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Cobalt: Tattered Remains
It's been a pretty rough couple of years for Derrick. He's won his battle with cancer, but lost his lover, first as a symptom of the disease, and then to death, followed up by the death of Kacey, a close friend during cancer treatment.
Lane's also had a rough time of it, his now ex-lover using him for his money before having a car accident and trying to lay the blame at Lane's feet. Not to mention the death of his sister Kacey. The two men first meet at Kacey's funeral, where they discover she's still interfering in both of their lives, even from the grave. Will the little boy she left them be able to help them deal with their pasts and bridge the gap between them?
Lane's also had a rough time of it, his now ex-lover using him for his money before having a car accident and trying to lay the blame at Lane's feet. Not to mention the death of his sister Kacey. The two men first meet at Kacey's funeral, where they discover she's still interfering in both of their lives, even from the grave. Will the little boy she left them be able to help them deal with their pasts and bridge the gap between them?
- GenresM M Romance
97 pages, ebook
First published May 1, 2010
21 people want to read
About the author
Nerine Petros
3 books25 followersM/M Erotic Romance eBook Author...putting the thunder in Down Under ;)...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 16, 2011
It was difficult to rate this story, as Derrick definitely deserved 4 or 4.5 stars, whereas if I had to rate it on Lane, it would have been a 2. Derrick has had such hard hits to his life, all in a row - getting cancer, losing a testicle to it and enduring chemo, losing the pond-scum boyfriend that he had loved, finding and then losing his beloved friend Kasey, and then at her funeral finding out he has joint guardianship of Kasey's son, Nathan, with Kasey's estranged brother Lane. I'm not sure if Lane is supposed be presented as "I'm not worthy, so I'll be unlikeable" or if Lane is really just an asshat. He comes across as well. He claims to be not good enough for Derrick, so excusing his behavior of pushing Derrick away after leading him on, saying hurtful things and going out on dates, though he can see how much it affects Derrick. Also, when they do get their together moment, it takes a huge life scare for Derrick to make it happen, Derrick has to make all admissions first, and Derrick has to adjust. Lane claims most of the dates were made up, and that even the ones he had, he didn't sleep with them. Unfortunately, I didn't believe it, because at one point Derrick is stuck listening to all the moaning. Lane equals idiot. I was happy for Derrick at the end, and hoping that Lane has put the asshat aside and can now be the man he should have been all along.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 2, 2011
2.25 stars
This was an okay read, though it could have been a lot better if the plot didn't skip such huge time periods. We also never really get to see them work through their problems. They just hold them all inside and then poof! the minute they tell the other about their feelings everything is hunky-dory. I mean, one guy almost went to prison because his gold-digger twink boyfriend wrecked his car while drunk and then tried to pin it on him, and the other has gone through a trifecta of loss: he gets cancer, his lover leaves him for a man in the waiting room at the hospital, his lover and new boy toy then die, and then his best friend dies. That's a lot of issues to never need to work through together.
Still, I enjoyed reading the story and I liked Derrick quite a lot. I just wish it hadn't been riddled with so many issues that were mentioned and then never addressed.
This was an okay read, though it could have been a lot better if the plot didn't skip such huge time periods. We also never really get to see them work through their problems. They just hold them all inside and then poof! the minute they tell the other about their feelings everything is hunky-dory. I mean, one guy almost went to prison because his gold-digger twink boyfriend wrecked his car while drunk and then tried to pin it on him, and the other has gone through a trifecta of loss: he gets cancer, his lover leaves him for a man in the waiting room at the hospital, his lover and new boy toy then die, and then his best friend dies. That's a lot of issues to never need to work through together.
Still, I enjoyed reading the story and I liked Derrick quite a lot. I just wish it hadn't been riddled with so many issues that were mentioned and then never addressed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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April 27, 2012I'm having a hard time deciding on a rating for this one because, on the one hand, I really enjoyed it, but on the other, thinking about it made it all kind of fall apart for me.
