
AND THE TRAUMA I HAVE TO THIS DAY, IS OFF THE FUCKIN CHARTS. I STILL have a panic attack on EVERY SINGLE TIME I EVEN LOOK AT MF PLANE...🤢🤢🤢
So the fact this bitch(the MC who is a pilot), literally been in TWO PLANE CRASHES, both which involved people dying, and then still continues to get on many planes for many reasons at the end of the book...... NUH UH. NUP. BIG FAT NOPE. ABSOLUTELY NOT.
And I won't get into it, but I can't imagine that you'd smell nice stranded on an island for like 2 months.........
No one likes a sandy asscrack.
So let's just... DELULU THOSE TWO FACTS AWAY FROM MY MEMORY BANK.
Brian and Troy are actually so sweet that all the issues I had with overthinking the book, completely fell to the side and I enjoyed them a lot.
Their interactions were always cute and tender, and the fact they did not really appear interested in each other until after 50% of the book and were just existing together as 2 dudes at first deserves MAD RESPECT.
Because if they longing glances and staring at the others eyes or commenting romantic shit started early, I would have checked out.
The fact they were almost disappointed to be rescued because they'd just discovered anal 🌈 ICONIC 🌈
March 14, 2016
Quotes from the book:
"I don't know how to feel. Am I gay? I guess I'm bisexual. I'm clearly something. Bi makes sense to me."
"He didn't care if it was crossing some line that made him gay, because what did it matter? He was clearly bi."
" 'I don't want to get tripped up with worrying about what it all means and what everyone thinks. *He* said we shouldn't worry about labels. Gay, straight, bi. Pan. There are all these different categories.'"
"I always thought of myself as straight, but I'm not."
"All these years you've lied? Pretended with girls?'
'No! I wasn't pretending. I liked those girls. I did. But now...'
'Now you're homosexual?'
'I think bisexual is a better word"
And my favorite:
"Why do you need a label? We should be able to feel what we feel without making it some official statement."
Bi-erasure?? Color me surprised!!
"I don't know how to feel. Am I gay? I guess I'm bisexual. I'm clearly something. Bi makes sense to me."
"He didn't care if it was crossing some line that made him gay, because what did it matter? He was clearly bi."
" 'I don't want to get tripped up with worrying about what it all means and what everyone thinks. *He* said we shouldn't worry about labels. Gay, straight, bi. Pan. There are all these different categories.'"
"I always thought of myself as straight, but I'm not."
"All these years you've lied? Pretended with girls?'
'No! I wasn't pretending. I liked those girls. I did. But now...'
'Now you're homosexual?'
'I think bisexual is a better word"
And my favorite:
"Why do you need a label? We should be able to feel what we feel without making it some official statement."
Bi-erasure?? Color me surprised!!
March 14, 2016
This is 2.5* rounded up.
I've rather mixed feelings about this one. I liked the basic idea, meaning I liked the idea of having two straight men marooned on a desert island who end up falling for each other. But I guess I expected far too much of this book and possibly I also expected far, far too much of this author. It is my first Keira Andrews book, but the author had been on my horizon for a while already, because of the consistent high ratings my f-list gave her, the rave reviews and the blurbs which showed that Andrews has quite interesting ideas.
Unfortunately the book didn't live up to my expectations: not those for this idea, nor those for an author with such high ratings. I wanted a detailed, factual (instead of fictional or glossed over) account of how these two men settled into island life and mastered the various stresses and adventures of living in the rough. Survival. There was very little of that, instead we got pretty soon to the mooning for each other phase. From the rather well-done handjob scene things went downhill rather fast and turned into the stereotypical, 08/15 m/m-romance with a sideways nod at bisexuality and pansexuality, but in the essence it was the usual m/m-fare right down to the hated mm-speak (need! want! please!) and such boring sex scenes that I skimmed them.
Yes, the sex was unfortunately extremely boring. You'd think that with two straight men in the cauldron an author could cook an extraordinary and atypical soup? Not so! We go, like a clockwork, from handjobs to blowjobs to anal intercourse to rimming, and not one porntastic porn trope left out. (As an aside: fuck, am I tired of reading rimming for breakfast! Bleh. Could someone puhlease tell mm-authors it's really not a requirement? And really not hot to everyone?) And that is one of the major shortcomings of this book. With two straight guys exploring here, I expected a much slower, much more cautious (and delicious) unravelling. I would have been satisfied without any buttsex at all and I had hoped for slow overcoming of emotional and cultural barriers. Instead those two went at it like duracell fuckbunnies.
Despite that and also despite the lacklustre adventure parts and easy rescue I liked the book. It was a pleasant beach read actually -- until the sex with women was compared to sex with men and the verdict was how much more intense, how much better in every respect the man-on-man-sex was. Sorry, that was where this book shed a full star. I might even rate it lower yet still, depending on how much this will rile me during the next days.
Because - of course - I also read this book because of all that drama llama about the GFY trope.
So, with this as a background, as well as the self-destruction of various circles of friends and even whole reader groups, all based on the blurb of this book, my reaction to it was along the like of "WTF? THIS is the cause for all that to-do? People made an elephant out of a really tiny mouse!".
Yes, this book like so many m/m books (not just GFY ones!) wallows in the idea that male-on-male-sex is allegedly so much better and hotter than m/f-sex. That's bullshit of course. Hear me? I call out bullshit. Am I astonished it was part of the book? No, because little of this book was so very different from the usual m/m-fare. As m/m goes really nothing to write home about and also nothing to get worked up over, believe me.
I had more niggles, e.g. the inaccuracies about living in the dunes and on a beach, the fact that chains of chainsaws (even hand ones) get blunt quickly, or the very girlish stresses on BO or morning breath when applied to men. I was very disappointed about the lack of layered narration. Everything was so up front and in the face. There was little meat to the story. I'd expected a whole lot more substance.
2.5* for a pleasant beach read or an armchair one during a rainy day, no more, no less.
I've rather mixed feelings about this one. I liked the basic idea, meaning I liked the idea of having two straight men marooned on a desert island who end up falling for each other. But I guess I expected far too much of this book and possibly I also expected far, far too much of this author. It is my first Keira Andrews book, but the author had been on my horizon for a while already, because of the consistent high ratings my f-list gave her, the rave reviews and the blurbs which showed that Andrews has quite interesting ideas.
Unfortunately the book didn't live up to my expectations: not those for this idea, nor those for an author with such high ratings. I wanted a detailed, factual (instead of fictional or glossed over) account of how these two men settled into island life and mastered the various stresses and adventures of living in the rough. Survival. There was very little of that, instead we got pretty soon to the mooning for each other phase. From the rather well-done handjob scene things went downhill rather fast and turned into the stereotypical, 08/15 m/m-romance with a sideways nod at bisexuality and pansexuality, but in the essence it was the usual m/m-fare right down to the hated mm-speak (need! want! please!) and such boring sex scenes that I skimmed them.
Yes, the sex was unfortunately extremely boring. You'd think that with two straight men in the cauldron an author could cook an extraordinary and atypical soup? Not so! We go, like a clockwork, from handjobs to blowjobs to anal intercourse to rimming, and not one porntastic porn trope left out. (As an aside: fuck, am I tired of reading rimming for breakfast! Bleh. Could someone puhlease tell mm-authors it's really not a requirement? And really not hot to everyone?) And that is one of the major shortcomings of this book. With two straight guys exploring here, I expected a much slower, much more cautious (and delicious) unravelling. I would have been satisfied without any buttsex at all and I had hoped for slow overcoming of emotional and cultural barriers. Instead those two went at it like duracell fuckbunnies.
Despite that and also despite the lacklustre adventure parts and easy rescue I liked the book. It was a pleasant beach read actually -- until the sex with women was compared to sex with men and the verdict was how much more intense, how much better in every respect the man-on-man-sex was. Sorry, that was where this book shed a full star. I might even rate it lower yet still, depending on how much this will rile me during the next days.
Because - of course - I also read this book because of all that drama llama about the GFY trope.
Short excursion:
I've been on record multiple times for saying that it is unfortunate that LGBT-lit and m/m get mixed together these days. M/m is far closer to slash than to LGBT romance and fiction. Slash comes with the GFY trope, slash actually *is* the GFY trope. Think Kirk and Spock, Methos and Duncan, Bodie and Doyle - straight guys falling for each other. Slash.
Yes, there is a pronounced amount of misogyny, biphobia and bi-erasure in m/m and also in slash. But the really funny thing is, it also is in gay fiction and the reaction to bisexuality is just as horrifically phobic within the queer subculture as it is among slash-loving straight women. Because this is so, and as a bisexual and genderfluid woman I've been at the receiving end numerous times, I tend to shrug when confronted with this in either sphere. We have a very long way to go yet, we haven't even started and it needs to start in actual society.
So, do I dislike these aspects? Yes, though I'm not entirely immune to the lure of GFY. Do I think people should be chastised for reading GFY? No, mainly because there are a lot of far more serious problems in romancelandia than this and at the moment readers are unwilling to amend even the most serious of them. I do expect a GFY book to at least not engage in open misogyny, though. It also never is harmful or superfluous to call out on problems.
So, with this as a background, as well as the self-destruction of various circles of friends and even whole reader groups, all based on the blurb of this book, my reaction to it was along the like of "WTF? THIS is the cause for all that to-do? People made an elephant out of a really tiny mouse!".
Yes, this book like so many m/m books (not just GFY ones!) wallows in the idea that male-on-male-sex is allegedly so much better and hotter than m/f-sex. That's bullshit of course. Hear me? I call out bullshit. Am I astonished it was part of the book? No, because little of this book was so very different from the usual m/m-fare. As m/m goes really nothing to write home about and also nothing to get worked up over, believe me.
I had more niggles, e.g. the inaccuracies about living in the dunes and on a beach, the fact that chains of chainsaws (even hand ones) get blunt quickly, or the very girlish stresses on BO or morning breath when applied to men. I was very disappointed about the lack of layered narration. Everything was so up front and in the face. There was little meat to the story. I'd expected a whole lot more substance.
2.5* for a pleasant beach read or an armchair one during a rainy day, no more, no less.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2016
Good lordy. I'm not sure how to start this review, to be honest. There has been so much talk that I don't know what to address first. I guess the book itself.
Beyond the Sea is the story of two men who get stranded on an island after their plane crashes. Troy is a 26-year-old reality star and a member of a boy band. Brian is a 39-year-old pilot who carries a heavy burden and has been unable to forgive himself for an event that occurred in his past. As time passes on the island, these men build a friendship based on trust and admiration for one another. Before they know it, those feelings keep growing, and they discover their bisexuality.
My highlights:
· The way their story was handled. This was a slow burn romance that was carefully crafted. Troy and Brian got to know each other first. They saw parts of one another that they hadn't shown anyone else. They saw the good, the bad, and they revealed to each other hurts and dreams they'd never felt comfortable discussing with others.
· Life on the island. The author didn't sugar coat some aspects of their life was like. She gave us some nitty gritty, and I appreciated that.
· The story is narrated from a dual POV giving us a clear voice of each man.
· I also loved that there was no stupid drama It was about them from beginning to end.
· And the epilogue. Seeing them happy years down the road it just melted my heart.
This review will be cross-posted at Gay Book Reviews but not the section below as these are my thoughts.
The elephant in the room. I know that the blurb sells it as GFY, but it didn't feel that way to me. These men discover their bisexuality while on the island- yes, but these feelings grew from friendship. It wasn't as if they got there and boom chica wow wow. As a bisexual woman who struggled to label herself for yearsssss(well into adulthood)- I get it. Do I think the blurb was a bit cringe worthy? Yeah, I won't lie. But trust me- don't judge the book by the blurb. I've seen this author on social media and she's always kind. I don't think that there was this master plan to cash in on a fetish. I don't know maybe I'm naive. I guess I just feel that education and kindness are key in order to move forward. I'll stop now. I don't even know if that made any fucken sense.
End of my thoughts.
All in all, I'm giving this story a solid 4.5 Star rating. This book isn't about labels- it's about friendship, trust, and love.
ARC kindly provided by the author to Gay Book Reviews for an honest review.
December 17, 2022
Audiobook - 5 stars ✨ It's Greg. 😍
Story - 3.75 stars
This was so sweet and fluffy. Uncomplicated and enjoyable. 😍
Sometimes that's all we need.
The chemistry is scorching, their time in the jungle was interesting and hot.
Story - 3.75 stars
This was so sweet and fluffy. Uncomplicated and enjoyable. 😍
Sometimes that's all we need.
The chemistry is scorching, their time in the jungle was interesting and hot.
March 16, 2016
Review written March 15, 2016
4 1/2 Stars - Super über cute.
My love to a perfect romantic touching love tale
Not surprising, I was a bit curious. — What a simple storyline: Two men, a young boy band star (Troy Tanner) and a more than ten years older pilot (Brian Sinclair) on an deserted paradise island in the South Pacific. Strangers pushed together to fight to survive when a cyclone strikes without warning. — Feeling it?
Of course Ingela truly enjoyed this wonderful tale.
Beyond the Sea is in all ways a very cute and heart-warming romance read. Two men of different ages. Main characters from very different everyday realities. ...And there they are, alone on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere.
*********************************************
You have read it before, you know it all: Eating coconuts, fishing, small disasters and painful damages, nude swimming, sleeping right besides each other. The weeks passes and they are (not surprisingly) falling in love. Aawww!! So perfectly d@mn cute. Unexpectedly story solution or story development? No!!! No of course not. This IS afterall all a M/M romance book.
Two straight men... — Is this possible? Is this book anchoring some known reality, even likely to happen? — What do I know. I'm a 52 years old woman living an ordinary (quite boring) life far away here up in Sweden. Whatever, I belive in love in all different shapes and forms.
Why do I read romances? Well, because I believe in that fabulous dream of the handsome prince, the top prize, everything can happen and eternal grand love and happiness. If you are even a little bit like me I'm sure you also will enjoy this lovely tale.
Keira Andrews for sure know the handcraft. Once again I'm mesmerized.
*********************************************
I LIKE - sweet hopeful fairytales about love
4 1/2 Stars - Super über cute.
My love to a perfect romantic touching love tale
Not surprising, I was a bit curious. — What a simple storyline: Two men, a young boy band star (Troy Tanner) and a more than ten years older pilot (Brian Sinclair) on an deserted paradise island in the South Pacific. Strangers pushed together to fight to survive when a cyclone strikes without warning. — Feeling it?
Of course Ingela truly enjoyed this wonderful tale.
Beyond the Sea is in all ways a very cute and heart-warming romance read. Two men of different ages. Main characters from very different everyday realities. ...And there they are, alone on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere.
*********************************************
You have read it before, you know it all: Eating coconuts, fishing, small disasters and painful damages, nude swimming, sleeping right besides each other. The weeks passes and they are (not surprisingly) falling in love. Aawww!! So perfectly d@mn cute. Unexpectedly story solution or story development? No!!! No of course not. This IS afterall all a M/M romance book.
Two straight men... — Is this possible? Is this book anchoring some known reality, even likely to happen? — What do I know. I'm a 52 years old woman living an ordinary (quite boring) life far away here up in Sweden. Whatever, I belive in love in all different shapes and forms.
“Troy asked playfully, “Jerk one out?”
“Yup.” Brian lowered his arm, a smile playing on his lips. “Beat the meat.”
A laugh bubbled up from Troy’s chest. “Buff the banana.”
“Choke the chicken.”
“Spank the monkey.”
“Audition your hand puppet.”
Why do I read romances? Well, because I believe in that fabulous dream of the handsome prince, the top prize, everything can happen and eternal grand love and happiness. If you are even a little bit like me I'm sure you also will enjoy this lovely tale.
Keira Andrews for sure know the handcraft. Once again I'm mesmerized.
*********************************************
I LIKE - sweet hopeful fairytales about love
May 8, 2017
4.5 Stars
I'm going to let you in on a little secret - I love the stranded on a deserted island trope. It's my crack. Mostly because I know I'd personally be dead within weeks, if not days, so I'm constantly fascinated by fictional characters who survive months or years on an island with nothing but a few supplies and their wits about them.
When twenty-six year old boy band superstar Troy Tanner has had enough of his younger brother, and band mate's, drug use, especially after watching his father self-destruct the same way, he quits their latest tour and hires a private jet, with only a Captain and first officer, to get from Australia back to L.A. in order to put some distance between then and hopefully wake his brother up.
Brian Sinclair is a thirty-nine year old pilot suffering from a past that haunts him daily. While flying to L.A. a cyclone strikes without warning, but they're able to make a miraculous landing on a deserted island, with a tragic outcome. With Brian and Troy left battered, but alive, Brian is able to save some supplies from the plane before it's swept away, and the two make their way onto the island.
This begins their, sometimes harrowing, adventure of trying to stay alive long enough to be rescued. Andrews writes about their trials really well, and it totally drew me in to their struggle, and how the two go from strangers, to friends, and eventually to lovers. How their affection grows for each other in a terribly stressful situation, to their realization it's turned into love.
I loved the story, the characters, the way the whole thing flowed, and just really, thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
Highly recommended!
Advanced Review Galley copy of Beyond the Sea provided by IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange of an honest review.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret - I love the stranded on a deserted island trope. It's my crack. Mostly because I know I'd personally be dead within weeks, if not days, so I'm constantly fascinated by fictional characters who survive months or years on an island with nothing but a few supplies and their wits about them.
When twenty-six year old boy band superstar Troy Tanner has had enough of his younger brother, and band mate's, drug use, especially after watching his father self-destruct the same way, he quits their latest tour and hires a private jet, with only a Captain and first officer, to get from Australia back to L.A. in order to put some distance between then and hopefully wake his brother up.
Brian Sinclair is a thirty-nine year old pilot suffering from a past that haunts him daily. While flying to L.A. a cyclone strikes without warning, but they're able to make a miraculous landing on a deserted island, with a tragic outcome. With Brian and Troy left battered, but alive, Brian is able to save some supplies from the plane before it's swept away, and the two make their way onto the island.
This begins their, sometimes harrowing, adventure of trying to stay alive long enough to be rescued. Andrews writes about their trials really well, and it totally drew me in to their struggle, and how the two go from strangers, to friends, and eventually to lovers. How their affection grows for each other in a terribly stressful situation, to their realization it's turned into love.
It made his belly flutter to think of it, and it was becoming impossible not to think. Impossible not to question what was really happening, because this had gone past the physical. Miles beyond.
I loved the story, the characters, the way the whole thing flowed, and just really, thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
Brian ran his thumb over Troy’s full lips and the perfect cleft in his chin. “It’s strange to think about what life would be like if we hadn’t crashed. If that crazy weather hadn’t come out of nowhere, we would have flown to LA and said goodbye. Routine. I barely would have talked to you. Would have gotten mandatory rest and turned around to fly back. Just another job.”
“I can’t even… Whoa, man. It blows my mind to think about it. Not knowing you? I can’t imagine it.”
Brian threaded their fingers together. “Guess life’s like this. All these untaken roads we never even know about. All because of chance. Or fate, if you believe in that kind of thing.”
Highly recommended!
Advanced Review Galley copy of Beyond the Sea provided by IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange of an honest review.
May 15, 2016
Keira Andrews has done it again and delivered a beautiful love story.
The premise pretty much reminded me of the TV show Lost and I was amused when the MC's actually referenced the show.
At the start of Beyond the Sea, Brian is an emotionally closed-off man. He ran to Australia from the US and his old life as a commercial airline pilot when he couldn't handle the guilt of surviving a disaster - one where he, as the Captain, was instrumental in saving the lives of a whole lot of people. Instead of feeling like a hero, though, he only sees his failure to save everyone. Brian lost his love for flying after that and never really got it back. He used to live for it, but now it's just something he is good at. Aeronautics is something he still holds a passion for, but flying is a different story and he refuses to be Captain, again, sticking with the co-pilot spot.
Troy is a pop star who grew up in the limelight. From the time he was a child, his father had mapped out his life down to the smallest detail. Troy always had people around making decisions for him and he pretty much just went with it. It was easier that way. But as he's gotten a bit older (he's 26 at the start of the book), Troy is starting to see that he's not happy following his expected path.
From everything I've read, the music business will suck your soul. Drugs aren't just available, but abundant. And with all the pressure to be what the label is selling, and always being "on" for your fans, drugs become the only escape for many. But Troy isn't going down that road. He watched his father spiral out of control with alcohol, cocaine and heroin and he's not about to do that to himself. Unfortunately, his little brother, Tyson, doesn't have the same dedication, letting fellow band mate Nick draw him into using cocaine and heroin. And Troy has had enough and decides to follow through on his threat of quitting the band if Tyson didn't clean up his act.
Beyond the Sea didn't actually read like other GFY stories I've read. It really felt different. The MC's don't get together just because they are the only ones around. There was no shaming of themselves or the other person. It read more like two men discovering their bisexuality or fluidity, and then exploring that. Did they expect it? No. And I loved it.
There is a very slow build of the feelings that both Troy and Brian develop. They get to know each other, they become friends and learn to trust each other and everything between them is very balanced. They help each other survive and cope. As days turn into weeks, they each talk to the other about painful things that they've never really dealt with. They form a close friendship. And then as their feelings get stronger, they develop a sexual relationship. And I won't lie - the sexytimes are scorching, but they never felt gratuitous or like it was just because there weren't any women around. It felt very natural to me.
Neither man has ever had the opportunity to really consider their sexuality before. Brian was too closed off and Troy was surrounded by too many expectations. And you know what? In the end, it doesn't matter. Beyond the Sea was such a beautiful love story that really illustrates that love is love. Troy and Brian are beautiful together and they're in it for the long haul. Well done, Keira Andrews!
------------------------
An ARC copy of Beyond the Sea was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The premise pretty much reminded me of the TV show Lost and I was amused when the MC's actually referenced the show.
At the start of Beyond the Sea, Brian is an emotionally closed-off man. He ran to Australia from the US and his old life as a commercial airline pilot when he couldn't handle the guilt of surviving a disaster - one where he, as the Captain, was instrumental in saving the lives of a whole lot of people. Instead of feeling like a hero, though, he only sees his failure to save everyone. Brian lost his love for flying after that and never really got it back. He used to live for it, but now it's just something he is good at. Aeronautics is something he still holds a passion for, but flying is a different story and he refuses to be Captain, again, sticking with the co-pilot spot.
