March 26

Tigers and Devils
by Sean Kennedy

OK, let me say right up front that I never thought I would be promoting a male-male romance novel, but this one is more than worthy of recommendation. Set in Melbourne, home of Australian Rules football, it’s about a budding relationship between a football star named Declan Tyler and a gay film festival organizer, Simon. Author Sean Kennedy can write dialogue with the best of them. The book contains some of the wittiest exchanges between characters I’ve encountered, and the plot is believable (unlike most gay romances) and engaging. There’s hot gay sex, but it’s not explicit, and certainly not the focus of this story. Noteworthy is the attention given to the development of the secondary characters. Kennedy’s incisive writing manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, honest, poignant and realistic all at the same time.

Plot summary: Simon is dragged to a party by his friends (a straight couple), where he encounters a star football player (Declan Tyler). Simon was unaware that the athlete had overheard him speaking in defense of him. Declan had suffered a horrendous year of injuries, and the public was taking him to task for it. Declan follows Simon out of the party to pursue him, steals a kiss and asks to get together for coffee, to the astonishment of both Simon and his friends. The story is about the difficulty of maintaining a relationship between a closeted sports celebrity (frequent team travel and a nosy press), with an “out” professional working in the arts. Keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret from well-meaning friends and a suspicious media drives the plot.

I don’t want to go all over the top or anything, but let it be entered into the record that I read this book twice. I was sorry when I finished, because I wanted to spend more time with the characters. It is interesting to note that, aside from Simon and Declan, there are remarkably few gay characters. While there is neither a fairytale nor tragic ending, Kennedy leaves us satisfied with the realistic conclusion (not so easy to accomplish).

Sean Kennedy was born in 1975 in Melbourne, Australia, but currently lives in Perth. His writing is published by Dreamspinner Press.

Be forewarned that the print edition uses a tiny font size, and professional editing is lacking (the misuse of “further” for “farther”, “me” for “I” and so forth). The Australian lingo takes some getting used to: “lounge” for living room, for example, and colorful but heretofore unencountered phrases such as “bog off to the pub.”

363 pages. Available in paperback and Kindle editions.

Click on the link for details of purchase options:
http://www.amazon.com/Tigers-Devils-Sean-Kennedy/dp/1935192450