We meet Derrick in the cancer treatment center, where he's undergoing chemo for testicular cancer. His dear friend Kacey is someone he met here, where she's also undergoing chemo, for breast cancer. Kacey has a 4YO son named Nathan & is a single mom. Basically, as soon as the story begins, Derrick's long-term boyfriend, with whom he's been trying to figure out how to adopt a child, comes in, basically says, "Dude, I don't wanna be with a sick person, I don't want a kid, I met a new guy and you're on your own," and then leaves. Cue a month later, ex is dead, along with new boyfriend, having indulged in drunk driving and getting up-close-and-personal with a lamp post. He never changed his will, so everything goes to Derrick; kind of a mixed blessing I'm sure as it leaves Derrick completely set for the rest of his life, no need to work or anything.
Next up comes Lane, Kacey's estranged younger brother, who's a producer of some pretty popular kids' shows and doing pretty well himself. He & Kacey fell out over Lane's boyfriend Saun (aside: add an "a" at the end and you have a workout!) who Kacey was pretty sure was only interested in what Lane could give him. Turns out Kacey's right. Lane's too embarrassed to tell her so, and then, suddenly, it's too late. She finally loses the battle with cancer, which Lane hadn't even known she'd been fighting.
So we have two angst-ridden souls, lonely and missing someone they care about, meeting for the first time at a funeral and being told they've been given joint custody of Kacey's son, Nathan. Only, of course, there are some catches. First, they have to live together for 6 months as a family...
This is the story of how they live together and heal and fall in love.
Only, y'know, it's kind of...not.
Let's start with a bit about family -- I was really hoping for a sweet, possibly slightly angsty, domestic comedy. I was hoping Derrick and Lane would function as a unit; parents who just didn't sleep in the same room. I wanted them to make an effort to show Nathan that, while each loved him individually, they were also on the same page with wanting to have him as a part of BOTH their lives, together, at the same time. Instead, I get one Stay-at-home Dad, making all the choices and decisions and trying to keep it together while dealing with his grief and one Working Person dealing with his feelings by avoiding everyone except for one weekend afternoon per week of taking the kidlet out to the park. I wanted to see two men who didn't know each other making an attempt to at least become friends and do things together, with and without Nathan (they had a built-in babysitting system with Derrick's friends Nico and Tee, who were awesome and I'd LOVE to have seen more of). I really, REALLY wanted to see more of Nathan. He's the reason these two were together, after all, so he really should have gotten more screen-time than a couple of brief scenes. Instead, he seemed to just quietly adjust to everything about his life having changed (although to be fair, at the end of his mother's illness, he'd apparently been staying with Derrick a bit and had his own room and everything, so that at least had probably already become fairly normal.) But he's never shown acting out or having to deal with his mother's death, and... OMG, people. I'm a mom. My youngest is not yet 7 and my husband is deployed for the third time to a war zone and this is SO NOT how kids act in a situation like this!! This poor kid takes Plot Moppet to whole new levels of WTF.
The "plot" itself is layers of misapprehension and misunderstanding piled on top of hurt feelings and "emotional wounding." Not to mention a healthy dose of Insta-Love (at a funeral, no less!) on both sides that neither one wants to admit to -- Derrick because ZOMG who could ever want half a man (we all know manhood is ALL in the testicles, and he lost one to cancer) and Lane because ZOMG he must be poisonous to love because he Ruined Himself by being an idiot over Saun. Bitch, please. I am all about the Insta-Love but I have to believe in it. I'm ok with series of misunderstandings and misinterpretations (I recently read First Impressions which is an entire NOVEL built on misunderstandings piled on top of each other and it was amazing!). But give me something to believe in it all! Please!
The only tension between these two were a couple of intense glances at Kacey's funeral (really??), a butterfly kiss, two sobbing jags and an almost-kiss. Otherwise, Derrick shut down and denied, and Lane man-slutted around (but apparently couldn't perform because he was so busy obsessing over Derrick and Nathan) and denied. Then one day Derrick has some routine blood work, freaks over the results (can't say I wouldn't myself in that case) and comes home, and a page and a half later all is well, everyone's in love, and they're perfect (and, of course, Sexxxing it up, because after all -- it's been 50-some pages with no lovin'.)
