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Shining in the Sun

by Alex Beecroft (Goodreads Author)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 142 ratings · 24 reviews

Damn it, a man shouldn't always have to be afraid-

Alec Goodchilde has everything a man could want-except the freedom to be himself. Once a year, he motors down to an exclusive yacht club on the Cornish coast and takes the summer off from the trap that is his life.

When his car breaks down, leaving him stranded on the beach, he's transfixed by the sight of a surfer danci

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Kindle Edition, 169 pages

Published (first published April 21st 2010)

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May 01, 2011 Gerry Burnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gerry B's Book Reviews - http://www.gerrycan.wordpress.com

love stories about British, upper middle-class characters. For one thing, they have a style that is both charmingly stodgy and dauntless at the same time. Never mind that that temerity is born out of a seemingly artless smugness because therein lies their charm. That said, author Alex Beecroft has captured this artlessness to perfection in her latest, 14-carat nugget, Shining in the Sun [Samhain Publishing, May 3, 2011]. Moreover, she ha...more Gerry B's Book Reviews - http://www.gerrycan.wordpress.com

love stories about British, upper middle-class characters. For one thing, they have a style that is both charmingly stodgy and dauntless at the same time. Never mind that that temerity is born out of a seemingly artless smugness because therein lies their charm. That said, author Alex Beecroft has captured this artlessness to perfection in her latest, 14-carat nugget, Shining in the Sun [Samhain Publishing, May 3, 2011]. Moreover, she has cleverly contrasted it against an artful beach-bum and petty hustler, so right there you know this is going to be a good read.

Ptolemy Alexander St. John-Goodchilde [you have to love that name] is the young bourgeois: very wealthy, very shy, and saddled with an over protective, domineering mother, and a devoted fiancé. Like every young entrepreneur, however, Alec (his preferred name) likes to get away from his family and the old stock portfolio to spend a month on his yacht, typically named The Lady Jane—a good, solid middle-class name.

Fate had other ideas, however, for when his expensive auto, a Morgan Roadsters, breaks down in a small seaside village he is unexpectedly encountered by a copper-haired surfer god, who—in Alec’s eyes—emerges from the sea like the male version of The Birth of Venus.

Darren is the product of a neglected childhood, abandoned by his father and raised by his grandmother, and as she is now ailing he is taking care of her. To make ends meet, so to speak, he sells his body to rich men with the justification that this is a reciprocal-type of love; they want his body and he wants their financial support.

I must mention here, as well, that Alec’s “chat-up” with Darren, on their first encounter, is one of the most original seduction scenes I have ever read. Alec is so painfully shy and inexperienced, and so unconsciously turned-on by this Coppertone Adonis, that he is pathetically charming about it—so much so that you want to hug him and say, “Just do your thing, baby”—which is what the author intended, I’m sure.

Which segues me into my next point. This is writing at a very sophisticated level. Fundamentally it reads effortlessly, the descriptions are evocative with a creative twist, and both the story line and pace flow along quite nicely. However what really stands out, without being obvious, is the control that makes it a clever story—as apposed to being clichéic; which, with this sort of a scenario could have been. Rather, the characters are complex because of their simplicity, as is the story line, and a happy ending seems only right to cap it off.

This is a superbly written coming-out story with some very clever, unique and original differences. Highly recommended. Five stars.
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Apr 02, 2011 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, kindle-lendable-mm

The writing elevates this (very British) Cinderella story of lonely wealthy upper class gent, Alex Goodchilde finding love with working class, poor man Darren. But these two aren't your average romantic heroes. Alex is a bit of a doormat, an emotional coward (if American he'd do his break ups via text messaging), incredibly naive and a snob while Darren unhesitatingly uses his pretty face to get what he wants, is a bit ethically challenged & is self deluded enough to take offense when he's j...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Elisa Ramblings added it

