A Caryn Release Day Review: The Mighty Have Fallen by Bonnie Dee

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

the-mighty-have-fallenThe book opens up with Trevor Rowland quoting the Bible (because I am a nerd, I looked it up, Samuel 1:25, KJV) “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle!” referring to himself.  He had been a wealthy, celebrated stage actor when he suffered a stroke that left him completely blind.  To add insult to injury, while he was still in rehabilitation his boyfriend ran away after emptying their bank accounts, and Trevor found that he had been swindling him all along.  Trevor is feeling pretty low – he used to have it all, and now he’s disabled, poor, and feeling like an ass for not recognizing that his boyfriend was so shallow and dishonest. He is depressed, angry, bored, scared, and frustrated.

The same page introduces Jack Burrows, a blue-collar East Ender who moved in with Trevor one month ago mostly to split the rent, but partly to help Trevor out with household chores.  He is almost annoyingly optimistic and cheery, and has decided it is his mission to get Trevor to find meaning in his new life.  He does so by suggesting that Trevor look into doing voice-overs, and amateur drag queen performance.  Which Trevor immediately does and his attitude and his life turn around almost instantly.

So at this point, I was already sitting back and considering the story very detachedly, because it felt forced and awkward.  The reader is dropped into the story literally at the moment that Trevor is transforming his life, so the backstory is all told instead of shown and I wasn’t convinced.  I also did not feel the realities of losing one’s sight as an adult was portrayed very realistically – Trevor usually acted like a sighted person, so when the cane actually was mentioned it seemed intrusive.  I recently read Running Blind, by Kim Fielding and Venona Keyes, and that portrayal of a man who lost his sight (also from a stroke, imagine that) was much more credible.  Then there was the insta-love aspect – I really hate insta-love because I think it is a cop-out so an author can avoid plot and characterization – although I know that is not unusual for this author.  I was dubious about the whole business of Trevor doing a drag show, despite the extensive monologues about how it equated with his previous career and why the music he chose to lip-sync was so meaningful.  Jack’s character was too perfect, and though the accent did help to bring his voice to life for me, it slipped frequently (for an amazing example of the accent done well, and the contrast between posh and uncultured voices, read Glitterland by Alexis Hall)

When I realized that I was comparing this book to others just to see how it fell short, I knew it was going to be a miss for me.  The conflict before the happy ending was the usual misunderstanding blown out of proportion – so overused – and the drag show, which should have been a pinnacle of the story, was unimpressive.

Cover art by Bree Archer is nice but way too dramatic for this story.

Sales Links

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Book Details:

ebook, 112 pages
Expected publication: January 18th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1635332370 (ISBN13: 9781635332377)
Edition LanguageEnglish

In the Spotlight: Bonnie Dee on The Mighty Have Fallen (guest blog, exclusive excerpt)

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The Mighty Have Fallen by Bonnie Dee
D
reamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Bree Archer

Here are the links for The Mighty Have Fallen. Bonnie Dee doesn’t have one for Itunes yet.

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Bonnie Dee here today as she shares a little about herself and her upcoming release, The Mighty Have Fallen.  Welcome, Bonnie.

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I’m glad to be here at Scattered Thoughts blog to share a little about myself and my upcoming release. I’m Bonnie Dee. Some readers of this blog might know me as half of the writing team of Devon and Dee. Alone and with my co-author, I’ve written a number of gay historical romance novels. The pattern of those stories, although set in different locations and time periods, were becoming too familiar so I decided to take a break and write a contemporary. The mode of speech is quite different. I had to correct myself when I’d slip into the cadence and formality of an earlier time. Writing in modern parlance was a really nice change of pace.

Although I have written a couple of contemporaries in the past, The Mighty Have Fallen is my first one in quite a while. It was particularly rewarding because Dreamspinner Press included my story in the launch of their new Perchance to Dream line, which is written from a UK perspective. My UK editor helped me with expressions, customs and general Britifying of the manuscript, particularly Jack’s heavy East End accent.

Of course the sorts of difficulties historically faced by gay men were much more immediate and dire than the problems posed in modern romances. The possibility of jail time and social disgrace add a heightened element of danger to historicals. Still, I gave my protagonist Trevor plenty to overcome as he loses his sight, fame, money and lover all at once and has to discover his will to go on.

The perfect counterpart to this devastated and justifiably moody man is Jack Burrows, a hard-working East Ender with an easy-going temperament. When the two men become flat mates, Jack prods Trevor out of his gloom and back into life by suggesting his days on the stage don’t have to be over. As Trevor prepares to perform a one-night-only act at a local drag club, the men grow closer, moving from lust to love.

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More about The Mighty Have Fallen

Theatre headliner Trevor Rowland is at the peak of his career when disaster strikes. In one fell swoop, he loses his eyesight, his fame, and his boyfriend, who absconds with most of his money. Trevor must take on a flatmate, hardworking East Ender Jack Burrows, to afford the rent. Anger and bitterness have taken up residence in his heart—but Jack shines light into the shadowy corners with his relentlessly sunny disposition.

Jack introduces Trevor to a local drag club and convinces him he can enjoy the stage again. Trevor’s defences slowly come down as Jack becomes much more than a barely tolerated roommate.

But will Trevor’s fragile trust be destroyed when it appears he’s been manipulated yet again by a man he’s come to care for? Will he reclaim his life or crawl back into a shell of defeat? Trevor must learn to trust not only a man, but himself, once more.

 

Here’s an exclusive excerpt from The Mighty Have Fallen.

While his body responded to Jack’s masterful kisses and touches, part of Trevor’s brain kept replaying his words: I’ve wanted to do this for a while now. That meant during the little over a month they’d roomed together, Jack had watched Trevor. He’d thought about him, maybe fantasized touching or kissing him, without ever letting on.

Imagining Jack silently watching and desiring him felt good, but it was also rather disconcerting. He could no longer read the visual cues that would have told him of Jack’s attraction. Heated looks and body language weren’t signalled through a voice.

The taxi ride ended and Jack pulled away, leaving Trevor’s lips bruised and his brain whirling. Jack paid and tipped the driver, who thanked him in a foreign accent Trevor couldn’t identify, and they got out of the car. He wondered if the driver had been disgusted by their canoodling, but he supposed the man had witnessed lovers who’d gone much further.

Slammin’ in the back seat. A phrase from some song he couldn’t recall played in Trevor’s head.

Jack grabbed his hand, dragged him into the flat, and shut the door behind them. What had started on the pavement and carried on feverishly in the back of the taxi came to a frantic, fumbling head there.

“Should we—?”

Jack cut off his words with a kiss and clasped the back of Trevor’s neck, holding him steady while he devoured his mouth. Trevor dropped his cane with a clatter on the hall floor. After backing him against the door, Jack pinned him there, chest to chest, groin to groin, erection rubbing against erection, only a little denim and cotton between them. When their clothes came off, there would be warm, satin flesh to stroke and slide against. No use pretending they’d stop at a little kissing and then go to their separate rooms.

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About the Author

You can learn more about me, Bonnie Dee, and my back list of many romance books at http://bonniedee.com. Find me on FB at Bonnie Dee Author or Bonnie Dee. My Twitter handle is @Bonnie_Dee. I’m not the most active social media person but I turn up occasionally. Most importantly, please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter to learn of upcoming releases. Newsletter signup form