Review: An Infatuation & A Shooting Star by Joe Cosentino (In My Heart #1-#2)
Note: These ebooks were provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
An Infatuation and A Shooting Star are both novellas belonging to the In My Heart series penned by Joe Cosentino, who just happens to be a new-to-me author. These titles are available as individual ebooks or packaged together as a paperback. Because they're part of the same series and they're quickie reads, I'm consolidating my review to cover both. Think of this as a review for the paperback, if that helps, not that this review is meant to be confusing.
An Infatuation is a bittersweet story that plays out over two decades. It's about missed opportunities and how things work out a certain way for one reason or another, whether it be due to fate or choices made. It's told from the first-person point-of-view of Harold High, whose first love while in high school was Mario Ginetti and who is now happily married to Stuart. That doesn't mean, however, that he still doesn't think about the one he loved first.
We see how Harold and Mario first meet and become friends twenty years prior. While Harold is more comfortable with his sexuality, Mario isn't and he's in absolute denial of being bisexual, what more being gay and having feelings for his best friends. They part ways, but their lives do intersect a couple of times over the next few years. It's at their tenth-year high school reunion, however, where Harold may have to choose between Stuart and Mario.
Harold tells his story with a great deal of candor and it's pretty clear early on that Stuart trusts him implicitly, just as it's not a secret how much Harold still feels for Mario. Aaaaand I'm ending that there. I refuse to give you anything more than that with as far as this story is concerned. Suffice it to say that while it inspired me to smile more than once, it also had my heart clenching in empathy several times. I desperately needed a tissue by the end.
In the second novella, A Shooting Star, we have Jonathan Bello, who achieves a milestone only a small percentage of other actors have reached--winning an Academy Award. His thoughts turn to the person who he considers his greatest love, David Star, the same man who inspired him to become the man and actor that he is two decades later. Just like the heavenly body, Jonathan's David Star shined bright, but Jonathan discovers it belies his dark past.
Readers get the best seat in the house as Jonathan and David's love story unfolds. David seems to be exactly what Jonathan needs, but that doesn't mean that the man was perfect. He had a heck of a lot of faults as well, but he was good to and for Jonathan. As a side note, their story is also witnessed and shared to an extent by Barry Goldman, and he's the kind of amazing peripheral character that you can't help but wish actually exists in real life.
Both An Infatuation and A Shooting Story share certain similarities--most of the story is told in flashbacks, there's an almost necessary and much appreciated amount of humor present, and the fact that the series is part of the publisher's Bittersweet Dreams line is a forewarning that shouldn't be ignored. Another commonality? These two novellas rank high on my ratings system, earning five stars apiece. I am forever thankful Joe Cosentino reached out. ♥
An Infatuation is a bittersweet story that plays out over two decades. It's about missed opportunities and how things work out a certain way for one reason or another, whether it be due to fate or choices made. It's told from the first-person point-of-view of Harold High, whose first love while in high school was Mario Ginetti and who is now happily married to Stuart. That doesn't mean, however, that he still doesn't think about the one he loved first.
We see how Harold and Mario first meet and become friends twenty years prior. While Harold is more comfortable with his sexuality, Mario isn't and he's in absolute denial of being bisexual, what more being gay and having feelings for his best friends. They part ways, but their lives do intersect a couple of times over the next few years. It's at their tenth-year high school reunion, however, where Harold may have to choose between Stuart and Mario.
Harold tells his story with a great deal of candor and it's pretty clear early on that Stuart trusts him implicitly, just as it's not a secret how much Harold still feels for Mario. Aaaaand I'm ending that there. I refuse to give you anything more than that with as far as this story is concerned. Suffice it to say that while it inspired me to smile more than once, it also had my heart clenching in empathy several times. I desperately needed a tissue by the end.
In the second novella, A Shooting Star, we have Jonathan Bello, who achieves a milestone only a small percentage of other actors have reached--winning an Academy Award. His thoughts turn to the person who he considers his greatest love, David Star, the same man who inspired him to become the man and actor that he is two decades later. Just like the heavenly body, Jonathan's David Star shined bright, but Jonathan discovers it belies his dark past.
Readers get the best seat in the house as Jonathan and David's love story unfolds. David seems to be exactly what Jonathan needs, but that doesn't mean that the man was perfect. He had a heck of a lot of faults as well, but he was good to and for Jonathan. As a side note, their story is also witnessed and shared to an extent by Barry Goldman, and he's the kind of amazing peripheral character that you can't help but wish actually exists in real life.
Both An Infatuation and A Shooting Story share certain similarities--most of the story is told in flashbacks, there's an almost necessary and much appreciated amount of humor present, and the fact that the series is part of the publisher's Bittersweet Dreams line is a forewarning that shouldn't be ignored. Another commonality? These two novellas rank high on my ratings system, earning five stars apiece. I am forever thankful Joe Cosentino reached out. ♥
Date Read: 21 August 2017
Learn more about Joe Cosentino.
Comments
Post a Comment