Hair and Heart: An MM Fairy Tale Romance
By Rhys Everly
Val is in a conservatorship. He is a pop musician who has been under the care of his uncle since teenage Val blacked out during a psychotic episode and set fire to his home, which resulted in the death of both of his parents. Since that episode, he has been under his uncle Fred’s care. Val is in his early twenties and is tired of making the same generic pop ballads that made him famous years earlier. Val is also gay but must hide his sexuality so as not to lose his hordes of female teenage fans.
Sandy is a personal stylist. He also has partial color blindness. After accidentally dressing his client in a yellow dress with a red leather jacket, he is fired when the press dubs her outfit “ketchup and mustard.” Needing a new job quickly, he accepts the challenge of dressing Val. Val is notorious for being a moody prick but Sandy doesn’t take any crap from him. Sandy is the first person to treat Val like an adult instead of tiptoeing around him. Even though Val threatens to have Sandy fired, Sandy keeps showing up for work. Soon enough, they fall for each other. Uncle Fred is not a fan of this relationship. He tries to keep Val under his control and get rid of Sandy at the same time.
I enjoyed the premise. Although it was extremely obvious that uncle Fred was a creep, the way Sandy and Val navigated the situation was a fresh take on what could be a very, very dark outcome. This is supposed to be a sort of Rapunzel retelling, but the only thing that came to my mind when I thought “conservatorship” and “pop star” was Britney. Other than Val dying his hair pink to prove his love for Sandy (and by writing a hit song for him titled “Pink Eyes” (no not THAT kind of pink eye but still — ew..)), the story has pretty much nothing to do with hair.
My main difficulty with this story was the dialogue. Even a lackluster story can be saved by excellent dialogue, but the interactions between Val and Sandy were exceptionally cringy. I did, however, get this one excellent phrase out of it.
“Let’s get out of here,” I tell him. “You’re free from that waffletart now.”
I expect to be dropping loads more “waffletart” insults into my daily chats. It’s still not as good as “twatwaffle” but almost.
Pictures of You
By Leta Blake
Peter is afraid nothing will work out for him. He was bullied at his old school so why will anything be different at his new one? As a senior transfer student to a private school, he just wants to make it through his final year of high school so he can enroll in the photography program at the University of Tennessee, where his father is a professor.
At the new student orientation, Peter catches the eye of Adam, another senior transfer student. Adam and his twin sister Sarah have been sent to live with their older brother Mo, who attends university in the same city. Adam’s parents work in Jordan, and with tensions in the middle east on the rise, his parents want all of their children as far away from danger as possible.
Within the first week of meeting Adam, Peter has had his first drink, his first kiss, and attended his first drag show. Peter knows he is gay but he has not come out to anyone for fear of getting beaten up or worse. Adam calls what they have together “friendship” and that he wants to be with Peter even though it isn’t “safe” for them to be out. He and his sister need to make a good impression in school, but he spends all of his free time with Peter.
Although Peter has never had a boyfriend, he knows that what they are doing is wrong. He hates lying, and he witnesses how Adam keeps forcing Peter into awful situations where they are both forced to pretend as if they are straight. Adam starts dating a girl “just to be safe” and to “protect” from cruel gossip about the two boys and how close they are. Eventually, Adam confesses that he loves his girlfriend as much as he loves Peter, and that he is sleeping with both of them. But he insists that Peter should not worry because he will always love Peter the most.
This book is heartbreaking. It is also uplifting as Peter finally understands that what Adam doing is wrong and that he needs to get away from him. He sees other men and how they are able to live without the constant lying. As it is the early 90s and the American South, Peter does not believe he can be completely out. However, he does not want to be a part of whatever lies and horrible situations that Adam has constructed in order to maintain the illusion of being completely heterosexual.
This book surprised me in that Peter’s boss, a drag performer named Renee, shows Peter that he is worth more than whatever scraps Adam grants him. The trust gained from this friendship flips the switch in Peter’s head that what Adam is doing to him is unacceptable. By the end of the book, Peter still has a long way to go but he knows he will not play these types of games anymore.
Although this book is set in 1990/1991, the only relevant part the era played in the story was the soundtrack (R.E.M and The Cure), no cell phones, and a brief mention of the invasion of Kuwait in early 1991. If you are looking for a nostalgic romance, there is very little related to early 90’s America.