Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Canning the Center
SERIES: Long Pass Chronicles #2
AUTHOR: Tara Lain
PUBLISHER: Tara Lain Books
LENGTH: 250 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 15th , 2019
BLURB:
Six-foot, seven-inch, 300-pound Jamal Jones loves football, so when he finds out the ultra-conservative owner of his new pro football team fired their current center because he’s gay, Jamal, who’s bisexual, decides to stay in the closet and hang with the females. Then, at a small drag show, he comes face-to-face with his sexual fantasy in the form of Trixie LaRue, a drag queen so exquisitely convincing she scrambles Jamal’s hormones – and his resolve to nurse his straight side.
Trixie LaRue, also known as Trevor Landry, hides more than his genitals. A mathematician so brilliant he can’t be measured, Trevor disguises his astronomical IQ and his quirk for women’s clothes behind his act as a gay activist undergrad at Southern California University.
To Trevor, Jamal is the answer to a dream – a man who can love and accept both his personas. When he discovers Jamal’s future is threatened if he’s seen with a guy, Trevor becomes Trixie to let Jamal pass as straight. But Trevor risks his position every time he puts on a dress. Is there a closet big enough to hold a football pro and a drag queen?
REVIEW:
Here we have the tale of Jamal, a hulking big football center who plays in the NFL but is as gentle and sweet natured as they come. He’s such a gentle giant that his sibs have taken to calling him Ferdinand, after the literary bull who’d rather enjoy the flowers in the pasture than the challenges of the bull-ring. A big part of his contentment is his loving and accepting family. They were supportive of his sexual orientation when he first discovered it and he has several gay sibs that are also into same-sex pairings. That he must remain closeted to play in the NFL is grating to him but he’s willing to make the sacrifice to play the game that he loves.
Two of Jamal’s openly gay college friends (and the heroes of book 1) take him to a bar with a drag show. Jamal is well and truly smitten with Trixie, a drag queen who sings her own songs. Trixie is the opposite of Jamal in many ways. Trixie is white and slightly built. Trixie is also Trevor, a math genius who’s attending college on a full ride scholarship. He’s also the leader of the activist LGBT group on campus while remaining closeted about his taste for doing drag. Trevor has almost no family to speak of except an aging mother who’s been institutionalized with advanced Alzheimer’s.
As the romance between these two unlikely paramours progresses both men realize that they have something to lose if their secrets are revealed but to what degree are they willing to risk it to have each other?
This is the second in the Long Pass Chronicles. The series deals with football, and closets, and the long standing tradition of homophobia in college and professional sport. Things have advanced a bit since these were first written in 2014. But it was only this year, 2021, that the first actively playing member of the NFL came out publicly.
One theme that I found fresh here deals with the internalized homophobia in the gay community. Decades ago in the play Torch Song Trilogy main character Arnold Beckhoff laments that, while drag queens have been at the forefront of the gay rights movement, once the movement gains mainstream acceptance, the drag queens will be swept aside by many gay men a bit like blacks did with Amos & Andy. That’s remarkably prescient.
There’s also a theme here of racism among sports team owners. That rings as true today as it did back when this book was first released. While there’s nothing here that hasn’t been touched upon before, this is a well told tale. It’s reasonably low on the angst and happily concentrated on these two men getting to know each other despite the limitations of their situation. The sex isn’t terribly graphic but it is there and its a fun addition to what’s already an engaging story. Most importantly, it’s also a hopeful story. I’m a bit of a hopeful romantic. What I’d most ardently hope is that there will come a time when these stories are no longer necessary.
RATING: 
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