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Lenaribka

Lenaribka

"We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate."

 

~Henry Miller

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Come Back To Me

Come Back To Me - Edmond Manning
OH MAN(ning)!..

I gave up

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to understand what happened here...

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First of all, for your information:
IT IS NOT A STAND ALONE. You can't read THIS BOOK, if you haven't read the previous books. I don't know who admit that you CAN read the sequels just wild through, how you like. NO, YOU CAN'T. FORGET IT. NO!!!

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It is like to start to watch Game of Thrones from the season #4.
You want to know what this series is about, you have to start with the first book. Period.

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OH MAN(ning)!..


NOW...
I have to talk about what made this book different.
*sigh* And what I didn't like.*sigh*

A little bit of my personal reading history to make you understand my feelings:

I have a special relationship to the first book, King Perry. It belongs to my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS. I love it to pieces. I still remember EVERYTHING I felt while reading it. I remember how I re-read the chapters, just because I WANTED to experience this feeling again and again, even BEFORE I finished the whole book. I want you to know it, BECAUSE I'm not a re-read person at all. To re-read something I haven't yet finished, is not my STYLE. You have to offer me something totally totally special to inspire me for something like this.
King Perry is special for me. This book is one of the reasons WHY I love reading so much.

Later I found out how the kinging works...
Later I understood the concept behind the King Weekend...
Later I learned to accept it...
Later...

Later I found more Vin's secrets...
Later I wanted more answers...
Later I learned to understand Vin...
Later I suffered with Vin...
Later Vin became a horizon...
Later I started to consider myself an experienced Vin's expert (stupid arrogant I)...


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Now...
I wish I skipped the book #5. I could understand what the book#5 is about.

WHO IS this stranger who pretended to be VIN?!

Vin is a shy guy with a very law self-esteem?! HOW could it be true?! You read the previous books, you have to know how King Weekends work. They are an ingenious result of very thoughtful preparations. He had a lot of helpers, people who do a lot of background job for him, and in the most cases not for money. They do it because of Vin. Vin has a magical aura, his personality is magnificent. He is friendly, open, helpful, kind, he is grounded, sensitive, emotional, vulnerable. Yes, he has secrets, disturbing, painful, he had an awful childhood. We learned about Vin's past piece by piece. Every next book revealed a little more of Vin's real personality and a bit more of his dark secrets. And the book #5 is not an exception.

BUT

I just can't accept him as someone with a VERY low self-esteem. Did I interpret totally wrong everything I read about him before.


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Now...
Let's talk about SEX.

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O-kay.

Sharon recommended to lay ready two boxes of Kleenex when you start read it. Because "you will cry yourself dry". Well, I'd recommend it too, but not for the same purpose.

To say that SEX was HOOOOT is a big understatement. Sex scenes were terrifically skilled written and very Kleenexing.
My problem here - Come Back To Me is not a pure gay erotic fiction.
Yes, I know, SEX was always an essential part of King Weekends. And Vin placed great importance on a sexual-emotional connection to his chosen Lost Kings. So why I'm complaining? Why sex became my biggest problem here? It was not SEX itself, it was its purpose. And yes, it was the amount of sex scenes.
Sometimes less is more.

Actually I like a refreshing idea of a new structure. Edmond Manning doesn't stop to surprise me. It is not the structure that irritated me, it is the content of the three main parts.

image No Kings. Why no kings?One can book Vin via Internet to lose your virginity? I like Mark, I'm glad that it was him. But why did he agree? Because Mark was young and attractive?

image King Fitch.
It was the most strange part. I didn't get it. Sex was hot written, but emotionally empty in regard to the story-line.

image King Malcolm The Resorer.
THAT.WAS.WRONG. Even worse was to hear about it in such graphical details at this point in time. I don't want even to discuss this part. Gay Day experience?! ”Let's fuck and then we'll become real brothers.” Sorry, I can't even...


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Edmond Manning is an exceptional writer. He writes like no one else. His stories are unique, his writing is provocative, compelling and beautiful.
Even if I am still trying to gather my thoughts and to find out where the journey brought me, even if I have the biggest issues with this book, I think that this book, in terms of writing, was the best in the series.

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Maybe I have to read it once more to understand the message the author tried to deliver.
Maybe I missed something. Maybe....

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