Tag: Amelia C. Gormley

Review of Acceleration (Impulse #2) by Amelia C. Gormley

Rating: 5 stars

Acceleration book coverQuiet, down-to-earth Detroit handyman Derrick Chance is still adjusting to the fact that he has a boyfriend.  Gavin Hayes is a wonder to him.  Gavin is gorgeous, loving, outgoing with tons of friends and a job he loves.  True, Gavin comes with an ex-boyfriend with a hideous outlook on AIDS/HIV who not only raped Gavin but maybe even gave him the AIDS virus too. Derrick tries not to dwell on this side of his new lover but inside him a small voice reminds him that everyone leaves Derrick and Gavin will too if his tests turn out to be positive.  Not a good thing to hide from his lover.

Gavin is a wonderful and inventive lover.  Derrick appreciates that because as a virginal 30 year old, he had no frame of reference to work with.  But Gavin is happy to teach him things about himself through sex and their sex life couldn’t be better.  Now if only Gavin and Derrick could say the same about the other areas of their burgeoning relationship.  A life of caring for his ailing grandparents has left Derrick almost completely nonverbal.  He has no idea how to share his inner thoughts and parts of himself with Gavin and Gavin is getting increasingly frustrated with him.  Gavin has shared everything about himself with Derrick and expects Derrick to do the same, to Derrick’s consternation and horror.

After his last partner, Gavin never again wants to have a partner who won’t share everything about himself with Gavin.  Gavin needs someone who will be open about himself and there for Gavin when he needs them. And Gavin thought that Derrick was that man but he can’t seem to get Derrick to open up and share himself with Gavin, no matter what  Gavin has tried.  Derrick has had so little control in his life, that when his grandparents died and he regained his life and life choices, he finds himself unable to give that control up to anyone, except maybe in bed.  But the thought of letting Gavin into his life, into areas where he is vulnerable, areas he has kept sealed off, well Derrick is not sure if he even wants to try.  To keep their relationship accelerating and their newfound love alive, can Gavin and Derrick adjust enough,compromise enough to be  the man each other wants and needs.

I had wondered how Amelia C. Gormley was going to follow up her wonderful first novel, Inertia (Impulse #1).  If her characters would continue to keep me absorbed in their story and the momentum that was building to a meaningful relationship.  Well, I shouldn’t have worried, Acceleration (Impulse #2) is a wonder of a novel all on its own and an marvelous sequel to a book I loved.

Gormley has given us two magnetic and endearing characters as the foundations to her stories.  Derrick Chance is especially captivating.  He has so many unexpected facets to his personality that it just amazes me as each new one is revealed.  Here is a man arrested emotionally and socially at an early age.  Through the deaths of every important person to him, his parents, his maternal grandmother and grandfather, then his only brother and finally his other grandparents, from the youngest age he has submerged his wants, his very socialization to care for his family, spending much of his adolescence and teenage years in hospitals and then through sleepless nights at home.  And finally at the age of 30, he starts to look outward from his isolated life in his grandparents house and finds Gavin.  Oh my, what an incredible journey Gormley has set Derrick and the reader on….no less than the blooming inner and outer life of a closed off individual.  Then she partners him off with Gavin Hayes, a man equally complex who carries with him a backstory of pain, abuse, and insecurity.

Gavin is a sexually aggressive man who has been made to feel embarrassed and ashamed about his need for a little pain and roughness in his lovemaking.  When Derrick and Gavin come together sexually for the first time, it is a restrained affair.  Derrick is a virgin and awkward in his lack of knowledge.  Gavin is possibly HIV positive, he is awaiting his results of his test.  The virus would have been transmitted by his exboyfriend on purpose, a fact that devastated Gavin and left him reeling emotionally. So you can well imagine what a tentative affair that should have been, but like everything  else in these books what came next surprised, delighted, was incredibly hot and demonstrated how the author intended to go about her compelling tale of love and growth.

Acceleration sees an “quickening” to their sexual life and what a life that is turning out to be.  Gavin and Derrick are venturing into bdsm and adding  pain to the mixture of dominance and submission. As a reader, let me say that this is not something I normally would read, nor am I knowledgeable about the lifestyle but Gormley makes their forays into bdsm completely understandable, especially given their  personalities and background. If this makes you uncomfortable, let me say that it is related in a way that not only makes sense for the characters and fits in easily with their story, which is the relationship growing between these two remarkable men. Don’t let that keep you away from this marvelous series.

