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Leftovers
LGBT Erotic ContemporaryThanksgiving means family, and in their case friends--old friends and the best of them. Emerson was looking forward to sharing his new home, his culinary skills, his settledness, with his on-again-off-again lover Paul and their old college buddy Liz. Everyone always knew that Paul and Emerson were meant for each other. But years down the road, Paul's on the road, chasing fame and fortune. And Emerson, for reasons all his own, refuses to follow him.This year, though, Paul's determined to change all that. To convince Emerson through charm, logic, and incredible sex they were meant for each other. What neither of them counted on was what would change after that.Publisher's This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.
69 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
48 people want to read
About the author
Treva Harte
74 books26 followersTreva Harte lives near a city with many, many attorneys. Thanks to Loose Id and her writing, she can be a recovering attorney and now spends her time writing, editing, raising adolescents, taking care of an elderly mother and dealing with a hyperactive husband (who says he's just very energetic). She is also co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of the e-publishing company Loose Id.
She and her husband both like writing in whatever time they have left, so they often fight over—sorry, since he is still a practicing attorney they NEGOTIATE—keyboard time. No wonder Treva’s particular brand of sensual romance is a bit offbeat and usually mixed with fantasy.
http://www.trevaharte.com/
She and her husband both like writing in whatever time they have left, so they often fight over—sorry, since he is still a practicing attorney they NEGOTIATE—keyboard time. No wonder Treva’s particular brand of sensual romance is a bit offbeat and usually mixed with fantasy.
http://www.trevaharte.com/
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 12, 2012
3.5*
I liked Paul and Emerson, I sort of wished we had seen more of their 'before' relationship, and I was suprised that Emerson was able to keep his affliction a secret for so long from Paul and Liz.
It was a sweet story and not all that heavy considering the subject , of course the emergency was needed for the turning point, I wished it had all just been fleshed out a bit more.
I liked Paul and Emerson, I sort of wished we had seen more of their 'before' relationship, and I was suprised that Emerson was able to keep his affliction a secret for so long from Paul and Liz.
It was a sweet story and not all that heavy considering the subject , of course the emergency was needed for the turning point, I wished it had all just been fleshed out a bit more.
January 22, 2010
This is a short, easy story that doesn’t make much sense. Paul and Emerson have been best friends with benefits for years now. They were a pseudo couple in college and naturally drifted apart as Paul went on to become a singing star and Emerson settled himself in Staten Island. The two would have sex every Thanksgiving until finally Paul decides he wants more. Of course Emerson has a secret fear he has to expose, which may change things.
The story is decent but the plot has numerous holes. Additionally, the characters are flat with very little background. There is no explanation on what the men have been doing for the past 8 years (romantically) when not together. Dating? Casual Sex? Emerson supposedly is in love with Paul and lives on the sex he gets at Thanksgiving for the rest of year due to his increasingly debilitating agoraphobia. When Paul finally decides he wants a real relationship with Emerson, he must also deal with Emerson’s disease. Unfortunately Paul is off on tour and must call in another friend to help.
The characters don’t exist much outside their very narrow outlines. Emerson is the stoic man who reveals very little but feels deeply. He refuses to have a relationship with Paul since he’s convinced no one will want him with his fears. Except of course he gets over them pretty easily once Paul tells him he loves him. Paul is the classic casual lover that wants more but not sure how to ask for it. It’s taken Paul years to realize his connection with Emerson is special and not easily duplicated. Only now is he willing to try to make a relationship work.
Although Emerson’s fear sets up tension and conflict, it was pretty easily resolved given how serious the condition is made to be. The love of a good man and frequent sex is enough to cure all that ails you. Although the message is uplifting and romantic, it just felt like an easy cop out solution. Furthermore brief snippets of their past are shown in short flashbacks that only show them arguing to no real purpose. The alternating point of view with no page breaks doesn’t help this. This felt like a good idea that fell completely apart in execution. Even the sex scenes felt muted and bland.
I get where the author is trying to go with the story but cramming everything into a very short novella space doesn’t do the story many favors. If the characters had been developed and given a past and history together, or one shown to the reader, this would have helped greatly while also showing the very real struggle Emerson must have gone through to start to get better. This isn’t a horrible book, but it didn’t quite achieve what it was going for.
The story is decent but the plot has numerous holes. Additionally, the characters are flat with very little background. There is no explanation on what the men have been doing for the past 8 years (romantically) when not together. Dating? Casual Sex? Emerson supposedly is in love with Paul and lives on the sex he gets at Thanksgiving for the rest of year due to his increasingly debilitating agoraphobia. When Paul finally decides he wants a real relationship with Emerson, he must also deal with Emerson’s disease. Unfortunately Paul is off on tour and must call in another friend to help.