Troy is a pop star who grew up in the limelight. From the time he was a child, his father had mapped out his life down to the smallest detail. Troy always had people around making decisions for him and he pretty much just went with it. It was easier that way. But as he's gotten a bit older (he's 26 at the start of the book), Troy is starting to see that he's not happy following his expected path.
From everything I've read, the music business will suck your soul. Drugs aren't just available, but abundant. And with all the pressure to be what the label is selling, and always being "on" for your fans, drugs become the only escape for many. But Troy isn't going down that road. He watched his father spiral out of control with alcohol, cocaine and heroin and he's not about to do that to himself. Unfortunately, his little brother, Tyson, doesn't have the same dedication, letting fellow band mate Nick draw him into using cocaine and heroin. And Troy has had enough and decides to follow through on his threat of quitting the band if Tyson didn't clean up his act.
Beyond the Sea didn't actually read like other GFY stories I've read. It really felt different. The MC's don't get together just because they are the only ones around. There was no shaming of themselves or the other person. It read more like two men discovering their bisexuality or fluidity, and then exploring that. Did they expect it? No. And I loved it.
There is a very slow build of the feelings that both Troy and Brian develop. They get to know each other, they become friends and learn to trust each other and everything between them is very balanced. They help each other survive and cope. As days turn into weeks, they each talk to the other about painful things that they've never really dealt with. They form a close friendship. And then as their feelings get stronger, they develop a sexual relationship. And I won't lie - the sexytimes are scorching, but they never felt gratuitous or like it was just because there weren't any women around. It felt very natural to me.
Neither man has ever had the opportunity to really consider their sexuality before. Brian was too closed off and Troy was surrounded by too many expectations. And you know what? In the end, it doesn't matter. Beyond the Sea was such a beautiful love story that really illustrates that love is love. Troy and Brian are beautiful together and they're in it for the long haul. Well done, Keira Andrews!
------------------------
An ARC copy of Beyond the Sea was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
June 21, 2016
5 Stars!
Yup, I need a good meat slap. Once again, another book that sat on Kindle unread because....well #lengthaversion. And once again, I'm mad at myself for not reading this one sooner because it was...
I mean I should have known.....back in the day I really liked
.
And who didn't love Cast Away???
Make it two guys stranded on a island...well,
I loved everything about this one. Loved the slow burn. The development of their feelings felt real. I loved their time on the island.
I wanted them to be rescued...but then I didn't. And yeah, it was long(ish) but it didn't feel long.
Really great read. Highly recommend this one.
Yup, I need a good meat slap. Once again, another book that sat on Kindle unread because....well #lengthaversion. And once again, I'm mad at myself for not reading this one sooner because it was...
I mean I should have known.....back in the day I really liked
.And who didn't love Cast Away???
Make it two guys stranded on a island...well,
I loved everything about this one. Loved the slow burn. The development of their feelings felt real. I loved their time on the island.
I wanted them to be rescued...but then I didn't. And yeah, it was long(ish) but it didn't feel long.
Really great read. Highly recommend this one.
June 29, 2025
This was nothing like I expected - and I mean that in the best way.
When I first picked this up, I think I subconsciously expected something along the lines of Just a Bit Wrecked by Alessandra Hazard. You know: two formerly ‘straight’ guys, stranded on a deserted island trying to survive after a horrible plane crash, discovering some unexpected chemistry. And while the premise is similar, the tone, pacing, and emotional arc of this book couldn’t be more different.
This story is so much more grounded, tender, and emotionally layered. It’s not just about surviving the island - though the survival details are compelling and immersive - but about these two men getting to know themselves and learning to trust, truly trust, another person. What starts as trauma bonding slowly, gently evolves into genuine friendship, and eventually a bi-awakening and love. Emphasis on slowly. This really is a slow burn! But when it does finally burn, it BURNS ❤️🔥
I especially adored the quiet moments: the shared tasks, the conversations, the tears, the vulnerability, the reliability. Their emotional journey felt earned and believable. Even their separation - which hurt - felt necessary and honest. And when they found their way back to each other, it was nothing but lovely 🥰
I switched between ebook and audio, and I have to say: Greg Boudreaux nailed the narration. The whole thing is also free on Audible, which is a lovely bonus.
PS: The cover is HEINOUS. Truly. Let’s never speak of it again 😂
When I first picked this up, I think I subconsciously expected something along the lines of Just a Bit Wrecked by Alessandra Hazard. You know: two formerly ‘straight’ guys, stranded on a deserted island trying to survive after a horrible plane crash, discovering some unexpected chemistry. And while the premise is similar, the tone, pacing, and emotional arc of this book couldn’t be more different.
This story is so much more grounded, tender, and emotionally layered. It’s not just about surviving the island - though the survival details are compelling and immersive - but about these two men getting to know themselves and learning to trust, truly trust, another person. What starts as trauma bonding slowly, gently evolves into genuine friendship, and eventually a bi-awakening and love. Emphasis on slowly. This really is a slow burn! But when it does finally burn, it BURNS ❤️🔥
I especially adored the quiet moments: the shared tasks, the conversations, the tears, the vulnerability, the reliability. Their emotional journey felt earned and believable. Even their separation - which hurt - felt necessary and honest. And when they found their way back to each other, it was nothing but lovely 🥰
I switched between ebook and audio, and I have to say: Greg Boudreaux nailed the narration. The whole thing is also free on Audible, which is a lovely bonus.
PS: The cover is HEINOUS. Truly. Let’s never speak of it again 😂
Read
March 7, 2016I won't rate it, because I proofed it. But I loved every minute. I was fangirling throughout :)
Keira did a beautiful job of writing this slow-build story of friendship turning to love, and the sexual discovery that went along with it for the characters. Highly recommended.
Keira did a beautiful job of writing this slow-build story of friendship turning to love, and the sexual discovery that went along with it for the characters. Highly recommended.
March 12, 2016
I loved this book !! It was so sweet and cute and hot ;)
Troy is a famous singer in a boyband, together with his brother and a friend. One day he comes home from working out and finds his little brother snorting coke from the table, while having a (private) party. Troy's girlfriend is also at the party getting high. Troy decides he has had enough. He already watched his father od and he won't stand by watching his brother do the same. He breaks up with his girlfriend, tells his brother to get his act together, because he is done ! He flees the house and arranges a privite flight back to the US.
Brian is a pilot. He has always been a captain, but after an airplane tragedy, he has decided only to fly as second in command. He has been called in to co-pilot on a flight to the US, with a famous boyband member as the passenger. Brian has no idea who Troy is....
The three of them take flight. Paula the captain, Brian the co-pilot and Troy the passenger. Everything is fine for a while, but then Troy wakes up in his (airplane) bed, being thrown around. He manages to find a seat and fasten his seatbelt. The plane has hit a heavy storm and is going down.
Brian wakes up after the crash...finding out the pilot has not survived, he is hearbroken and in pain, but he is sure to do his damnest to at least safe the passenger. The pilot has tried to land the plane on the beach of a deserted island, but they crashed into a cliff.
Brian grabs all that he can and both men make it safely to shore...althoug a bit banged up. Now comes the task of trying to survive until help arrives. They prepare sos signals and build a little shelter...