Do not expect caterwauling angst or scenes of high drama, that would be out of character for both Gavin and Derrick.  No, what we are given is a realistic look at the bonds and relationship dynamics of two very different men who have fallen in love.  It is clear that love is not going to be enough to make this partnership succeed, the men have been through too much for that to happen and feel authentic.  Instead we get the normal fights any couple gets into, over communication issues, and how to meld friends and lives.  All wonderfully normal and yet in Gormley’s hands, still very exciting, full of doubts and anxiety of their future together.

As the title  states, here we have the relationship as it accelerates into  unknown waters of commitment and long term planning.  Gavin’s boyfriend returns briefly in this book, in a funny episode that shows how deep are the still waters that exist within our wonderful Derrick.  How I loved that scene.  There are so many more great scenes I could relate but I feel that would take the joy of discovery away from the reader, and this is so good, I cannot bear to have that happen.  Gormley gets it all right in her Impulse series, from the characterizations to the unique “voices” she has created for two men that capture our hearts and imaginations.  When Acceleration ended, all I could think of what, “ok, what happens next?”.  I want to know where our guys go from here?  At the end of this book, they have made a commitment to a major change in their lives but there are some powerful elements stirring, one especially is fraught with danger for Derrick, who in his complete innocence, doesn’t begin to understand the hate behind homophobia.

S o run, don’t walk to the computer and grab up this eBook for yourself.  If you are new to this trilogy, go to the beginning and start with Inertia (Impluse #1) and then move on to this one.  This series is one of my best for 2012 and the author quickly adding herself to my must buy list. You won’t be sorry, I promise you.

Love this cover by Kerry Chin. Dramatic,  erotic, just perfect.

This is the Impulse trilogy in the order they were written and should be read to understand the characters and the events within:

Inertia (Impulse #1) read my review here.

Acceleration (Impulse #2)

Review of Inertia (Impulse #1) by Amelia C. Gormley

Rating: 4 stars

Detroit handyman, Derrick Chance, has life just the way he wants it after recovering from period of excruciating loss and emotional turmoil brought on by the deaths of his grandparents and brother.  Safe, unexciting, normal. some would say routine even and they would be right.  Everything in its place, everything in order. and especially no unwelcome surprises lurking to throw up his hard won equanimity.  It has taken Derrick 10 years to get to this point in his life where he feels balanced and safe and he doesn’t want anything to change.  Just look at his home and furnishings.  The house is much the same as when his grandparents had lived there, nothing updated, even the appliances.  Heck, he didn’t even have texting on his phone.

Then Derrick gets a phone call from Gavin Hayes, an accountant who needs his home office outfitted with some shelves.  One look at Gavin, a quick handshake and all Derrick’s comfortable and predictable life is shaken up. Derrick gave up trying to date and all personal relationships when trying to recover from the loss of his family at a young age.  He just didn’t have anything left over to give so why bother? Now Derrick doesn’t know how to handle the emotions Gavin is bringing back to the surface after a long absence.

Gavin too is fighting the impulse to get to know his skittish handyman better.  Gavin has just removed himself from an abusive relationship and the thought of trusting another at this time leaves him uncertain and more than a little afraid, given a secret he is hiding.  It is going to take more than time and an attraction for Derrick and Gavin to decide to risk it all on a chance at love.

Inertia is the first book in the Impulse series that looks to follow the course of a relationship between two men, Derrick Chance and Gavin Hayes. The title of the book is an accurate description of the state of Derrick’s life.  Derrick has remained unchanged, and happily so since the trauma of his grandparents death. Then his brother died as well leaving him so emotionally empty that he was unable to do more than react as his life changed forever.  From that time on, Derrick froze himself into a lifestyle of emotional stasis that comes complete with a house full of relics from his grandparents time, a business based on fixing things from the past, and an isolation so complete that his only friends are his dog, his elderly neighbor and his friend, Devon.  When a work order leads to a meeting with Gavin Hayes, their mild flirting shakes him up, to the point of  Derrick reevaluating his choice of a solitary life.

Gormley does a really nice job of conveying Derrick’s uncertainty about the future and making changes to his life.  From Derrick’s perspective, the future has never held anything but heartache and pain causing him to withdraw from an active social life.  She paints the portrait of a man so hurt, so afraid of emotional pain that he does nothing to move himself forward for fear of being hurt once more.  Derrick has also frozen his sexuality as he has been abstinent for years, remaining a virgin into his thirties. This gives his character a certain innocence that plays off nicely against the character of Gavin Hayes.