The characters don’t exist much outside their very narrow outlines. Emerson is the stoic man who reveals very little but feels deeply. He refuses to have a relationship with Paul since he’s convinced no one will want him with his fears. Except of course he gets over them pretty easily once Paul tells him he loves him. Paul is the classic casual lover that wants more but not sure how to ask for it. It’s taken Paul years to realize his connection with Emerson is special and not easily duplicated. Only now is he willing to try to make a relationship work.
Although Emerson’s fear sets up tension and conflict, it was pretty easily resolved given how serious the condition is made to be. The love of a good man and frequent sex is enough to cure all that ails you. Although the message is uplifting and romantic, it just felt like an easy cop out solution. Furthermore brief snippets of their past are shown in short flashbacks that only show them arguing to no real purpose. The alternating point of view with no page breaks doesn’t help this. This felt like a good idea that fell completely apart in execution. Even the sex scenes felt muted and bland.
I get where the author is trying to go with the story but cramming everything into a very short novella space doesn’t do the story many favors. If the characters had been developed and given a past and history together, or one shown to the reader, this would have helped greatly while also showing the very real struggle Emerson must have gone through to start to get better. This isn’t a horrible book, but it didn’t quite achieve what it was going for.
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February 23, 2010If I had to compare this very nice seasonal romance by Treva Harte to a painting, it would be an impressionist one. Maybe due to the length, a novella, or maybe due to the choice of the author to focus on the present more than the past, we don’t have many details around the characters, but just an impression of who they were and what they now want. And more than a “thanksgiving” romance, this is a forgiving one.
Both Paul than Emerson did wrong in the past, Paul was too young and hot-tempered to realize what he had before losing it, and Emerson had a too low self-esteem to grab for happiness, and to admit that a little fault on him didn’t make him a total loser.
Despite many arguments, tug in and tug off, and great makeover sex, it’s already 8 years that Paul and Emerson are “unofficially” a couple. They met in college, Paul a singer and Emerson a composer, they seemed perfect for each other; but when Paul was ready to spring the wings and fly, Emerson decided to remain grounded. They argued, Paul didn’t ask, and Emerson didn’t offer, and so, year after year, Paul is coming back to Emerson for Thanksgiving, they have great sex and the morning after Paul is gone again. Only that this year both of them want to break the spell and change the course of their life.
Being a romantic as I am, I feel a bit of regret for all the years Paul and Emerson lost, but, after all, it is probably better like that. If they managed to stay together so since moment one, both so young and inexperienced, probably they would have grown tired of each other soon after. In this way instead, both of them regarded their college love affair like the best years of their life and it remained the unfulfilled dream they now, as adults, want to realize. Now both of them are ready to commit, now both of them realized what they lost, and lucky for them, they are still young enough to enjoy their future together.
As for their past history together, also the present is described more through flash of image than a real flow of events. The reader jump from a scene to another like he is shifting in time, and in the space of few pages he spent an year together with Paul and Emerson. Each scene, again, is made more of feelings and sensations than details, cold, warm, fear, love, this is what the reader perceive more than the visual image of the places. It’s quite a strange novella, but very sweet and romantic.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035ROVOG/?...
Both Paul than Emerson did wrong in the past, Paul was too young and hot-tempered to realize what he had before losing it, and Emerson had a too low self-esteem to grab for happiness, and to admit that a little fault on him didn’t make him a total loser.
Despite many arguments, tug in and tug off, and great makeover sex, it’s already 8 years that Paul and Emerson are “unofficially” a couple. They met in college, Paul a singer and Emerson a composer, they seemed perfect for each other; but when Paul was ready to spring the wings and fly, Emerson decided to remain grounded. They argued, Paul didn’t ask, and Emerson didn’t offer, and so, year after year, Paul is coming back to Emerson for Thanksgiving, they have great sex and the morning after Paul is gone again. Only that this year both of them want to break the spell and change the course of their life.
Being a romantic as I am, I feel a bit of regret for all the years Paul and Emerson lost, but, after all, it is probably better like that. If they managed to stay together so since moment one, both so young and inexperienced, probably they would have grown tired of each other soon after. In this way instead, both of them regarded their college love affair like the best years of their life and it remained the unfulfilled dream they now, as adults, want to realize. Now both of them are ready to commit, now both of them realized what they lost, and lucky for them, they are still young enough to enjoy their future together.
As for their past history together, also the present is described more through flash of image than a real flow of events. The reader jump from a scene to another like he is shifting in time, and in the space of few pages he spent an year together with Paul and Emerson. Each scene, again, is made more of feelings and sensations than details, cold, warm, fear, love, this is what the reader perceive more than the visual image of the places. It’s quite a strange novella, but very sweet and romantic.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035ROVOG/?...
October 28, 2012
Sweet characters, one of whom has an unusual personality trait
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 8/10
PROS:
- The characters’ initial interactions are very tentative, and it’s clear right off the bat that they’ve had a rocky past. The way that they proceed so cautiously is sweet and sad all at once, but it’s obvious that they care deeply for each other.
- Because the guys have been friends for such a long time, they have a lot of intuitive knowledge about each other. So we get to see them struggling with the types of things that emerge in new relationships as well as functioning in some ways as though they’ve been together for years. It’s an interesting combination.
- I always enjoy reading about characters with unusual personality traits or disabilities. And Emerson has one that I’ve never encountered before in this genre.
- I was worried that the guys would go the entire story before admitting that they’re in love with each other. But the admission came much earlier than I expected it to, and I was glad that the story didn’t turn into one of those “two ships passing in the night” type of things.
CONS:
- Flashbacks are woven in with the current occurrences without any outward indication that they’re flashbacks. I was about a third of the way into the story before I realized that that was what was happening--that the conversations that seemed so isolated and out of place were past conversations rather than present ones.
- I like that the story doesn’t just sweep Emerson’s emotional/psychological condition under the rug once it’s revealed. I felt that it could have been addressed a little more, though: in one chapter he’s almost incapable of functioning, and in practically the next he’s overcoming the disability in a big way (although he is admittedly still struggling).
Overall comments: This is a sweet story, and I loved reading about a character who struggles with an unusual but real disability. The story has a few bedroom scenes--the right amount, I thought, for its length--and they’re passionate and sexy and hot.
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 8/10
PROS:
- The characters’ initial interactions are very tentative, and it’s clear right off the bat that they’ve had a rocky past. The way that they proceed so cautiously is sweet and sad all at once, but it’s obvious that they care deeply for each other.
- Because the guys have been friends for such a long time, they have a lot of intuitive knowledge about each other. So we get to see them struggling with the types of things that emerge in new relationships as well as functioning in some ways as though they’ve been together for years. It’s an interesting combination.
- I always enjoy reading about characters with unusual personality traits or disabilities. And Emerson has one that I’ve never encountered before in this genre.
- I was worried that the guys would go the entire story before admitting that they’re in love with each other. But the admission came much earlier than I expected it to, and I was glad that the story didn’t turn into one of those “two ships passing in the night” type of things.
CONS:
- Flashbacks are woven in with the current occurrences without any outward indication that they’re flashbacks. I was about a third of the way into the story before I realized that that was what was happening--that the conversations that seemed so isolated and out of place were past conversations rather than present ones.
- I like that the story doesn’t just sweep Emerson’s emotional/psychological condition under the rug once it’s revealed. I felt that it could have been addressed a little more, though: in one chapter he’s almost incapable of functioning, and in practically the next he’s overcoming the disability in a big way (although he is admittedly still struggling).
Overall comments: This is a sweet story, and I loved reading about a character who struggles with an unusual but real disability. The story has a few bedroom scenes--the right amount, I thought, for its length--and they’re passionate and sexy and hot.
June 27, 2010
Good m/m romance about two guys who only see each other once a year, at Thanksgiving. After eight years, that isn’t enough for either of them anymore.
January 2, 2018
There were a lot of things about this that I really enjoyed, and I thought the language was quite nice, but it was not as well fleshed out as it could have been.
December 29, 2020
Glad this was a short story because it was more than a little confusing. Transitions to different time periods or settings could have been helped by a little formatting change vs. starting with the very next paragraph. I didn’t feel the connection between the MC’s until the end, and then just barely. Just okay, but I did love the significance of the title given the sentiment it represented.
January 31, 2010
I loved this story and will keep it in my "comfort reads" shelf, where I go when I need a good story to calm me down.
September 19, 2010
If you are looking fo a very emotional love story, this one is just perfect.
November 27, 2010
It was a cute easy read for my thanksgiving weekend. I would definitely recommend it!
December 11, 2010
This is just the type of book I love to read. The characters were so well written, it was like I knew them personally. I did need a few tissues, but that's always a good thing.
February 22, 2011
Quick, sweet read.
July 29, 2012
This was an Okay read. Nothing great or really special about it. Got a little confusing at times, but it's short, so a pretty easy read.
August 12, 2012
More like 2.5 stars. It was a fast and easy read, but I fear not very memorable.
November 19, 2015
A great holiday tale of timing and letting others in. There's not much more I can say about this and not give any spoilers so I'll just finish by saying a definite must for your holiday library.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews