Reviewed by Sid

TITLE: Curious Sustenance
AUTHOR: Charley Descoteaux
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 150 pages
BLURB: He never knew boundaries could be so sexy.

Ross Jenson is looking forward to a little midmorning delight to celebrate making Lifetime in Weight Watchers, but after he spent eight months losing ninety-eight pounds, what his lover gets him is a triple-layer chocolate cake. When Ross refuses to eat it, the newly minted ex leaves the country and dumps him via e-mail, with three sentences and a link to a chubby chasers web site. A few days later, Ross’s best friend and workout buddy takes him to her favorite club for drinks. Ross is shocked when he realizes it’s a sex club but warms to the idea in record time when a mysterious Japanese man and his silken ropes sweep him off his feet. Ross has never thought of himself as adventurous, but he can’t stop thinking about the man who makes his bones feel like gummy worms.

Warnings: this book features a corporate sensitivity trainer with an agenda, an awesome gal-pal, an unconventional sex club, a mysterious Japanese rope artist, and another taste of Portland, Oregon as seen through my twisted mind.

REVIEW:

Ever since reading “Directing Traffic”, I have been on the lookout for anything new coming out from Descoteaux. I have to admit, I dived into this story just for the sake of getting another taste of the author’s fabulous writing style. This story, though, exceeded all my initial expectations from it.

Ross’s life crumbles down after his boyfriend dumps. Why? Well, Ross used to be a chubby male before he joins the Weight Watchers program. So, now that he is all slimmed down after losing unneeded fats on him, Brad wasn’t attracted to him anymore.

The first chapter when we are introduced to Ross and Brad, it seems that they have had quite a good, understanding relationship over the years especially since they live together. The scene where Brad comes clean about his feelings, there’s a burst of feelings that we experience through Ross’s POV. It was heartbreaking to see his dreams shattered like that.

In an attempt to cheer him up, his best friend Janet takes him to a sex club. He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to – but he still finds himself roped in into an activity. Literally. A Japanese rope artist who goes with the name of “Shaggy” at the club intrigues Ross and the story kicks off  with a cool bang.

I wouldn’t classify the acts carried out by both men as pure-bondage kinds because it was too mild. And honestly, that’s the way I like it. And this story isn’t even solely focused on that part. Rather, we get some sensible plots and great romantic moments. Both men have their individual on-going dramas in their lives and they have to survive through them as well as make some time for each other. I have to mention – it was very amusing and interesting to see how fate kept testing their patience. It takes two cancelled dates for them to finally sit down together and have a little get-to-know chat.

A couple of scenes though felt meaningless. I couldn’t understand why they had to be there. Also, the ex seems to get away with something gruesome that he does to Ross because after that, he is never brought into scene. To me, it felt like a loose end left behind. The author also breaks the consistency of using Ross’s voice as the story-teller by handing it over to Miles (Shaggy) couple of times. Of course, we get a better picture of things that go on from Miles’ POV too but the sudden change in the middle of the story was a bit distracting.

The writing, however, doesn’t disappoint. Charley works her magic in this book again. The characters connect easily because the author seems to understand each of them and presents them accordingly. The parallel storyline of secondary characters – Rune and Janet – was actually entertaining too.

Sid rates it – 

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press

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