The character of Gavin Hayes has also some interesting layers to him.  He is just come from an abusive relationship with a man whose ideas on HIV and AIDS are not only frighteningly self delusional but dangerous.  He too is full of fear for the future and hesitant to start a new relationship. So when the men find they are attracted to each other, each advances forward with all the hesitancy and indecisiveness of ants at a tap dance rehearsal.  For each uncertain foot forward, then is an almost immediate step back, sometimes several so that they find themselves back at the starting point.  But instead of this being a frustrating element, Gormley makes us understand these men and their actions.

Then there is the sex.  There are some very hot scenes here as Derrick discovers that his sexuality didn’t die along with his family but has just been dormant, awaiting a spark to come back to life.  Gavin is more than happy to be that spark.  But this is not a teacher/student relationship as Gavin’s former lover has left him with mental scars where their sex life was concerned.  There is a very realistic give and take here between the men as Derrick discovers he has a slight submissive kink and Gavin explores the idea of reciprocity in sex play.

There is no real angst here although from the sound of Gavin’s former lover, it might appear in the sequel Acceleration, Impulse #2. Inertia is simply the story of the beginnings of a relationship.  It may go on longer than necessary. In fact, the entire book could be tightened up with respect to editing errors and repetitive sections.  This is the second edition of this story after all. All of this might be due to the fact that Inertia is a self published book that could benefit from the efforts of a good editor.  That said, Gormley has done a wonderful job with her story and I look forward to the next installment in the relationship of Derrick and Gavin.

Cover:  Interesting cover by Kerry.  Compelling in its own way but also a little rustic in feel.

Olympic Games, the Week Ahead in Reviews and The Michelada Cocktail

So many things going on to talk about today.  First let’s get right to the Olympics.  Closing ceremony is tonight, bringing to an end one of the best Olympics I can remember.  I have been glued to the television watching this incredible spectacle unfold from the beginning, from the high drama of the swimming pools and gymnastic mats to the cross country course of the Equestrian events to the river and glistening rowers then to track and field, and all the sports in between.  So many athletes, so many stories, so many tears of sorrow to match the tears of joy.  How not to feel a part of something bigger, to feel connected to other nations and nationalities when you see people cheering the athletes on regardless of the colors they wear or the countries they represent.  Oscar Pistorius? Who wasn’t cheering that man on?  Some of my favorites? Katie Ledecky, Misty  and Terri, Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis, Michael Phelps, Gabby and the rest of the US gymnastic womens team,  Misty Franklin….so, so many.

And what will the closing ceremony look like?  Who knows?  After the dancing nurses and their twirling hospital beds, massive shrubbery moving, the Tor, and best torch ever, I am waiting in anticipation to be confounded, baffled, and touched beyond measure.  I know we will all be watching it together.

I am also going into this week with a working generator (dances for joy) so once more I am able to enjoy the rumble of thunder, the darkening skies, the sound of pounding rain for their beauty and music, secure in the knowledge that a storm no longer equals loss of power, food and appliances!  Take that, Pepco.  Now only if I could send you the bill.

Finally, Monday brings my review of Stars & Stripes, the latest in the Cut & Run series from Abigail Roux featuring Ty and Zane.  So many people were trying to download their pre-ordered copies at midnight on the 11th that they crashed the servers over at Riptide Publishing.  Wow.  So was the wait worth it?  Read my review on Monday.  So here is what the week is looking like in books:

Monday:                                Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run #6) by Abigail Roux

Tuesday:                                Synchronous Seductions Trilogy by Haven Fellows

Wednesday:                         Inertia (Impulse #1) by Amelia C. Gormley

Thursday:                             Brook Street: Thief by Ava March (rescheduled from last week)

Friday:                                   Mending the Rift Series by Valentina Heart

Saturday:                               Word Play Anthology by the Story Orgy authors

And finally our summer cocktail of the week. The Michelada, perfect for grilled foods and watching Olympic closing ceremonies!

The Michelada

Ingredients:

1/4 teaspoon piquin pepper
1/4 teaspoon salsa picante
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (12-ounce) can Mexican lager, chilled

Garnish: lime wedge

Directions:

In tall beer glass, stir together pepper sauce, salsa, lime juice, salt, and lager. Garnish with lime and serve immediately.

Happy viewing and have a great week!