Weeks go by and these men try to keep each others spirits up. Fishing for food and still holding on to hope...that someone will come for them..
They start building a bond, a friendship, that grows stronger every day they spend on the island together. These boys were so sweet and so good to each other ;) This is a very slow build. Their feelings for one another grow slowly every day, until one day, things become more phsycical.
It was so amazing, watching their bond and their feelings grow. I loved when they started realizing that their feelings went way deeper than physical need and want, they felt so safe with one another.
I also thought they were very very hot together !!
Eventually they do get rescued and their feelings about this, are bitter sweet. How can they go back to who they were...and what are they to each other, now that they are no longer all alone....
Both men are pretty confused about all that has happend, and they need to figure out there feelings. Will they have a future together, or will they leave each other behind, just like they did the island.
I absolutely loved this one. It was a nice and sweet slow build, which made it all the more believable. There are a lot of discussions going on, about this being a gfy book and how both men only got off together, because they were horny and didn't have anybody else. I myself don't think that is the case. Their feelings for each other grew over time, through friendship and appreciation. They don't consider themselves gay all of a sudden, Troy himself said that he thought he was bi. They didn't even want to lable their feelings. They just fell in love with a person, a person who in a short period of time, became their whole world. I myself think that that is what love is supposed to be all about...just love who you love...fuck everthing else !!
5 stars from me....I thought it was beautiful ;)
March 11, 2016
Review originally posted at Sinfully.
It’s been years since I’ve read a deserted island romance, and I realized I hadn’t ever read one in the m/m genre, but Beyond the Sea was a great way to start! If you don’t know the classic song, take a listen before you read.
A plane crash leaves 26 year old boy band musician Troy and 39 year old pilot Brian stranded on a deserted tropical island somewhere in the Pacific. Troy had just ended his barely breathing relationship with the band’s opening act, Savannah, once he found her enabling his younger brother’s drug habit. Exercising tough-love, he left the band in the middle of their tour and arranged a private jet to fly home, intending to get his mother on board to stop his brother from following in the tragic footsteps of their stage-manager father. Brian’s circumstances are a bit more mysterious. A qualified pilot who refuses to captain any flights, he’s had a failed marriage and something has obviously put him off his love of flying. He moved from the US to Australia, leaving everything and everyone he knows behind and cutting himself off from the world.
This is not a sex-filled romp, but rather a pure romance. In fact the first half of the book is focused on the men setting the stage for their survival, then spending the next days and weeks getting to know each other. We get both Brian and Troy’s points of view and see how both allowed past incidents and decisions to dictate how they live their lives, pushing aside what they really wanted out of fear and complacency. The friendship and affection that develops between them is natural and though they both have some flashes of attraction, neither is willing to share it with the other.
I loved spending time with Brian and Troy as they dealt with the issues that have affected them throughout their lives and realized the important things they lost as a result. They open up to each other and understand each other more than anyone had in their previous life. There are no sex scenes until more than halfway through the book and they just strengthened the connection that Troy and Brian had already formed. Before the island both men had girlfriends, Brian was married and divorced, but neither had experienced the passion and connection that they had together. Troy is quick to accept that his feeling for Brian makes him bisexual. Brian accepts his affection and feelings for Troy, but isn’t as quick to label himself.
When rescue appears the simultaneous feelings of joy at being found and sadness that they were losing their time alone was palpable. After the whirlwind of their rescue the true challenge begins. Was their attraction born out of circumstance or is it a true love that blossomed between two men who got to know and care for each other? Can it survive the reality of their lives after rescue or will they both ignore what happened and return to the way things were? One man is fairly certain of what he wants and feels, but the other thinks separation and return to their pre-island normal is the best for both of them. Both men have the opportunity to pick back up with the women and lives they knew before the crash. Will Troy be able to maintain the live for now attitude he adopted on the island or will he fall back into the pattern that directed most of his life and will Brian once again hide away from the world?
This is the writing I’ve come to expect from Keira Andrews. Creating two characters you really get to know and becoming immersed and invested in the situation. From the mundane routine of their island life to the jarring re-entry into “real life” I enjoyed being with these characters, watching them struggle and watching them fall in love. I may have shed a brief tear or two along the way, and cursed the author in anger at one point, but I also laughed at their conversations and cheered when they got their acts together.
The story itself moved along at a good pace and the epilogue answers the question of whether or not both men were able to take what they learned about themselves on the island and make a change. A perfect ending for a beautiful romance that I highly recommend.
It’s been years since I’ve read a deserted island romance, and I realized I hadn’t ever read one in the m/m genre, but Beyond the Sea was a great way to start! If you don’t know the classic song, take a listen before you read.
Somewhere beyond the sea
Somewhere waiting for me
My lover stands on golden sands …
A plane crash leaves 26 year old boy band musician Troy and 39 year old pilot Brian stranded on a deserted tropical island somewhere in the Pacific. Troy had just ended his barely breathing relationship with the band’s opening act, Savannah, once he found her enabling his younger brother’s drug habit. Exercising tough-love, he left the band in the middle of their tour and arranged a private jet to fly home, intending to get his mother on board to stop his brother from following in the tragic footsteps of their stage-manager father. Brian’s circumstances are a bit more mysterious. A qualified pilot who refuses to captain any flights, he’s had a failed marriage and something has obviously put him off his love of flying. He moved from the US to Australia, leaving everything and everyone he knows behind and cutting himself off from the world.
This is not a sex-filled romp, but rather a pure romance. In fact the first half of the book is focused on the men setting the stage for their survival, then spending the next days and weeks getting to know each other. We get both Brian and Troy’s points of view and see how both allowed past incidents and decisions to dictate how they live their lives, pushing aside what they really wanted out of fear and complacency. The friendship and affection that develops between them is natural and though they both have some flashes of attraction, neither is willing to share it with the other.
I loved spending time with Brian and Troy as they dealt with the issues that have affected them throughout their lives and realized the important things they lost as a result. They open up to each other and understand each other more than anyone had in their previous life. There are no sex scenes until more than halfway through the book and they just strengthened the connection that Troy and Brian had already formed. Before the island both men had girlfriends, Brian was married and divorced, but neither had experienced the passion and connection that they had together. Troy is quick to accept that his feeling for Brian makes him bisexual. Brian accepts his affection and feelings for Troy, but isn’t as quick to label himself.
When rescue appears the simultaneous feelings of joy at being found and sadness that they were losing their time alone was palpable. After the whirlwind of their rescue the true challenge begins. Was their attraction born out of circumstance or is it a true love that blossomed between two men who got to know and care for each other? Can it survive the reality of their lives after rescue or will they both ignore what happened and return to the way things were? One man is fairly certain of what he wants and feels, but the other thinks separation and return to their pre-island normal is the best for both of them. Both men have the opportunity to pick back up with the women and lives they knew before the crash. Will Troy be able to maintain the live for now attitude he adopted on the island or will he fall back into the pattern that directed most of his life and will Brian once again hide away from the world?
"I was listening to the ocean last night, trying to sleep. Trying not to think about you."
This is the writing I’ve come to expect from Keira Andrews. Creating two characters you really get to know and becoming immersed and invested in the situation. From the mundane routine of their island life to the jarring re-entry into “real life” I enjoyed being with these characters, watching them struggle and watching them fall in love. I may have shed a brief tear or two along the way, and cursed the author in anger at one point, but I also laughed at their conversations and cheered when they got their acts together.
The story itself moved along at a good pace and the epilogue answers the question of whether or not both men were able to take what they learned about themselves on the island and make a change. A perfect ending for a beautiful romance that I highly recommend.
