precious_boy by KZ Snow

precious_boy by KZ Snow
Stars: 3.5/5

Length: 142 pages
Blurb
It was just an amateur porn video, like thousands of others on the Internet. Like hundreds Jonathan Wright had seen and hundreds more he'd ignored. He hadn't intended to watch it, but he gives in to his curiosity. When he sees the lithe, blond young man who's doing naughty things with a bearish, older man, he's seduced… and feels like a pervert afterward. The youth in the video seems a little too young, despite the fact he runs his own escort service. Worse yet, Jon gets the nagging feeling he's seen "Justin Time," aka precious_boy, before.

When Jon takes a chance and meets Justin in a Chicago hotel room, Jon's past, present, and possibly his future begin to converge in alarming and confusing ways. There's no escaping the resulting dilemma: Jon must decide just how involved he wants to get with a sweet kid whose life has turned sour… a decision made more complex by a surprising connection to a lover from Jon's past.

Overall
A sweet, kind of cute, story that was enjoyable but didn't leave a lasting impression.

Review
The story/plot isn't bad and has several strong points, the majority of which centers around Ethan and his strengths. He's in a bad situation and while he hasn't made the best choices, he's also strong enough to recognize that and, with a little help, do what is needed to change. The coming together of these two men is sweet and enjoyable, although I felt it was a little forced sometimes.

I wasn't enthralled with the characters and found the leading male especially lacking. While the plot covers some pretty heavy topics, nothing feels like it's developed deep enough to really appreciate the struggle of the characters. Jon may be representing a realistic character, but as the reader, I didn't like him. He wasn't bad or hateable, but he wasn't someone I actually cared about either. Readers who don't mind Jon and his issues probably will enjoy this story more.

I founded the majority of the characters likeable and that they added nice flairs to the story. However, when Jon sleeps with Ethan's father when he knows he feels attracted to Ethan (and knows Ethan's father is lame), I found my dislike of Jon growing. He really isn't that bad of a guy, and maybe my obsessive reading of true love tales has tainted me, but I found the action unsavory. Jon of course grows and matures over the course of the story into a man who is worthy of Ethan, but I still found it difficult to like him.

Visible Friend by KZ Snow

Visible Friend by KZ Snow
Stars: 4/5

Length: 160 pages
Blurb
Christopher Borgasian has spent the last seven months painstakingly breaking up with a lover he's adored for three years: heroin. Now he's trying to make it on his own--without the drugs, without the family that rejected him for being gay, and, seemingly, without a friend in the world. The night before Chris leaves a sober-living facility to pursue his uncertain future, a stranger named Denny shows up in his room. From then on, Denny returns whenever Chris needs him the most, always vanishing as mysteriously as he appears. Chris desperately needs emotional and physical intimacy, but who is Denny, really? And can Chris believe in him when it also means believing in unconditional love?

Overall
First off, I love this cover. It's artistic and powerful, and while it's not a traditional romance cover, this isn't really a traditional romance, although romance is a central factor. I think I would have purchased this book based on the cover alone.

This story was rating a strong 3.5, but the epilogue and cover bumped it up to a 4. It's a curious story that focuses on the struggle to regain a footing in life after going through rehab for addiction. In addition to facing all the normal struggles of being a gay ex-addict, Chris also has an imaginary friend who is very, very real. And attractive.

While I didn't really sink into this story and get absorbed by it, it was a good strong story that entertains an interesting notion.

Strengths
Interesting story and angle. The story doesn't involve anything spiritual, per se, but there is a certain level of other-worldliness as Denny is a not-so imaginary friend whose physicality is becoming harder and harder to ignore. However, even by the end, by which point the secrets have been revealed, there is still an element of mystery about Denny's origins. This half-explained reason behind Denny's presence is enough to satisfy the reader's curiosity without locking the author into one reality or truth of greater being. A basic, sweet story with a fresh idea.

Characters you feel empathetic for. Even if the characters didn't get under my skin, I still cared about them and was sympathetic to them. Chris, who is struggling to get his life back on track, and Denny, who is struggling to...well, pretty much the same thing. Denny may not have an addiction in his past, but he's coping with reality just as much as Chris is. Both more are selfish and selfless, struggling to do the best thing, even if they're unsure what that is. Honest, good characters.

Weaknesses
The only weaknesses is that the story didn't grab me and hold me captive. It was interesting, well paced, and well told, but it never got into my head or my heart. Parts also fit a little too nicely together, but in some ways this is fitting for the story, considering Denny's entire involvement.

Fugly by KZ Snow

Fugly by KZ Snow
Stars: 3/5

Overall
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. It had more potential than Snow allowed it to realize in the short amount of space it was given. While the concept is pretty straight forward, the story needed more character development to really become a complete story.

Strengths
Idea. While the general idea of beautiful people being cursed with disfigurements in order to be taught a lesson and the way to cure it is to reform, Snow made the idea come to life with the main characters. Seeing inside their heads as they struggled to realize that people in their lives--good people--liked them for more than their appearances was touching and my only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen more.

Writing. The writing was fairly strong and kept together would could have been extremely choppy jumps in time and perspective.

Weaknesses
Length. One of the biggest blows this story suffers is that it is not long enough. Since it's dealing with a classic concept, it needed more room to spread out and become its own. What already exists is enjoyable, but could be fleshed out into a truly amazing piece. The three characters who get cursed are all mentioned to have an internal problem that they have to face once they are no longer beautiful, but the problems are only seen after the fact, making them feel false in light of the changes on their face, or perhaps because the changes seem to come up and flip over so quickly. I wanted more struggle with the characters and their identities, and coming to terms with who they really were.

Jude in Chains by K.Z. Snow

Jude in Chains by K.Z. Snow
Stars: 3.5/5

Overall:
Third time's the charm, right? So when Misha meet Jude again, in a gay conversion camp of all places, he knows he has to save him. But it might just be Misha who ends up being saved. This is a story you have to take with a small grain of salt, believing in that *spark* between two people that draws them together. Otherwise it's good, but not amazing; a touching story that satisfies.

What I liked
Misha isn't perfect, but he certainly is passionate about caring about Jude and wanting to save him from the "straight ideal." He's an enjoyable narrator, mixing humor and feeling as we go along. Nothing felt unrealistic or improbable and the flashbacks worked well to establish their history.

What didn't work
The only minor downside is that we don't really see what Jude would get out of the decisions he makes. This is where you have to suspend your disbelief and go with it a little, believe in soul mates or what have you. This didn't bother me and I never really considered it until I sat down to write the review.