Reviewed by Dan
This is a Series Review of Chaser Series (Books 1 & 2)
AUTHOR: Rick R. Reed
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
SERIES REVIEW:
I had seen this series around, but never had the chance to pick it up and read it. So now I have. I liked it quite a lot. In my opinion, the first book was the more comfortable read because it was mainly feel good stuff, except for some angst caused by one of the characters, Bobby…who isn’t that nice of a guy. In book two, the story focused on him and we found out why he wasn’t that nice. I liked both books and recommend them both!
SERIES RATING: 
TITLE: Chaser
LENGTH: 224 Pages
RELEASE DATE: August 24, 2012
BLURB:
Caden DeSarro is what they call a chubby chaser. He likes his guys with a few extra pounds on them. So when he meets Kevin Dodge in a bar bathroom, he can’t help but stare, even if he does make an ass of himself. As far as Caden is concerned, Kevin is physically perfect: a stocky bearded blond with a dick that’s just right. (They met in the bathroom—of course he looked!) But Caden gets tongue-tied and misses his chance.
When Caden runs into Kevin one night on the El train, he figures it’s fate offering him a second shot. Caden manages to get invited back to Kevin’s place for a one-night stand that turns into the kind of relationship he’s dreamed about.
But the course of true love never did run smooth, and Kevin and Caden’s romance is no exception. When Caden returns from a few weeks away on business, Kevin surprises him with a new and “improved” body—one that fits Caden’s shallow friend Bobby’s ideal, not Caden’s. Caden doesn’t know what to do, and his hesitation is just the opportunity Bobby was looking for. This isn’t the same Kevin he fell in love with… is it?
REVIEW:
This book came out sometime around the time that I started seriously reading books in this genre, and I missed it. I stumbled onto it while looking for the details on another Rick R. Reed book that I had just read and reviewed, and was preparing my review on, and the cover grabbed me. Once I read the blurb, I knew I wanted to do a read/review on it.
Chaser is the story of a man named Caden, who isn’t looking for that vapid, gym bunny sort of man. He is looking for something different. One night while out with his friend Bobby, he spots a beefy, bearded, blond (3 B’s) man across the bar. When he runs into him in the bathroom, and he turns and almost pees on the guy when the guy speaks to him, he flees the bathroom thinking his chances with the guy are over. That is until he runs into him on the El late that night. The man, Kevin, is Caden’s dream man. But what will happen when Caden returns to Pennsylvania to deal with his mother’s severe illness and they spend a few weeks apart after only a couple days of getting to know each other? Misunderstandings, that’s what, and then there is the manipulative “best friend”.
I think I liked this story so much because this could have been a story pulled from my own life. It had all the elements. I’ve been on both sides. I’ve always liked my men beefier, like Caden does, but I also remember the first time someone called me beefy myself. I lost 40+ pounds at one point just like Kevin and I used to run marathons. So, I was easily able to empathize with both of the main characters and understand where they each were coming from.
Then there was Bobby. I believe every gay man has at one time or another known a ‘Bobby’. A totally loathsome self-serving, stab his friends in the back over a man type of guy. I think Mr. Reed did a fantastic job writing Bobby. He is someone that could only be written by a gay man who has met and interacted with ‘Bobby’ in the real world. I’m not saying that there aren’t straight men, or women, who have Bobby’s personality traits, but ‘he’ is a mainstay in the gay community. There is always going to be a ‘Bobby’. I loathe the ‘Bobby’ guys and always have. I remember one who was a friend in my early 20’s and the grief he gave me when he discovered I was into a guy in his 30’s who was furry, had a beard and a little bit of a belly. That former friend was who I saw when I was reading Bobby’s sections in the story. Underneath the shallow exterior of a ‘Bobby’ there isn’t a lot of substance, just as Mr. Reed wrote him.
I think the story was well written, and I enjoyed it. I’d recommend it for anyone who enjoys a fast and easy read about chubby guys and the guys who chase them.
RATING:
BUY LINKS:
TITLE: Raining Men
LENGTH: 314 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2013
BLURB:
The character you loved to hate in Chaser becomes the character you will simply love in Raining Men.
It’s been raining men for most of Bobby Nelson’s adult life. Normally, he wouldn’t have it any other way, but lately something’s missing. Now, he wants the deluge to slow to a single special drop. But is it even possible for Bobby to find “the one” after endless years of hooking up?
When Bobby’s father passes away, Bobby finally examines his rocky relationship with the man and how it might have contributed to his inability to find the love he yearns for. Guided by a sexy therapist, a Sex Addicts Anonymous group, a well-endowed Chihuahua named Johnny Wadd, and Bobby’s own cache of memories, Bobby takes a spiritual, sexual, and emotional journey to discover that life’s most satisfactory love connections lie in quality, not quantity. And when he’s ready to love not only himself but someone else, sex and love fit, at last, into one perfect package.
REVIEW:
Well, I have to start with saying that I’m not so sure about that blurb. Yes, I hated Bobby in Chaser. Did I “simply love” him in this book? Not on your life. I spent a good portion of the book swearing at him and disliking him intensely. Let’s talk about the story.
Bobby Nelson is moving on from the disastrous actions he took in the preceding book. His best friend Caden and Caden’s partner Kevin have moved on. Bobby is dead to them, and for good reasons. Bobby is still a totally self-absorbed mess. He is a sex addict and just coming to realize it through his interactions with his therapist and a Sex Addicts Anonymous group she referred him to.
He has a fantastic sponsor at the group named Aaron, but he is still “slipping”, to the tune of going to a bath house and taking on a double-digit number of men in one evening. There isn’t much to like about Bobby. He doesn’t even like himself.
As the story develops, we learn more about Bobby’s childhood and his difficult relationship with his Dad who has just passed away. I’ll be honest, this book was kind of a painful read. I truly didn’t like the main character most of the way through the book. Just when I would come to like him, he would screw up and he’d be back on my ‘I don’t like him’ list. I honestly haven’t talked out loud (mainly swear words) to a character that much in a long time.
This book is about a man hitting rock bottom and it is told very well. I think one of the reasons I so disliked Bobby is because the author was so masterful in writing the character’s flaws and mistakes. Bobby’s tale brings out his shallowness, but also brings out the reasons for it. He is self-absorbed to a fault, but all that changes when he finds a little starving dog behind a dumpster. “Johnny” turns out to be a catalyst for change in Bobby. In the end it sometimes turns out that the little things are what make all the difference, and what you’re looking for the hardest might be right in front of you.
Mr. Reed did a great job at writing this self-absorbed mess of a man who ignored things that were right in front of him. As I said above…I kept telling Bobby what he should do, and who he should be with, but he didn’t listen of course. LOL.
I recommend the book. It was an up and down for me because of Bobby’s actions, but it was a very good book.
RATING:
BUY LINKS: