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MM Good Book Reviews - Thommie's Books

I'm a crazy chick who somehow ended up a volunteer reviewer for Miss Portia de Moncur. I read m/m books and review them as honestly and passionately as I can.

The Bell Tower of St. Barnabas - Alice Keats 3.5 Stars
Review written for MM Good Book Reviews
http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com/

This was a very, very sweet and romantic story. A story about love and friendship, courage and strength, a story about knowing what you want and reaching out for it no matter what. This was a fairytale, yeah, it even had a fairy. And that’s where I’m going to start.

Emmeline is a little fairy who grants young desperate teenagers their Valentine’s Wish to be with the one they love. The catch is, it has to be their true love or the wish can’t be granted. Every year at the Academy of St. Barnabas, on the night of Valentine’s Day, Emmeline listens to many wishes. This year Gabriel reaches to her, wishing to for his best friend, Caleb.

Gabriel has long ago been in love with Caleb. Once kindergarten friends, Caleb always wore the role of his protector when bullies came along. With the passing of the years Gabriel grew stronger, beautiful and very popular, no longer in need of a protector, but his heart had a mind of its own and the hopeless love he felt for Caleb, he was certain would never be reciprocated. He still made that wish.

And now Caleb is faced with Emmeline. His astonishment is beyond words when she tells him he’s someone’s true love and had to go and fess up. Hell, Caleb doesn’t even know who the “girl” is. After a blind set-up Caleb is faced with his best friends feelings and forced to claim that he too loves him back even if at the moment he has no idea what he’s feeling.

Life dramatically changes for Caleb. One moment he’s a normal guy, the next he’s involved with his best friend and if he has to be honest there are things inside him, crawling under his skin and not all of them are creepy…
But Caleb has a fight to earn. A fight with his emotions, a fight with people’s expectations and in the end a fight for his own heart. One thing is for certain, when Gabriel breaks up with him Caleb does not want things to go back the way they were...

As I said this is an overly sweet, hopelessly romantic and too close to a fairytale story. If you read this with that mindset then you will enjoy it. The boys were adorable, their feeling those of teenagers, full with everlasting hope and drama. The sentimentalism was not amiss either going high and low as only teenagers can manage.

I did have a strong negative reaction to Emmeline, the fairy, or at least at her doings. The very fact that she literally blackmailed Caleb to confess love to a person he didn’t knew was horrible for me. At that point this whole story reminded me too much of yaoi, without it actually being yaoi at all. But that all forcing someone’s love was a bit too much for me. Of course it had its purpose, still it had me reeling.

Never the less, I quite enjoyed this one, it was fresh and different. And if you’re the ever hopelessly romantic kind you will definitely love it.

Thommie