I love the old fashioned romances, the type where a prince charming is coming to save the virgin damsel, I have even a tag for them, only that, being this a gay romance, it’s a “cinderfella” and not a “cinderella” story; and well, here the damsel is not even virgin, far from it, but the prince charming is perfect, with his slightly resemblance with a notorious English actor of romantic comedies (is this the moment where I confess my secret passion for Hugh Grant? Between him and Colin Firth I do...more I love the old fashioned romances, the type where a prince charming is coming to save the virgin damsel, I have even a tag for them, only that, being this a gay romance, it’s a “cinderfella” and not a “cinderella” story; and well, here the damsel is not even virgin, far from it, but the prince charming is perfect, with his slightly resemblance with a notorious English actor of romantic comedies (is this the moment where I confess my secret passion for Hugh Grant? Between him and Colin Firth I don’t know why I didn’t move in England to find one prince charming myself…)

Shining in the Sun respects all the rules of the cinderfellas stories, but it manages to be original thanks to its characters, that don’t play along the rules. Prince Charming is Ptolemy Alexander St. John-Goodchilde, Alec for short, who is a very wealthy, very shy, mommy boy City of London businessman; a perfect fiancee on the side, an ordinary life for 11 out of 12 months per year, his only rebellion is to take the month of August all for himself, and sailing without purpose on his yacth, the Lady Jane. This year though there was an impediment, and he is waiting for his car to be repaired in some Cornwall tourist trap seaside village when he meets cindefella Darren.

Darren is the neglected son, the one his father left with his grandmother when their mother fled, the one who is now taking care of the ailing woman in the only way he knows, selling his body to rich men. But at least he fouls everyone, and himself, telling that he is in love with those men, that if they hurt him it’s only because it’s their way to express that love, that he is capable of taking care of himself and his grandmother, at least since the day he awakes in an hospital. Like Alec, also Darren has the month of August out, out of his obligations, out of his fears, and if in that month he really sells himself for money, well, then he can always say that it’s only for a month, that he is not really a whore.

Alec doesn’t cruise Darren for sex, and when he sees him, the educated man that is in him makes all sort of classical comparison to prove to himself that is interest for Darren is something ethereal and pure, but he is also quick to use his money to chain Darren to him for at least one afternoon, that then become a night. And even when he is shown the reality, he is quick to find a reason, Darren after all came back, if he has stolen his money, it wasn’t for himself, Darren is proud and sincere, he is the same perfection he saw surfing like some mythical creature.

And Darren is all wounded pride, he is jumping like a spring, or like someone pocked in a place that hurts, because you know that what they said it’s true. Darren is not like those old fashioned heroines who would prefer to die rather than losing their innocence to the hand of a villain, Darren is more like those soiled doves, working in some brothel, but only to maintain an aging mother, or an helpless baby, or some other innocent creature.

Of course Alec is naïve, of course he knows that if not for his money he would have not met Darren; and of course Darren is far from being innocent, and he is interested, and weak, right until the last chapter. Does this make them less perfect characters? I think that indead this makes them the most interesting thing of the novel. Personally I have always found those virgin heroines quite boring, and the perfect hero a bit presumptuous. Who cares that Alec and Darren’s happily ever after depends on Alec’s money? If this means that Darren will have to care not more for money and that Alec has bought his perfect future, well, it will mean also that for once money bought happiness.

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Aug 21, 2010 Justacat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: m-m

Had a hard time with my rating for this one. Writing was superlative, far beyond most m/m books. The setting and sense of place were simply lovely, and I adored the characters and much of the story. For most of this book I intended to rate very highly. But I found the ending - by which I mean primarily the relationship "resolution" - rushed and unsatisfying, far too hasty given the difficulties and angst that are an inherent part of the relationship and the characters. I'd certainly have liked t...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Qwurty rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-bad

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It's a very pretty book, all delicately balanced atmosphere and sonorous, elegaic language: beautiful men falling in love while adversity waits in the background to be triumphed over and this business of finding out you're gay via some very nice sex.

The problem with books like these are they tend to drown in their own prose, so you either get the sense that the author's resolutely not dealing with the bags and bags of issues they've raised, or that they don't know how to and are covering it up...more It's a very pretty book, all delicately balanced atmosphere and sonorous, elegaic language: beautiful men falling in love while adversity waits in the background to be triumphed over and this business of finding out you're gay via some very nice sex.

The problem with books like these are they tend to drown in their own prose, so you either get the sense that the author's resolutely not dealing with the bags and bags of issues they've raised, or that they don't know how to and are covering it up with adjectives. Harper Fox does this with uncanny precision: lovely scenery and the slow bubble of deep emotion twinned with a nothing plot. This book appears to follow that template.

There's Alec's GFY moment, swiftly followed by some soulmate-type conviction -- only unconvincing because, between you and me, Alec is completely wet. There's the promise of betrayal, when Darren steals from Alex, but it's followed by neither reprisal nor consequence. Then there's the dazzling set-up of their class differences -- but no, Alec gets a shock of reality that he reacts badly to but which he immediately recovers from and goes on to overcome without ever once giving the reader a clue as to how it all happens. Alec's overbearing mama gives way like a soggy pudding -- without preamble or warning -- and the final twist in the story is a payoff for injuries received and its acceptance, for some spurious reason or the other.

I'll qualify it all by saying this: the character development is strangely compelling and if I didn't know better, I'd say the author was trying to align the story to it. Alec is pretty feeble and doesn't get much better as time goes by, but he's saved by the consistency of his personality. He doesn't change to suit the circumstances, and I think the honesty of that takes him a long way. It also makes some -- some! -- sense of the wavering storyline.

I'm not sure why the author decided to make this as ambitious as it was. The writing is genuinely beautiful, and they had a strong premise in the class differences plot; the extra stuff made it unwieldy and graceless. In the end ... ... oh I don't know. It was pretty, it was scenic, there was foreshadowing oozing out of every mote of sunlight shining off the steely sea. There were a couple of guys, too. They had challenges.

Recommended, for the pretty.
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Apr 02, 2012 Kaetrin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, m-m-romance

3.5 stars, rounded up.
Moving story about a rich man (Alec) and a poor man (Darren) who are both suffocating in their respective lives. They are both desperately unhappy and both feel powerless to do anything about it. Both see the summer as an opportunity to escape, even if only for a little while, the individual misery of their usual lives. It's a story of how they learn to be brave together and escape that misery and find their freedom for more than just a month. It has its flaws (Alec's first...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Shaz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gfy-ofy, mm

I had some trouble rating this book. On the one hand I really enjoyed it and before I knew it I had it finished. But on the other hand at times the MC's really irritated me...

It is very well written "cinderfella" story; rich businessman meets and falls in love with a very poor surfer boy from the wrong side of the tracks. So, slightly cliche yes, but with a distinct British 'voice' that makes the cliches seem to disappear. The indecisiveness of both MC's was what annoyed me slightly. There were...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Becky Black rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Like it says in the blurb, this story contrasts an idyll and reality. When Alec and Darren meet, they have one perfect day together, but the rest of the story is much more down to earth. It’s like a relationship compressed—appropriately so when they both start out think this will be a summer fling only. There’s a “honeymoon” period—the one perfect day when they meet, ending in what has a feel of a wedding night, especially as it’s Alec’s first time with a man. But even there reality is starting...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Tempura rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 07, 2012 Aleksandr Voinov added it

A trip to the beach when I needed one.

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Sep 22, 2010 Alina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mm-romance

4.25

Like another reviewer said, this book is like an unexpected trip to the beach. While the story is full of angst and misunderstanding and fear, it is still sweet and beautifully written, with realistic characters that are lovable without being too wonderful to be true.

The story was a whirlwind romance in the best of ways, with that initial rush of attraction and sexual thrill that hooked the two protagonists, and then allowed them to really truly make an impact on one another even in their s...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Josephine Myles rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: m-m, romance, contemporary

Alex Beecroft’s first foray into contemporary m/m romance initially conjures up the more touristy view of the county, when privileged rich boy Alec arrives on his annual break from his overbearing family and fiancee. However, we are soon led on an adventure through Cornwall’s less salubrious side when he meets and falls for local lad Darren. Alex Beecroft explores the class conflict with great sensitivity as both young men are exposed to each others’ vastly different worlds.

I love Alex Beecroft’...more

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Dec 11, 2010 Mickie Ashling rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this would be a simple story of a summer romance between a closeted man and a sufter dude. Snort...I should have known better. It's Alex Beecroft, after all. This is a memorable story of self-discovery, passion, understanding, and forgiveness. The writing is beautiful and Ms. Beecroft captured and held my attention throughout the entire book. I can honestly say I didn't skim through a single page. This is a great read and one I would highly recommend.

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Oct 05, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, romance, gay, ebook, owned, done

Very good m/m romance about a wealthy British businessman (so deeply closeted he's never considered that he might be gay) who escapes on his yacht for a month every summer so he can get away from his mother, his fiance, and his other obligations. When he sees a gorgeous surfer on the beach, everything starts to change for him.

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Jul 12, 2010 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m

I've been a fan of Alex Beecroft for a while now and was really excited when I heard she was doing a contemporary setting with her latest. I wasn't disappointed at all. My emotions were twisted every which way and I couldn't have loved the characters more. The writing, as always with Beecroft, is excellent here.

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May 05, 2013 Gwen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m-romance

This is no easy one-day-read but definitely worth it. The language is very lyrical and vivid, so even the most mundane things make the reader stop and take notice.

That´s all I guess, just wanted to say that this is book is a beautiful read but be prepared to look up a few words ;)

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Jul 05, 2010 Leslie Nicoll rated it 5 of 5 stars

Alex Beecroft's first foray into writing a contemporary story. I thought this was terrific...I felt like I was at the shore with Alec. Alex brought the scene and the people to life, as she always does, with her beautiful prose. Definitely recommended.

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Nov 16, 2012 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unrealistic scenario

characters were very one dimensional,

relationships were all borderline abusive

the 'hot sex scene' touted on the back cover was tepid at best

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Oct 02, 2010 Norma added it

Shelves: m-m

DNF. I may go back eventually, but for now the characters weren't doing it for me.

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May 10, 2012 Robin Covington rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: romance-reads, m-m

Wonderfully tender and emotional!

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Jul 15, 2010 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great beach read from one of my favorite authors, I really enjoyed this book.

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Aug 13, 2012 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, read-in-2012

More like 2.5 stars.

I found both of the main characters annoying and unlikable. As for the rest...I mean, if you don't like the main characters how are you supposed to like the book in general? Well, like many others here, I did appreciate the writing. Sometimes an author goes overboard with the descriptions, but I felt like Alex Beecroft got it just right. I felt like I could see everything she described. That portion of the book was really wonderful.

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Jul 11, 2012 Beccafh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love how Alec and Darren are both beta heroes. They felt very real. I especially loved the scene when they visit Darren's grandmother, and how the things that Alec sees are totally different from Darren's perspective.

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Nov 07, 2011 Joy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m

A wealthy young man escapes his domineering mother and fiancee on a beach trip where he becomes infatuated with a young surfer/ hustler. Love ensues. This was sweet for an m/m romance, very well done.

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May 22, 2013 Mitch marked it as to-read

May 06, 2013 Acepmbm Hamdanislb rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 03, 2013 Quirkythrope marked it as to-read

May 03, 2013 Surrealys marked it as to-read

May 02, 2013 Rainsu rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apr 26, 2013 Sumire_k rated it 5 of 5 stars

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About Alex Beecroft

Spaceships and galaxy spanning empires, conversations with angels, viking villages, haunted mansions and forbidden love in the Age of Sail... I love a good strong plot in an exotic setting, with characters you can admire, and a happy ending.

If you make a venn diagram of genres, including historical, fantasy, gay romance and mystery, I occupy the space in the middle where they overlap.

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Quotes from Shining in the Sun

“He looked like a man who was turning into paper, folding himself into origami angles, fragile and friable and prone to crumple.” — 2 people liked it

“So close now, Alec could read the make on his wetsuit, see the individual grains of sand that dusted
the black material, the drops of water trembling on the points of his hair. Now or never. But Alec couldn‟t,
couldn’t. Could he?
He stood up. “Stop!” His mouth dried out as the surfer‟s dark, dark green eyes looked into his, startled
and curious. Suddenly he felt an absolute fool. He was inviting a good kicking, at least. But damn it, a man
couldn‟t always be afraid.
“Don‟t go past. Please. Sit down and drink with me. If you go past… If you go past, I think I‟ll die.” — 1 person liked it

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