Texas Heat

when i buy a book in the "gay erotica" category, i expect it to feature gay characters, and some form of sex between them, or at least major amounts of heat. and unless i know it's erotica written by men for men who're mostly looking for wank material, i also expect a HFN or HEA ending. this book has none of the above. the protagonist swears he's not gay, and while that's usually the preamble for a gay-for-you story, or an admission that ok, so he might be bi, here it isn't. there's no sex, just a few hard-ons and kisses, and they're not particularly erotic. there's no happy ending, and not even a Happy-for-now; he still wants to marry some girl who is a virgin, and doesn't get involved with the guy he's attracted to even though that guy is attracted to him. i'd give it more than one star if the story were otherwise interesting, but it reads like a boring diary of a boring person. there's no self-reflection, no thought about why he's attracted to the other guy, why in fact all his close relationships are with guys, and what that might mean; he just plods on with the same nebulous goal. blain's blood doesn't boil; it barely moves. there's also no pacing to the story -- which in retrospect almost makes sense since nothing happens in it, so what would we be pacing ourselves for. instead we spend a lot of time on details about feeding livestock on a farm (and don't tell me they really use hay for bedding in texas instead of straw), on workouts at the gym, and blain buys a computer, yay.