Review by Heather C.

TITLE: Say Everything
AUTHOR: Gina A. Rogers
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
BLURB: Gregory put his past up for sale on Craigslist. He never expected Chad, a gorgeous black-haired devil, to waltz in and take it all. He doesn’t leave him empty-handed though, giving him friendship and new memories to fill the space. Torn between his past and the chance at a real future, Gregory has to decide if he can let down his defenses and open himself up to the chance of getting hurt again. But Chad isn’t going to wait forever and Gregory only has one chance to convince him to stay, but he’ll have to say everything.

REVIEW:

Say Everything is Gina A. Rogers’ contribution to MLR’s Mixed Tape Anthology and is inspired by Peter Gabriel’s hit song, In Your Eyes.  This is a love story about Gregory, a man still hanging on to his past in the form of 80’s memorabilia and unrelenting memories, and Chad, the party-planner who barges into his life under the pretense of  buying his old crap. When Chad arrives at Gregory’s house to check out his collection, Gregory is immediately attracted to him with his upbeat attitude and excitement over all of Gregory’s treasures.  In the midst of Dukes of Hazard sheets and lava lamps, things get heated pretty fast once both men realize the other is gay and horny.  Gregory and Chad meet up unexpectedly a few weeks later at an 80’s themed party Chad has planned.  There is a little miscommunication and strange behavior that had me rapidly turning pages to find out what was up with Chad.  They quickly pick up right where things left off when they were last together.

This was a fairly simple, sweet story with a little bit of kink…yeah, the sex was pretty hot! There’s not much angst at all, other than real reason why Gregory couldn’t let go of the 80’s. This was Gregory’s journey about learning that, in order to have the future he wants, he has to learn to forgive the past, and most of all, forgive himself. It takes Chad’s persistent cheerful outlook on life to force Gregory to really start dealing with his issues.  I would have liked to see that subject explored more thoroughly, but since this was meant to be a short story, I understand why that would just be too much to cram in.  I would have rather traded that for more of the romance anyway.

In the end, we got to see the beginning of their HEA, but we never got to experience them falling in love. I would have loved to see Chad break down all those barriers Gregory has had in place since the 80’s.  But that would make for a much longer story than what was intended here. There are countless aspects that make up any story and the main focus here was Gregory realizing he deserves to be loved.  The other aspects – love, sex, relationships, dating, etc. – are all there, but the focus is Gregory’s personal development.

I recommend this short, sexy story to anyone who is looking for a sweet hurt/comfort type of story and to anyone that likes character driven stories about learning to let go of the past and moving on with the future they deserve.  I’m really looking forward to Gina giving us something longer one day.

Heather’s Rating: 

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Heather C. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love
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