Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Brandon Faulkner has a thing for Goth guys and hangs out in the Goth chat room hooking up with strangers. He hasn’t met any of them yet, but since he can’t decide between the three that he considers the hottest or most intriguing, he decides to play all three as if they were the only man in his life. Making plans to meet with all three over the course of a weekend leads to a few shocking discoveries when his “dates” turn the tables and he’s the one sent off-balance.
Pre-meeting them, Brandon finds the most interesting, and stunning, of the three to be Enigma. And in person he turns out to be a youthful, but domineering, guy with purple bangs and a bizarre set of behaviors. When Brandon finds himself in hot pursuit, despite Enigma’s obvious dislike of him, he can’t believe that this time he’s the one who can’t seem to walk away.
I liked this story and discovered that it had much more depth of characterization than is usually found in something this short. Brandon appears to be no more than a shallow, self-involved slut of a man who can’t even count how many men he’s been with, but with Lewis’s help, he taps into self-discovery and is horrified at what he learns. Lewis, aka Enigma, turns out to be a very complex character with secrets of his own, and he manages to flip Brandon’s world upside down.
I liked the storyline and the author’s ability to create these very three-dimensional characters. And I especially enjoyed watching the way Lewis got Brandon to face some surprising self-truths.
Cover Art by the author’s company, Scarlet Tie Designs, features a black-and-white floor resembling a game board with one man sitting on a stool slightly to the left and another balancing on a plank to the right in the background. The cover cleverly represents both MCs: one who seeks to be the center of attention and the other who is slightly off-balance.
Sales Links: Torquere Press |
Book Details:
ebook, 1st Edition, 47 pages
Published January 2010 by Torquere Press
Original TitleLeft of Center
ISBN139781603709132
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 