Book Review--Freeman

Title: Freeman
Author: Clare London
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, suspense
Pages: 228
Cover art: Not explicit, but people can probably guess what you’re reading if they care enough to notice

Book jacket blurb: Freeman’s return to the city is quiet, without fuss—the way he likes things. But he’s missed by more people than he thought: his ex-wife, and his ex-business partner. One wants friendship, another one intimacy. The third wants him the hell gone again.

Freeman—private, controlled—hasn’t time or appetite for trouble. But, when he strikes up an unusual, ill-advised friendship with young, lively, amoral Kit, it seems trouble’s come looking for both men, ready to expose secrets that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve built. Freeman’s more ready for the challenge than anyone realizes when the choice comes down to peace or Kit’s life.

Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.



I bought this book because I’d seen it positively reviewed on a couple of sites. I hadn’t followed my own advice—I hadn’t looked up the author first and sampled her work. I just bought it and gave it a shot. I wasn’t even halfway through it before I stopped and hunted her down, found her lj, fangirled her and friended her, and then stuck several more of her books on my Amazon wish list. I’m waiting for True Colors now. The mailman is probably wondering why I keep glaring at him.

What I liked: I’m going to try to tell you what I liked about this book, why I’d recommend it, without going all spoilery: I am a big, giant sucker for fan of characters who really need taking care of, and not only think they don’t, but won’t allow it. Kit is a kid, compared to Freeman—all lanky and underfed, dark hair and big, blue eyes, thinks he’s worldly and just isn’t—who talks a good game that even he doesn’t really believe, and is so urgently in need of rescue that I wanted to charge into the story and take him home, install him in my guestroom and feed him until he begged me to stop cooking. And yet, the kid’s got to be tough as nails to have survived as long as he has, doing what he’s doing.

Freeman’s character is handled extraordinarily well, and it took me a while to understand what I was seeing, which impressed me even more. Because the entire story is told in Freeman’s POV, in the first-person, and the reader still doesn’t gain any insight that Freeman doesn’t want to give. I don’t know if I can communicate what I mean, and why it impressed me so much. It’s not that the author withholds information or history; it’s that Freeman himself doesn’t think about things he doesn’t want to think about, so the people that he sees around him are less of a mystery to the reader than he is. His story unravels naturally, with everything analyzed exactly when it needs to be analyzed and not before, exposed when he’s forced to face it and not a moment sooner.

The plot was well-rounded and believable. The secondary characters were interesting and vivid. I was especially pleased to see a decent female character, which you can’t always get in a story focused on a m/m relationship. No stereotypical, vindictive ex-wife harpy here. In fact, there was very little that was stereotypical or blatantly tropey in the entirety of the story. I was kept guessing, which hardly ever happens.

Watching the characters come together was… I wish I could come up with a better word than ‘sweet’. But it was. Freeman being all noble and Kit trying not to screw up the one friendship he’s managed to find, and there’s covert protection thrown in for good measure. I really rooted for them. And then I scowled and said, ‘Nooooooo!’ and then I won’t tell you what I did after that, because that would be spoilery. ;)

Nitpicks: Not many. I’m not a huge fan of stories told in the first-person, but this author pulled it off so well that I stopped noticing it only a few pages in. There was one point in the story where I found myself wrinkling my brow, thinking, ‘Um… okay, why are we pausing for a chat right now?’ but it quickly picked back up, and I happily moved along with it. In other words: a tiny stumble, not an actual speed-bump.

The elephant in the room: Yes, there was sex. And yes, it was done well. It was a natural part of the story, and not something thrown in to take it from a PG-13 to an R. And I never got the feeling that one of them was a girl with extra plumbing. ;)

Worth the $15.00? Yes. For me, anyway. It’s one I will pick up and read again, and probably again, and it introduced me to an author I now consider a ‘go to’ author, so I deem the money well spent. Plus, the author has said she’s been poking about a sequel, and I’m all for following characters I know and love through a series.

Where you can buy:

Ebook: $6.99 at MLR Press

Paperback: $14.99 ($10.74 new/used) at Amazon

FYI: Authors receive a greater royalty percentage when a book is purchased through the publisher. I’m certainly not telling anyone not to buy from a major outlet, because the majority of my own purchases are made through the used section of Amazon; I’m just relaying information I didn’t know myself until I signed my first contract.


Cross-posted to LiveJournal