Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Drawn Out Love
AUTHOR: Derek Fairbanks
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 110 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 26th , 2021
BLURB:
Unexpected sparks fly when the collaboration between author Brody Rohan and graphic artist Keith Kirby turns romantic. Brody falls too fast while Keith slowly disappears behind a wall of professional and personal conflicts. Can they learn to truly open their hearts and allow themselves to receive the love they’ve always longed for before they lose each other forever?
REVIEW:
Most of my recent reading has been books with omniscient narrators or alternating points of view. This work told from a single perspective, which felt a bit constraining in spots. Early on I kept trying to decide if we were in the mind of a stalker (Brody) and bound for a surprise development, or if what could be taken as Keith’s aloofness had other reasons that we were just not being told.
The main character was charming enough that the novella felt, in spots, like we were spending time in a coffee shop, counseling, consoling or possibly commiserating with, a friend over a particularly difficult courtship. As presented, Brody seemed to be a bit tenacious in his pursuit of this relationship, long past the point where I’d have thrown in the towel.
This seemed an odd romance for me. One main character is a sci-fi author. The other is an artist that makes most of his living from comic-con related jobs. Both are somewhat older than the youngsters I so often read about. They both have life histories. And both tend to be loners that spend a majority of their time in their own heads. Also, both have had some issues with depression (and perhaps worse) in their past. Despite the two guys being somewhere close to 40, more than once while reading this, I recalled that you-tube video of two septuagenarian jitterbug dancers wowing the crowd at a wedding with their moves. Admiring their moves while simultaneously worried that someone might break a hip… or in our case a heart.
No worries though… nothing gets broken in this tale that can’t easily be mended. Overall this was an enjoyable tale of two guys coming together, albeit in a more prolonged and somewhat less tempestuous manner than I’m used to. And while this wasn’t a fade to black style of novel, and it does involve a graphic artist, don’t expect the graphically libidinous scenes that have become so common in M/M romance.
RATING: 
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