March 30, 2016
TOTAL. BOOK. FOG.
I loved it, loved it, loved it!
I loved everything about this book, from the beautiful cover to the great title and the intriguing premise. Once I started reading the world stopped for me. I could not put it down until I'd read the very last delicious page.
What a perfect love story. I'm still swooning.
How many of you met your soulmate while actively looking for him/her? And...how many of you met your soulmate by pure chance/accident? Do you ever wonder "what if?"
Already my favorite March read and on it's way to being one of my "all-time" favorites. <--- those are few and far between. This is a love story for the ages. Certainly between the characters, but also between me and Keira Andrews. ;-) Her message is pure and straight from my heart.
She didn't mess around with artificial angst. No messy family issues with the relationship. No silly misunderstandings between the couple. Just straight up love story.
All moms (and dads) should make banana cream pies. IMHO
Troy and Brian had some life trauma before they met. But even so, they were relatively well adjusted and dealing with life on their own terms. Drastic events brought them together, but their inner strength and pure hearts made them a team. First as survivors and later as soulmates. They fell in love. With every single meaning of the word.
And then, as if the book wasn't perfect enough already, we get The Epilogue
If you enjoy reading love stories you MUST read this book.
I received an ARC of this book from the author via IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange for an honest review.
I loved it, loved it, loved it!
I loved everything about this book, from the beautiful cover to the great title and the intriguing premise. Once I started reading the world stopped for me. I could not put it down until I'd read the very last delicious page.
What a perfect love story. I'm still swooning.
How many of you met your soulmate while actively looking for him/her? And...how many of you met your soulmate by pure chance/accident? Do you ever wonder "what if?"
"All these untaken roads we never even know about."
Already my favorite March read and on it's way to being one of my "all-time" favorites. <--- those are few and far between. This is a love story for the ages. Certainly between the characters, but also between me and Keira Andrews. ;-) Her message is pure and straight from my heart.
"Why do you need a label? We should be able to feel what we feel without making it some official statement. You like this dude and he likes you. The end. Everyone else can fuck off."
She didn't mess around with artificial angst. No messy family issues with the relationship. No silly misunderstandings between the couple. Just straight up love story.
"Mom loves you. We all do. She's so happy you're alive you could bring home a monkey as your date and she'd make it a banana cream pie."
All moms (and dads) should make banana cream pies. IMHO
Troy and Brian had some life trauma before they met. But even so, they were relatively well adjusted and dealing with life on their own terms. Drastic events brought them together, but their inner strength and pure hearts made them a team. First as survivors and later as soulmates. They fell in love. With every single meaning of the word.
"Everyone makes a big deal of gender, but love is love."
"There are all these categories, and it doesn't really matter, does it?...The only thing that matters is us. This. Being together. Being happy."
And then, as if the book wasn't perfect enough already, we get The Epilogue
If you enjoy reading love stories you MUST read this book.
I received an ARC of this book from the author via IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange for an honest review.
nope
March 12, 2016Update 031216:
I guess the original blurb has been reinstated. Tsk.
Update 030916:
I see the author has changed the blurb and it's 100 times better now. Very nice! I just wish it had been that way in the beginning.
Previously:
Why I won't be reading this book (Another annoyingly earnest essay by yours truly):
When M/M first became a thing, I spent my $$ on any old book but these days I like to be quite a bit more discerning, and the cover and the blurb are often deal breakers for me. Personally, I found this cover to be off putting enough that I didn't want to take a second look. Then I saw the blurb, which was even worse. I know many other people think judging a book by its cover is wrong, but people do it every day (and I don't mean just books).
To me this blurb was like a big sign saying "DO NOT READ". And, while it's nice that, in other reader's opinions, the author wrote a book that was the opposite of offensive, she must realize by now that her blurb is off putting to a lot of potential readers.
So here's the thing: When a large segment of the group that you're writing about says that something is not cool, you might want listen and learn and try to do better. IMO, this blurb is saying this book is the opposite of doing better, and I (and many others) wouldn't take a second look because of that, regardless of what others think we should do and regardless of what's on the inside. And to others this might be just a romance novel, so who cares? but in this particular day and age, writing any old thing just because you can is, to me, just as bad as letting something someone says or does slide because you don't want to "rock the boat".
What does it mean when I say "do better"?
This blog post I read today is the epitome of an author listening, learning and doing better: http://colemccade.com/an-open-apology/.
So come on authors...
This genre means something to me, even if, to others, it's just escapism.
Why? Well, If you read many reviews, you'll see that books in this genre have the ability to change people's perception of what it means to be gay or bi or trans or any other variation on the human sexuality spectrum that's seen as "not the norm". They have the ability to make people realize that they're not alone out there, or to make them continue to think that they are. Because words are powerful, which is why what you choose to write (or not write) is a big deal. Which is why writing any old thing and then slapping the "romance" label and not the "erotica" label on it can be a problem. Which is why a blurb can be "problematic".
Which is why not listening, learning and choosing to "do better" is a problem.
Please do better.
I guess the original blurb has been reinstated. Tsk.
Update 030916:
I see the author has changed the blurb and it's 100 times better now. Very nice! I just wish it had been that way in the beginning.
Previously:
Why I won't be reading this book (Another annoyingly earnest essay by yours truly):
When M/M first became a thing, I spent my $$ on any old book but these days I like to be quite a bit more discerning, and the cover and the blurb are often deal breakers for me. Personally, I found this cover to be off putting enough that I didn't want to take a second look. Then I saw the blurb, which was even worse. I know many other people think judging a book by its cover is wrong, but people do it every day (and I don't mean just books).
To me this blurb was like a big sign saying "DO NOT READ". And, while it's nice that, in other reader's opinions, the author wrote a book that was the opposite of offensive, she must realize by now that her blurb is off putting to a lot of potential readers.
So here's the thing: When a large segment of the group that you're writing about says that something is not cool, you might want listen and learn and try to do better. IMO, this blurb is saying this book is the opposite of doing better, and I (and many others) wouldn't take a second look because of that, regardless of what others think we should do and regardless of what's on the inside. And to others this might be just a romance novel, so who cares? but in this particular day and age, writing any old thing just because you can is, to me, just as bad as letting something someone says or does slide because you don't want to "rock the boat".
What does it mean when I say "do better"?
This blog post I read today is the epitome of an author listening, learning and doing better: http://colemccade.com/an-open-apology/.
So come on authors...
This genre means something to me, even if, to others, it's just escapism.
Why? Well, If you read many reviews, you'll see that books in this genre have the ability to change people's perception of what it means to be gay or bi or trans or any other variation on the human sexuality spectrum that's seen as "not the norm". They have the ability to make people realize that they're not alone out there, or to make them continue to think that they are. Because words are powerful, which is why what you choose to write (or not write) is a big deal. Which is why writing any old thing and then slapping the "romance" label and not the "erotica" label on it can be a problem. Which is why a blurb can be "problematic".
Which is why not listening, learning and choosing to "do better" is a problem.
Please do better.
October 6, 2020
Re-read September 2020
I loved the audio for this. Greg does the best voices.
I do have to admit that the dirty talk in this felt incredibly awkward. Now that I've read this for the second time I really noticed how it didn't quite feel right.
Overall I still liked it though.
------------------------------
I’m glad Keira Andrews decided to not go all angsty on us. No massive amounts of inner struggle, no judgmental family members, nope, nothing. That was awesome.
This book also had some really hilarious moments. I totally snorted tea out of my nose.
