I recently blogged about my disenchantment with contemporary romance, and concluded that it was the lack of compelling conflict that was the problem for me. For me, believable conflict is thinner on the ground in contemporary romance than in any other sub-category of romance. Whereas in historicals - disapproving governesses, slutty rakes - and in paranormals - blood-suckers, death, immortality - the conflict is right there, bred into the bones of the story.

I should have added to my post that M/M romance is another sub-genre with built-in conflict. If I had done so, I could have neatly quoted Jay, one of the protaganists from Bonnie Dee’s new novel, Undeniable Magnetism:

“Daring to trust is hard enough in any relationship, but for a gay man it’s compounded. There’s a lot more at stake than two guys who happen to like each other and want to become involved. There’s a whole raft of outside issues impacting them.”

With M/M romance, you don’t need to manufacture a WTF storyline or a Big Mis to provide the conflict. You can have your Romeo and Juliet (or Romeo and Mercutio) doing their ‘You And Me Against The World, Baby’. Conflict - sorted.

And so, in this book we get two rather lovely men - Jay and Simon - who fall headlong for each other but who have a few obstacles to negotiate on the path to their HEA.

The Plot

Generous, spirited and openly gay Jay comes from a working-class Irish-American family. He confronted his homosexuality years ago and is happy with who he is. His father and brothers might not be exactly delighted that he is gay but Jay deals with their prejudices head-on, and with humour and understanding.

Simon is from a well-to-do African-American family. He’s intelligent, sensitive and currently living a rather lonely life in the depths of his closet. When Simon walks into Jay’s bar one night, there is an immediate spark between the two of them. They share an intense sexual experience and although Simon says he doesn’t want to take things further, he takes Jay’s number.

Needless to say, after some dithering, Simon calls Jay. Gradually, incrementally, they form a tentative relationship. And Simon has to face up to the thing he fears most: coming out.

There are other issues: Simon and Jay come from different races and different classes. Neither of them feel comfortable in the other’s world and Dee is good at illustrating that without beating the reader over the head with a blunt instrument.

All in all, I liked the plot but - and this is my only real issue with the book - it was too brief for my tastes. I would have preferred Simon to remain aloof for a bit longer at the beginning of the novel. For someone who was terrified of coming out and who had avoided any kind of relationship before, he seemed to give in to Jay fairly easily. Moreover, Jay and Simon seemed to reach the ‘happy relationship’ stage a bit too quickly for me. And once they got there - to Happy-relationship-ville - they pretty much stayed there for the rest of the book with just one argument and a brief estrangement to mar their contentment. Ultimately then, when I got to the end of the book, I didn’t feel I’d been through that much with Jay and Simon.

Personally, I would have liked the book to have been half as long again and for Dee to have developed some aspects of the story more deeply.

The Protagonists

Jay and Simon were both nicely drawn and a good match for one another. I liked Jay’s mercurial, honest nature. I liked his optimism and his ‘take me or leave me’ attitude.

Simon was much more introspective and less confrontational (though, interestingly, the more ‘in charge’ partner in bed). I liked the way Simon’s character emerged gradually as he began to fall in love with Jay.

What I liked most of all, though, was how Jay and Simon were together; how right they seemed for each other. And how Dee talked about the way they complemented one another:

“Jay imagined how they would look together to someone walking into the room. Dark and light, long and elegant, short and stocky, coiled together like a yin and yang symbol, the positive and negative energies of sun and moon”

(I suspect the title Undeniable Magnetism was chosen to underline the strength of Jay and Simon’s attraction for each other. In fact, I found the title a little misleading. Somehow it suggested to me that at least one of the protaganists would be trying to deny the magnetism between them. But that really isn’t the case).

The Other Characters

Dee delivers a nice little ensemble of secondary characters. I particularly liked the four parents, all of whom were portrayed in a nuanced, restrained way. In a book like this - which relies on a ‘coming out’ conflict and the racial and class differences between the protaganists - it must be tempting to take the easy route of sketching one of the secondary characters as a die-hard bigot.

Dee doesn’t do that. She gives us a bit of light, a bit of shade. She doesn’t shy away from the fact that several years after coming out, Jay still has to struggle to get some members of his family to accept him. And at the end of the book, it is clear that Jay and Simon will have to keep working at it with their families, dealing with occasional expressions of disappointment.

My Final Say

If you’re looking for a heart-warming category-length contemporary read, you couldn’t do much better than to pick this up. It’s got nicely-drawn characters and believable conflict (though not quite enough of it for my taste) which is not resolved too glibly. Oh - and I really liked the sex scenes. They were hot but grounded in reality. Lots of lust but tenderness too.

All in all, a satisfied grade B-.

You can buy this fabulous book here and find more Tumperkin good times here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Contempo, Tumperkin's Reviews, Romance: LGBT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.