Review of Talker by Amy Lane

Amy Lane
Talker
Dreamspinner Press, 2010

Backblurb:
Tate "Talker" Walker has spent most of his life hiding his scars under a bright punk facade, and until he sat next to Brian Cooper on a bus, it worked. But Brian has spent his whole life being the invisible man, and he's used to looking below the surface. What he sees in Talker is a fragile and lovable human being.
Brian is outwardly straight, but Talker is desperate for love, and when Talker's behavior leads to some painful consequences, Brian is forced to come out of his closet—in dramatic fashion. He'll do anything to make sure Talker sees that he's the Prince Charming Talker has always needed.

Genre & Keywords:
M/M, Contemporary, College, Coming Out, Scarred, Music

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Heat level: 2 out of 3 flames
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Why I read it:
I received a review copy from the publisher

Talker is a touching and sweet love story about two young guys for whom life hasn’t been easy. Brian is an orphan and Tate is scarred badly because of an accident. Both are rather lonely and meeting each other brings an end to their loneliness as they become best friends and roommates. Tate is the talker while Brian is the quiet type, and Tate is openly gay while Brian seems to be straight.

The story is told from Brian’s point of view, in third person. With the help of flashbacks we learn about how they met and became friends - so the story jumps back and forth between ‘then’ and ‘now’, especially in the beginning. After some initial getting used to it, it’s actually a clever way to give the characters more history and depth without it taking too much time/pages. The character depth and development made this novella stand out in a positive way for me. I really enjoyed these rather unusual characters and their growing relationship.
Love for music did play an important part in it btw and I loved the choice of music. It fitted the characters so well. (I happen to know who had a part in that *cough*Chris*cough*).

Their love story is a Gay For You one. Brian is coming to realize he feels attracted to Tate and with the help of his ex-girlfriend Virginia he finds the courage to come out of the closet he didn’t realize he was in. The interesting part of this GFY storyline is that Brian has not only come to terms with being gay, he also has to work hard to convince Tate that he’s in love with him. Scarred as Tate is, physically and mentally, he doesn’t believe Brian on his word. I like the role Brian’s ex-girlfriend and aunt played in this. The outcome is convincing and lovely because the author did a wonderful job to convey the feelings and emotions of her characters.

I think Ms Lane wrote with Talker a rather unique love story, with intriguing and moving characters, which had me engrossed and invested from the beginning. It’s a well written, character driven novella and entertaining as such. It even made me sniff at one point and I completely and utterly fell in love with these guys. If you’re looking for a sweet and compelling love story with unforgettable heroes, I highly recommend reading this book. And let’s hope that we’ll see more of Brian and Tate in a future book…

Favorite quote:

As he walked out of the bathroom, though, he heard Tate start to sing “And our love would have soared, over treetops over rooftops.…” to himself, and Brian wanted to turn around and hug him just for that alone.
Oh God, he’d missed hearing Talker sing.

Linking:
Amy Lane’s website | weblog | Goodreads
Buy Talker here

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