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Freshman Pledge: The Magic of Love
Tommy Ford's terrible childhood dramatically changed after his grandmother taught him about life, love, and her wiccan ways. Heading off to college to start anew, Tommy hopes to find that one special person to share his life. Mark Young thinks he has it all: handsome good looks, athletic ability, family wealth, and a pre-planned future. Mark is senior quarterback and a member of the fraternity Kappa Lambda Pi. What else does he need? After Mark chooses Tommy as his little brother during the Kappa Lambda Pi pledge period, Tommy uses his positive attitude, charming personality, and just a little bit of his grandmother's magic to get Mark's attention. Is it magic or is it love that brings these two together? Is it real or temporary? Either way, the magic of love will turn both their worlds upside down!
195 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2007
92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 12, 2009
Wow. This is a fabulous book. Thank you Keith for picking it out for me because I never would have picked it on my own. This review could almost be verbatim what I wrote about The Curtis Reincarnation. Freshman Pledge is a character driven story big on relationships and little on sex. That's okay though. While I would have liked a little less "fade to black" and a little more detail, the intimate scenes were so intimate and so highly anticipated that my heart rate increased just from them kissing. I loved Tommy and Mark. I also loved the secondary characters and the bond of brotherhood they all shared with each other. The antagonist, Brian, was not as fleshed out as he could have been though and left me wondering where all his anger came from. The Wiccan aspects of the story were very interesting and well told. I teared up a few times reading this one and was sad to reach the end, even though it was a happy one. Highly recommended.
October 5, 2009
Freshmen Pledge starts out with Tommy, a new freshman on campus, waiting to get his dorm key. While waiting, Tommy spots Mark, the school's star quarterback, and falls in love. The book follows Tommy as he pledges for a fraternity and how he deals with his crush.
I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, and they were pretty well developed. The plot was well thought out and pretty realistic. The only thing I didn't really like was how the jumped right into the Wiccan part. I think the author could've done a better job at introducing the Wiccan aspect into the book. It kinda just jumped right in and "BAM! Magic!" and wasn't too realistic at first. As the story went on though, the Wiccan aspect became more realistic than just a fantasy.
The one things the bothered me the most was the design of the book. The text was extremely small and cramped. It gave me a headache to read it after a while. The book would've really benefited by a larger font and a little bit better spacing
Overall, I really liked this book. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes M/M fiction - especially if you're college age. The relationship is pretty much everything a gay college boys wants. (Most of them anyway)
I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, and they were pretty well developed. The plot was well thought out and pretty realistic. The only thing I didn't really like was how the jumped right into the Wiccan part. I think the author could've done a better job at introducing the Wiccan aspect into the book. It kinda just jumped right in and "BAM! Magic!" and wasn't too realistic at first. As the story went on though, the Wiccan aspect became more realistic than just a fantasy.
The one things the bothered me the most was the design of the book. The text was extremely small and cramped. It gave me a headache to read it after a while. The book would've really benefited by a larger font and a little bit better spacing
Overall, I really liked this book. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes M/M fiction - especially if you're college age. The relationship is pretty much everything a gay college boys wants. (Most of them anyway)
November 7, 2011
It's important to understand that while I liked this book, it cannot really accurately be described as, well, good. That might sound strange, but it's rather accurate, as my feelings on this book are rather contradictory.
The premise is fairly straight forward, m/m, GFY, jock-lust fantasy sort of thing. I certainly can't go around throwing stones at people writing stories about jocks being seduced into a gay relationship. And I thought it was handled reasonably well.
The problem is the main character. Tommy is whatever male equivalent you prefer to use for the term Mary Sue. (Marty Stu is the one I hear the most.) There is simply nothing that Tommy doesn't do to superb perfection, be it cleaning to pledging to singing. He is simply perfect. That doesn't really leave a lot of room for the character to grow and in fact, he doesn't.
The next thing the story does which had me completely confounded is to introduce magic. Not full-blown, Harry Potter magic, but just very simple Wiccan spells and blessings. At first, it was suggested this art was very rare and its practitioners were very secretive. Tommy was the heir of his grandmother's power (which of course, he excelled at.)
And that was okay. It was an interesting story quirk. Until the next character brings in the fact that his mother (or grandmother, not sure, it's been a while) was into Santaria and he therefore ALSO knows a lot about spells. Fairly quickly and without much surprise, the entire fraternity accepts that this magic is real.
That had me scratching my head, but the author was not done. Soon, Tommy's lover's mom interrogates him, wanting to know if he put a spell on her heretofore straight jock son. Once promised that is not the case, she is totes accepting of Tommy (natch) but the fact that she too accepted the reality and potency of magic in a world where it is not supposed to exist had me laughing in a way that I am sure the author did not intend.
There is also some troubling characterization of one of the girl's in the story--the rival for Tommy's BF's affection. To me, the audacious portrayal of this young woman was hilarious in the way it played up every stereotype there is about girls--but it does smack of misogyny.
All that being said, the book made me laugh, and that goes a long way to making me forgive certain massive flaws in the narrative. Tommy was a little dull because he was so flawless, but he was sweet and I liked that he was so level-headed. His BF, Mark, makes the transition from straight to gay without much fuss, which is better than the usual histrionics we have to go through. And the villains, while playing to stereotypes, were fun to hate.
So I always recommend this book with a lot of caveats. For a light, fluffy romance without much substance, it's wonderful to curl up with.
The premise is fairly straight forward, m/m, GFY, jock-lust fantasy sort of thing. I certainly can't go around throwing stones at people writing stories about jocks being seduced into a gay relationship. And I thought it was handled reasonably well.
The problem is the main character. Tommy is whatever male equivalent you prefer to use for the term Mary Sue. (Marty Stu is the one I hear the most.) There is simply nothing that Tommy doesn't do to superb perfection, be it cleaning to pledging to singing. He is simply perfect. That doesn't really leave a lot of room for the character to grow and in fact, he doesn't.
The next thing the story does which had me completely confounded is to introduce magic. Not full-blown, Harry Potter magic, but just very simple Wiccan spells and blessings. At first, it was suggested this art was very rare and its practitioners were very secretive. Tommy was the heir of his grandmother's power (which of course, he excelled at.)
And that was okay. It was an interesting story quirk. Until the next character brings in the fact that his mother (or grandmother, not sure, it's been a while) was into Santaria and he therefore ALSO knows a lot about spells. Fairly quickly and without much surprise, the entire fraternity accepts that this magic is real.
That had me scratching my head, but the author was not done. Soon, Tommy's lover's mom interrogates him, wanting to know if he put a spell on her heretofore straight jock son. Once promised that is not the case, she is totes accepting of Tommy (natch) but the fact that she too accepted the reality and potency of magic in a world where it is not supposed to exist had me laughing in a way that I am sure the author did not intend.
There is also some troubling characterization of one of the girl's in the story--the rival for Tommy's BF's affection. To me, the audacious portrayal of this young woman was hilarious in the way it played up every stereotype there is about girls--but it does smack of misogyny.
All that being said, the book made me laugh, and that goes a long way to making me forgive certain massive flaws in the narrative. Tommy was a little dull because he was so flawless, but he was sweet and I liked that he was so level-headed. His BF, Mark, makes the transition from straight to gay without much fuss, which is better than the usual histrionics we have to go through. And the villains, while playing to stereotypes, were fun to hate.
So I always recommend this book with a lot of caveats. For a light, fluffy romance without much substance, it's wonderful to curl up with.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
October 11, 2014*this is probably one of those books I'll never get my hands on :(
October 14, 2010
This was an excellent read and one I would highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews