I like my romances - gay, straight, or otherwise - romantic. This is grim and nasty. To Oxfam with it! ( )

Plotty and dramatic historical romance that moves from a Dorset countryhouse to Venice to London prison in the 1820s. I don't think I particularly liked any of the characters, with the possible exception of Fleury, but on the whole, this was nice easy reading for an afternoon in the park. ( )

What a terific story...A great house, a family dispossessed. A sensitive young man comes to tutor the master's son ...and epic love grows. Set in the post-Naploeonic years of the 1820's--STANDISH is the name of the great house and the young man who yearns to re-claim it. One man discovering his sexuality and the other, struggling to overcome his traumatic past. Well written with characters that are beautifully developed. It is the passioned story of Ambrose Standish, who has dreams of living in the great house his grandfather lost in a card game, who meets Rafe Goshawk the new landowner, and their greatlove story begins. Their meeting sets them on a path of desire, betrayal and heartbrake. I loved this book, Highly recommended. ( )

Standish is a beautiful manor house that looms large in the minds of the remnants of the Standish family who now live almost in its shadow. Ambrose Standish has grown up knowing only of the loss of Standish by his grandfather in a game of cards. His father raised him to be a gentleman-scholar with knowledge of no trade or profession, so now Ambrose and his sisters are struggling to survive. When he hears that the descendant of the evil Goshawk family who 'stole' the house and living from him is finally coming to live in the manor, he's prepared to hate him. Unfortunately, Rafe Goshawk is in need of a tutor for his young son and Ambrose is qualified for nearly nothing else and desperately needs the income.

Ambrose, young and sheltered and innocent, is also unprepared to resist the worldly, powerful, wealthy, sardonic Rafe Goshawk, who attracts male lovers easily and is determined to conquer the unsuspecting Ambrose. Rafe, a man who seems to have everything and who is at the top of his game, has a dark and troubled past that still rears its head in nightmares and will affect his future life and relationships. And, indeed, trouble is ahead, through travel to the Continent and back to the depths of an English prison.

The setting is the Regency, but this is far from a comedy of manners. The tone and the style of the writing feels very old fashioned. Ambrose is sometimes a bit too much the Victorian woman in peril, but his character does mature, thankfully. Rafe is a compelling hero, almost a romantic stereotype of an alpha-male rake, but with tragic flaws. His emotional story actually makes internal sense, his actions understandable in some ways, but also incomprehensible in other respects. The style and the characterization have their appeal if you like darker, somewhat gothic, tales and drama between emotionally damaged characters. I don't mind this, but it did seem to put the story and the characters at a distance and keep me from becoming wholly sympathetic to them. The tale does remain enough of an interesting page-turner, particularly to those who love a nineteenth-century sensibility, along with the more modern inclusion of sex scenes-- and can stand some non-consenting sex-- all male/male, and a fair bit of angst. ( )

Ambrose Standish still lives on the land of the great house his grandfather lost in a card game, dreaming of one day taking it back. The house is owned now by the Goshawk family, however they have left it empty till, of course, now. Rafe Goshawk moves in with his son, much to the ire of Ambrose. He proceeds to hate Rafe, despite having to accept a job as the son's tutor, while Rafe becomes enamored with Ambrose's physical beauty and the challenge presented by the man's clear hatred for him and decides to seduce him.

From the beginning clearly this book was not incredibly substantial stuff, but with all the raving reviews on Amazon, I was hoping it would at least be some nice entertainment. Clearly it is for many, but unfortunately I'm finding reception my vary greatly depending on what kinds of things you find entertaining.

I can be a bit of a sucker for hate turning to love stories, so that path had some potential for me, though I found Rafe's desire to seduce a man who hates him just for the fun of it rather unappealing. I was willing to wait it out till his feelings became a little less tainted, though. As it turns out, I did not have to wait long, though the outcome was not exactly desirable, either.

Rafe and Ambrose meet I believe around the 25 page mark. By 30 pages later, they are madly in love with one another. This comes about when Rafe is injured falling off a horse, through a hurt/comfort sequence of such unimaginative and rushed execution I would have sworn it was stolen from fanfiction (even if the prose is perhaps a little more detailed than what you might find in such things). Almost instantaneously, Ambrose comes to realize that he loves Rafe (who I believe must have done something besides lay in bed looking vulnerable in order to make Ambrose change his feelings towards him, like, say, TALK TO THE GUY, thought the actual exposition does nothing to suggest this), whilst Rafe's desire for wicked seduction is replaced by real love.

The two come to an understanding quickly, and for the rest of the book I read (I got half way through), the two spend their time being sappy and spouting lines like, “I adore you. What we have is nothing that anyone has had before. Divine. Eternal. Nothing, nothing shall part us. I swear to you.” There are complications in the form of the former lovers of Rafe, one of which is simply a villain and the other who I suppose could have made things interesting, but I get the feeling will not be allowed to.

If you enjoy reading fanfiction (or any stories, I suppose) where characters are nothing but concentrated balls of love, devotion, sap, and jealousy and where all plot developments are simply vehicles by which the characters may be made to feel any or all of these emotions to even higher extremes, you'll probably adore this. ...I know you're out there, so have at it. ^_^ Otherwise, there's probably nothing here for you. ( )