Review: Speak Its Name (alt romance)

Romance deals with relationships, and erotic romance is no different—only hotter, sexier and more graphically appealing to romance readers who want to explore all aspects of a developing relationship.

I take the view that a romance novel's relationship should be between two people (because more than two usually make for a crowd in my opinion) but gender neutral. Now, strictly speaking, I enjoy reading gay romance, but not lesbian romance. Take that to mean whatever you will, but I've always been pretty sure it has something to do with my fascination for the male psyche. When I read a book, if the hero is worthy, I'm going to enjoy the book even if the heroine is anything but. I love heroes. Always have, probably always will.

What all that means is that when I read gay romance I'm going to enjoy those that do a good job of fulfilling my female fantasies of what it's like for two men to fall in love with each other.

Earlier this week I read Speak Its Name by Charlie Cochrane, Lee Rowan, and Erastes.

This “trilogy” contains three historical gay romance novellas. All three stories are written with a strong flavor of the historical. Aftermath by Charlie Cochrane is set in 1920 and is a very tame romance between two college students, one who has no real experience with love and the other who has followed through with the act but who can't seem to tamp down his feelings of shame and recrimination. It's a slow build up leading to Edward and Hugh falling in love.

Gentleman's Gentleman by Lee Rowan is a bit of a mystery set in 1891. Jack has been in love with his once commanding officer in the British army turned employer for years when a certain job causes certain things to come to light. This was a lighthearted story that left me smiling.

My favorite story from Speak Its Name was Hard and Fast by Erastes. Not only is the setting one of my preferred historical settings (Regency England), there was a lot more development of the physical relationship between the two heroes than happened in either of the two previous stories. Also, the tension between Geoffrey and Adam kept me reading. I fell in love with this story and will probably read it again at some point. (I'm the girl who has boxes of “traditional” regency romance novels tucked away. Other than the fact that the two main characters just happened to be men, this story read like one of those beloved regency romance novels—except for the bit of sex!)

If just the idea of two men getting it on is sexy to you then you'll find these stories erotic, otherwise, they're all a little tame and more reminiscent of standard romance novels than anything especially erotic. Speak Its Name is a great read, but it lacks the flavor of true erotic romance. If that doesn't matter to you, then I suggest you give this one a try. I certainly enjoyed it.

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