Troy decides to quit the boy band he is in. He caught his brother and fellow band member using again, and he’s done. He gets a private yet to take him home. Pilot Paula and co-pilot Brian will fly him home.
But instead of arriving in LA, the plane crashes on a deserted island.
The pilot Paula dies on impact, but Brian and Troy need to do everything in their power to survive. They need to make some sort of shelter, find water, build a fire, find food.
These guys encountered all kind of problems on their ‘adventure’, but it also brought them closer. I loved how they got along from the start. Troy and Brian were both very easy going people. And they talked about stuff. No unnecessary fights or arguments. These men worked together to make the most out of their situation.
But even though this book is great, I have to admit, I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a little longer. Because a lot happens and I felt the relationship itself could have used more development.
The first part where they were trying to survive were awesome and felt so realistic. But because they were really trying to survive there wasn’t a lot of character or relationship development. So I was kind of waiting for that. The attraction came out of nowhere for me.
We got a little bit of everything. We got a little messing around, a little sex, a little dirty talk, a little bit of feelings. And I wanted more. I especially wanted more dirty talk. Oh yes please.
Still, this was a great book and I really enjoyed it. And we even got a happy epilogue, I love those.
I need to Google some stuff now on how to survive on a deserted island. I don’t know shit, I’ll be dead in a day.
I loved the audio for this. Greg does the best voices.
I do have to admit that the dirty talk in this felt incredibly awkward. Now that I've read this for the second time I really noticed how it didn't quite feel right.
Overall I still liked it though.
------------------------------
I’m glad Keira Andrews decided to not go all angsty on us. No massive amounts of inner struggle, no judgmental family members, nope, nothing. That was awesome.
This book also had some really hilarious moments. I totally snorted tea out of my nose.
Troy decides to quit the boy band he is in. He caught his brother and fellow band member using again, and he’s done. He gets a private yet to take him home. Pilot Paula and co-pilot Brian will fly him home.
But instead of arriving in LA, the plane crashes on a deserted island.
The pilot Paula dies on impact, but Brian and Troy need to do everything in their power to survive. They need to make some sort of shelter, find water, build a fire, find food.
These guys encountered all kind of problems on their ‘adventure’, but it also brought them closer. I loved how they got along from the start. Troy and Brian were both very easy going people. And they talked about stuff. No unnecessary fights or arguments. These men worked together to make the most out of their situation.
But even though this book is great, I have to admit, I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a little longer. Because a lot happens and I felt the relationship itself could have used more development.
The first part where they were trying to survive were awesome and felt so realistic. But because they were really trying to survive there wasn’t a lot of character or relationship development. So I was kind of waiting for that. The attraction came out of nowhere for me.
We got a little bit of everything. We got a little messing around, a little sex, a little dirty talk, a little bit of feelings. And I wanted more. I especially wanted more dirty talk. Oh yes please.
Still, this was a great book and I really enjoyed it. And we even got a happy epilogue, I love those.
I need to Google some stuff now on how to survive on a deserted island. I don’t know shit, I’ll be dead in a day.
March 16, 2016
I don’t like the whole stranded on a deserted island type of story. They scare me. They make my skin crawl and just totally freak me out.
But I watch Castaway every time it is on TV. Don’t judge me.
I don’t like to think about me in the situation. Worse, I don’t like to think about life going on without me. I’m selfish and I am spoiled, I know this. Whatever, it’s the truth. Oh and really, I know I would not survive. Nope.
But really, I don’t normally choose to read something that makes my skin crawl and maybe wouldn’t have read this, maybe. It sounded good but again, the whole plane crash and island thing is just not for me. I enjoy the author though, so, I dunno. We’ll probably never know because you know, it’s not like I couldn’t read this book right?
I don’t like drama and I don’t really want to get into any of what is going on, although it seems impossible, but I will say it has not been a fun week or so on Goodreads. My happy place is not and I feel like I am walking on eggshells and afraid of hurting someone’s feelings by just reading what I want, or maybe don’t want in this case. I don’t think I normally think about other people when I pick a book to read so all this is odd.
In my opinion, for what it is worth, I don’t think this was GFY. I’m no expert but it just didn’t read like that to me. It read as a beautiful romance about two people put in an extreme circumstance who grew to trust each other and truly like each other to then falling in love with each other. Two people, who probably would not have fallen in love had they not been thrown into this situation. No wait. Maybe, had they met and became friends it could have happened but really, that wouldn’t have happened and this did. I did not read this as two straight guys all of a sudden realizing they liked dick. What they liked was each other and that is exactly how it was explained to the reader. Love is love. Love didn’t make them not straight or bi or gay or anything but two people in love.
I went through all my reviews and I have used the term GFY 10 times, so me, not an expert. But, I know that with some of those other books it was stated. I know that one or both of the characters needed to identify what and who they were and decided to either be gay, bi or just plain out state I am gay for you and only you.
This book did not make a statement like that. This book stressed the living and loving in the now and that labels were not necessary. It was about love and not sexuality or labels or who am I now? It also stressed the attachment that can happen in an extreme circumstance.
But, that is just my opinion and again, I don’t want to upset anyone with it but I read the book and get to have my say.
Back to the book though. It was lovely. It really, really was. It was heart racing due to circumstance. It was heart breaking due to life. It was uplifting due to survival and trust. It was sexy as Hell due to it’s all about you and me and how good this feels and I need it now. And my God it was so fucking romantic in a true love is love way.
So, even though this isn’t my kind of book and even if I read it due to circumstance more than out of want I do not regret it at all. I loved it. I really, really did.
I am sorry if it hurt people’s feelings though, I never want that ever.
But I watch Castaway every time it is on TV. Don’t judge me.
I don’t like to think about me in the situation. Worse, I don’t like to think about life going on without me. I’m selfish and I am spoiled, I know this. Whatever, it’s the truth. Oh and really, I know I would not survive. Nope.
But really, I don’t normally choose to read something that makes my skin crawl and maybe wouldn’t have read this, maybe. It sounded good but again, the whole plane crash and island thing is just not for me. I enjoy the author though, so, I dunno. We’ll probably never know because you know, it’s not like I couldn’t read this book right?
I don’t like drama and I don’t really want to get into any of what is going on, although it seems impossible, but I will say it has not been a fun week or so on Goodreads. My happy place is not and I feel like I am walking on eggshells and afraid of hurting someone’s feelings by just reading what I want, or maybe don’t want in this case. I don’t think I normally think about other people when I pick a book to read so all this is odd.
In my opinion, for what it is worth, I don’t think this was GFY. I’m no expert but it just didn’t read like that to me. It read as a beautiful romance about two people put in an extreme circumstance who grew to trust each other and truly like each other to then falling in love with each other. Two people, who probably would not have fallen in love had they not been thrown into this situation. No wait. Maybe, had they met and became friends it could have happened but really, that wouldn’t have happened and this did. I did not read this as two straight guys all of a sudden realizing they liked dick. What they liked was each other and that is exactly how it was explained to the reader. Love is love. Love didn’t make them not straight or bi or gay or anything but two people in love.
I went through all my reviews and I have used the term GFY 10 times, so me, not an expert. But, I know that with some of those other books it was stated. I know that one or both of the characters needed to identify what and who they were and decided to either be gay, bi or just plain out state I am gay for you and only you.
This book did not make a statement like that. This book stressed the living and loving in the now and that labels were not necessary. It was about love and not sexuality or labels or who am I now? It also stressed the attachment that can happen in an extreme circumstance.
