REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: My Hero
AUTHOR: Max Vos
PUBLISHER: Max Vos
LENGTH: 262 Pages
Blurb:
When he was sixteen years old, Rich Miller saved a young man from drowning at his local pool. Little did he know that years later, as a senior in college and Olympic diving hopeful, Rich would meet up once again with Johnny Milloway, now a big football player – and when Rich says big, he really means ‘bear’. The shy jock remembers his saviour, and the two men become friends.
Johnny isn’t put off by the fact that Rich is gay. In fact, the more time he spends with Rich, the more curious he becomes. Johnny wants to know all kinds of things – what it’s like to kiss a guy, for instance. Only it doesn’t stop there…
Rich finds it difficult to believe that this relationship can go anywhere. Johnny is straight, and Rich isn’t prepared to deal with the heartache he knows will come his way in the future. He has enough on his plate as it is – the Worlds are just around the corner, his father would rather watch a football game than spend time watching his son dive…. What he doesn’t count on is Johnny, who can be very determined. And having Johnny in his life proves to be a catalyst for some pretty earth-shattering changes.
Review:
Rich and Johnny are two young men who almost seem fated to be together. The first time they meet, Rich saves Johnny and when they meet up again later, Johnny take’s care of Rich.
Rich comes from a wealthy family and has always had everything he wanted…except his father’s attention. Johnny’s family is a little more down to earth, but are the kind of family that Rich always wished he had.
The attraction between the two men when they meet for the second time is instant and just grows from there, but Rich refuses to believe that he can ever have Johnny as anything more than a friend.
Johnny, for his part, is fascinated by Rich and it’s obvious that he’s seeing Rich in a whole different light than Rich is assuming. He starts out shy and nervous, but his confidence grows with his curiosity and he keeps pushing Rich to satisfy that curiosity more and more.
I’m not really big on “gay-for-you” stories but Max Vos manages to make the characters in this one sympathetic and real. The character’s are interesting and easy to connect to and the humor that shines through makes me smile often.
I have two issues that keep this from being a 5 star book. The first one? I’m a big fan of safe sex and while I don’t want to spoil the story, there are some choices that are made that really didn’t sit well with me.
The second? The women side characters are a little one-dimensional and I would have liked to have seen the cousin and the best friend portrayed in a little less stereotypical manner as so often happens in this genre.
All in all, the story kept pulling me along until I was cheering for Rich and Johnny to find the happily-ever-after they so deserved.
Rating: 
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