Ratings7
Average rating3.6
Robert Merivel is a dissolute young medical student when an accident of fate leads him to the attention of King Charles II. Finding favour with the King, Merivel embarks on the time of his life, enthusiastically enjoying the luxury, women and wine of the vibrant royal court, until he is called upon to serve his monarch in an unusual role. However, when he fails at the one thing the King demands of him he is cast out from his new-found paradise. Determined to be restored to the King's favour, Merivel begins a journey to self-knowledge that takes him to the depths of seventeenth-century society.
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3 primary booksRestoration is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1989 with contributions by Rose Tremain, A.M. Arthur, and Terri Blackstock.
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To begin with I loved this book, but I was bored with it by the end.
3,5 Stars
I received this as a freebie in exchange for an honest review. The review can be found on my blog as well
The story is about Nate and Jamie, two best friends. Nathan is a cop and straight as they come - or so they all think. Jay is gay and nurses his unrequited love for Nate by sleeping with as many guys as possible.
One night Jay tries to drown his problems in alcohol, because the man who abused his sister got out of jail. He calls Nate after almost doing something extremely stupid because of the alcohol and they end up at Nate's place.
As you probably all guessed correctly this is a gay for you, best friends turned lovers story (altough at the samee time it really is nit, but I'll come to that later). So -how else could it be?- they end up kissing and Nate comes to the conclusion that he might not be as straight as he claims to be and feelings resurface which he long thought dealt with.
But, of course they can't be happily together that easy.
The next morning, Jay doesn't remember a thing about the kiss and when Nate confesses his long and well buried feelings for Jay, his best friend claims in a moment of panic that he doesn't share that attraction, afraid of losing their precious friendship.
The reconciliation has to wait quite a while because Nate gets attacked by some psycho while investigating a serial murder case.
The wounds, the physical ad psychological ones are severe.
As soon as Jay hears what happened he hurries to the hospital, but Nate refuses to see him.
Shell shocked, Jay has to wait months before Nate suddenly shows up at his doorstep.
My feelings about this book are mixed. It is not your typical gay for you story. There's a good dash of psychological problems and addiction as well as some crime thrown in for good measure. I liked the deep understanding the two had for each other and the smexy times were really sexy. The change of POV was sometimes kind of irritating,without a bigger paragraph to warn me, leaving me confused until I realised that I saw the story from a different POV. But maybe that was just my kindle app being a pain in the ass again because the page numeration was all over the place as well which made it kind of unpleasant to read at times.
The crime part kind of dissatisfied me. The end seemed a bit rushed and not entirely comprehensible.Besides that I thought that it was a bit too dramatic at times. Or should I rather say too many dramatic things going on at the same time?
At the beginning I thought the sorry would be too sweet and sappy for me, but I soon realised that sweetness was more of an underlying thing in the book when the author gave you a break from the misery of Jay's patients and all their other problems (I don't want to say too much because that would take the surprise effect of the book away).
It was a nice read and I can especially recommend it if you're also interested in psychological stuff.
As the author expected, not everyone would agree with him. While he quoted from mishnah, mentions the oral law, gamara etc -I don't hold this to such regard as he does- he has some points that are worth considering. If you are willing to do a lot of thinking, read the Bible in the context and compare what he says with its truth, you might find it useful to read.