But, that is just my opinion and again, I don’t want to upset anyone with it but I read the book and get to have my say.
Back to the book though. It was lovely. It really, really was. It was heart racing due to circumstance. It was heart breaking due to life. It was uplifting due to survival and trust. It was sexy as Hell due to it’s all about you and me and how good this feels and I need it now. And my God it was so fucking romantic in a true love is love way.
So, even though this isn’t my kind of book and even if I read it due to circumstance more than out of want I do not regret it at all. I loved it. I really, really did.
I am sorry if it hurt people’s feelings though, I never want that ever.
May 3, 2016
Seriously, is this a thing nowadays?
Do M/M writers watch some gay porn online for "research", and then simply copy-paste all the lines into their work? Newsflash: dialogue in porn takes a backseat because it's not about the dialogue, but about the visual aspects instead. It therefore maybe isn't the best idea to let two kind "straight" guys, who have sex with each other for the first time, word-vomit the top 10 lines of porn dialogue over and over again in your book. Not only doesn't it fit with their presumed characteristics, it's also painfully unoriginal. Can't these writers at least try a little harder? Do these (majorly female) writers really repeat this kind of depressing shit during sex themselves? What makes them think (all) gay men do, regardless of their personalities?
Anyway, Beyond the Sea got a 10 out of 10!
"Fill me up."
"Spread me open and fill me up."
"Love having your cock in me."
"That's it. Fuck me hard."
"Yes. Fuck me hard. Hard."
"Let me in."
"Give it to me."
"You're so tight."
"you're ready for me?"
"Gonna fill you up."
Bonus, though not actual dialogue: "he filled up his hole with a primal sense of belonging."
Also, WTF was up with the Filipino mom calling her son "bongbong" in every faulty English sentence she uttered? She read like such a caricature, I was a little repulsed actually.
So I'm rounding up because of the sympathetic story-line, I guess? This story itself didn't contain any surprises, which doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but combined with the lack-luster writing, forgettable MCs, cliché sex scenes, repetitive drama guilt trips, soap opera beginning, and a bunch of other niggles, I can't say that I'm overly charmed.
Do M/M writers watch some gay porn online for "research", and then simply copy-paste all the lines into their work? Newsflash: dialogue in porn takes a backseat because it's not about the dialogue, but about the visual aspects instead. It therefore maybe isn't the best idea to let two kind "straight" guys, who have sex with each other for the first time, word-vomit the top 10 lines of porn dialogue over and over again in your book. Not only doesn't it fit with their presumed characteristics, it's also painfully unoriginal. Can't these writers at least try a little harder? Do these (majorly female) writers really repeat this kind of depressing shit during sex themselves? What makes them think (all) gay men do, regardless of their personalities?
Anyway, Beyond the Sea got a 10 out of 10!
"Fill me up."
"Spread me open and fill me up."
"Love having your cock in me."
"That's it. Fuck me hard."
"Yes. Fuck me hard. Hard."
"Let me in."
"Give it to me."
"You're so tight."
"you're ready for me?"
"Gonna fill you up."
Bonus, though not actual dialogue: "he filled up his hole with a primal sense of belonging."
Also, WTF was up with the Filipino mom calling her son "bongbong" in every faulty English sentence she uttered? She read like such a caricature, I was a little repulsed actually.
So I'm rounding up because of the sympathetic story-line, I guess? This story itself didn't contain any surprises, which doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but combined with the lack-luster writing, forgettable MCs, cliché sex scenes, repetitive drama guilt trips, soap opera beginning, and a bunch of other niggles, I can't say that I'm overly charmed.
March 22, 2016
I really wish that I had been able to read this without seeing all the drama the past week. As much as I tried not to let it, the things I saw really had me questioning things while reading, looking at it in a way that I'm not sure I would have before. That's not a bad thing, it's always good to think about what you read, but it did still lessen my enjoyment a bit. I loved my rose colored glasses, dammit!
The book truly was wonderful though, well written, and with the message that "love is love", which is really a beautiful message. I loved it in On The Island, when it was a a teacher a few years older than her student, so why shouldn't I love it just as much between two "Straight" men? Do I think they'd have ever gotten together if they hadn't been in the situation they were in? No, probably not, but the fact is, they were in the situation they were in, so what ifs are really invalid.
I particularly loved that they were better together. Even after they returned home, to their real lives, what they went through changed them. Having someone they loved and trusted so much gave both of them the confidence to make the changes that they needed, to really be happy. To me, that is the more important message, not "two straight guys fall in love", but two people, who encountered huge odds, and made each other better. And isn't that really what it's all about?
The book truly was wonderful though, well written, and with the message that "love is love", which is really a beautiful message. I loved it in On The Island, when it was a a teacher a few years older than her student, so why shouldn't I love it just as much between two "Straight" men? Do I think they'd have ever gotten together if they hadn't been in the situation they were in? No, probably not, but the fact is, they were in the situation they were in, so what ifs are really invalid.
I particularly loved that they were better together. Even after they returned home, to their real lives, what they went through changed them. Having someone they loved and trusted so much gave both of them the confidence to make the changes that they needed, to really be happy. To me, that is the more important message, not "two straight guys fall in love", but two people, who encountered huge odds, and made each other better. And isn't that really what it's all about?
March 13, 2016
BR, tonight with Susan, Wendy and Karlijn
*4,5 stars*
I dunno but I kept seeing Christopher Atkins… And that is not a bad thing.
Conveniently I just forgot all about Brooke!!
This was lovely story. I loved that Brian and Troy made the best of the situation and really became great friends. Concerned about each other and very afraid that either one of them would die and they’d be all alone on the island.
The guys had a great connection which happend to flow into a physical one. Both of them coming to terms with that, thinking that they’re bi-sexual.
Anyway as they expressed enough to each other. It wasn’t about labels.
He realized the difference wasn’t just about Brian being a man. Man or woman didn’t matter - it was about trusting Brian with every part of him.
It was about being free to finally be himself.
Although I realise they were around each other 24/7, they've known each other pretty well, I would’ve loved to see them developing this new relationship more. I could easily have read some more about the two.
We did get an epilogue though and that was great seeing them so happy and living their lives together!!
*Highly recommended*
**********************************************
PREVIEW
June 10, 2017
3.5 Stars
Obviously this is a book about finding love where and when you least expect it, and though Brian and Troy never imagined themselves in such a scenario, shit happens and sometimes, a wonderful thing can come of it.
I liked this book. But I also admit that I was left wanting more. I wanted more UST, I wanted more buildup, interactions, explorations, and surprisingly, more angst. Keira Andrews is one of my favorite authors, and she delivers smart, relatable writing, which means that I'll always be more than ready to drop whatever I may be doing or reading to devour her next release.
So overall, this was still a great, entertaining read, with all the requisite feels and some nice smex. I'm a sucker for epilogues and that was just extra icing on an already delicious cake.
Obviously this is a book about finding love where and when you least expect it, and though Brian and Troy never imagined themselves in such a scenario, shit happens and sometimes, a wonderful thing can come of it.
I liked this book. But I also admit that I was left wanting more. I wanted more UST, I wanted more buildup, interactions, explorations, and surprisingly, more angst. Keira Andrews is one of my favorite authors, and she delivers smart, relatable writing, which means that I'll always be more than ready to drop whatever I may be doing or reading to devour her next release.
So overall, this was still a great, entertaining read, with all the requisite feels and some nice smex. I'm a sucker for epilogues and that was just extra icing on an already delicious cake.
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