So, recap. I love the concept. I actually really liked the writing; it was engaging and funny and kept me involved. It's just that when I actually THOUGHT about what was going on, the actual story didn't live up to the promise. Part of the problem is that the author never let the main characters interact, like at all, and part of it comes from the format. 56 pages on my Sony Reader is at best short novella length, and this could have used a LOT more room to get inside characters' heads and to maybe give them time to have to stumble over each other more. I didn't like the "flipped switch" method of working things out; I thought the concept deserved a more thoughtful approach. If Nico and Tee pop up in stories by this author I may be tempted to read them, just because for being secondary characters, they -- Nico particularly -- seemed more fully fleshed than Derrick and Lane. Or at least more interesting.
We meet Derrick in the cancer treatment center, where he's undergoing chemo for testicular cancer. His dear friend Kacey is someone he met here, where she's also undergoing chemo, for breast cancer. Kacey has a 4YO son named Nathan & is a single mom. Basically, as soon as the story begins, Derrick's long-term boyfriend, with whom he's been trying to figure out how to adopt a child, comes in, basically says, "Dude, I don't wanna be with a sick person, I don't want a kid, I met a new guy and you're on your own," and then leaves. Cue a month later, ex is dead, along with new boyfriend, having indulged in drunk driving and getting up-close-and-personal with a lamp post. He never changed his will, so everything goes to Derrick; kind of a mixed blessing I'm sure as it leaves Derrick completely set for the rest of his life, no need to work or anything.
Next up comes Lane, Kacey's estranged younger brother, who's a producer of some pretty popular kids' shows and doing pretty well himself. He & Kacey fell out over Lane's boyfriend Saun (aside: add an "a" at the end and you have a workout!) who Kacey was pretty sure was only interested in what Lane could give him. Turns out Kacey's right. Lane's too embarrassed to tell her so, and then, suddenly, it's too late. She finally loses the battle with cancer, which Lane hadn't even known she'd been fighting.
So we have two angst-ridden souls, lonely and missing someone they care about, meeting for the first time at a funeral and being told they've been given joint custody of Kacey's son, Nathan. Only, of course, there are some catches. First, they have to live together for 6 months as a family...
This is the story of how they live together and heal and fall in love.
Only, y'know, it's kind of...not.
Let's start with a bit about family -- I was really hoping for a sweet, possibly slightly angsty, domestic comedy. I was hoping Derrick and Lane would function as a unit; parents who just didn't sleep in the same room. I wanted them to make an effort to show Nathan that, while each loved him individually, they were also on the same page with wanting to have him as a part of BOTH their lives, together, at the same time. Instead, I get one Stay-at-home Dad, making all the choices and decisions and trying to keep it together while dealing with his grief and one Working Person dealing with his feelings by avoiding everyone except for one weekend afternoon per week of taking the kidlet out to the park. I wanted to see two men who didn't know each other making an attempt to at least become friends and do things together, with and without Nathan (they had a built-in babysitting system with Derrick's friends Nico and Tee, who were awesome and I'd LOVE to have seen more of). I really, REALLY wanted to see more of Nathan. He's the reason these two were together, after all, so he really should have gotten more screen-time than a couple of brief scenes. Instead, he seemed to just quietly adjust to everything about his life having changed (although to be fair, at the end of his mother's illness, he'd apparently been staying with Derrick a bit and had his own room and everything, so that at least had probably already become fairly normal.) But he's never shown acting out or having to deal with his mother's death, and... OMG, people. I'm a mom. My youngest is not yet 7 and my husband is deployed for the third time to a war zone and this is SO NOT how kids act in a situation like this!! This poor kid takes Plot Moppet to whole new levels of WTF.
The "plot" itself is layers of misapprehension and misunderstanding piled on top of hurt feelings and "emotional wounding." Not to mention a healthy dose of Insta-Love (at a funeral, no less!) on both sides that neither one wants to admit to -- Derrick because ZOMG who could ever want half a man (we all know manhood is ALL in the testicles, and he lost one to cancer) and Lane because ZOMG he must be poisonous to love because he Ruined Himself by being an idiot over Saun. Bitch, please. I am all about the Insta-Love but I have to believe in it. I'm ok with series of misunderstandings and misinterpretations (I recently read First Impressions which is an entire NOVEL built on misunderstandings piled on top of each other and it was amazing!). But give me something to believe in it all! Please!
The only tension between these two were a couple of intense glances at Kacey's funeral (really??), a butterfly kiss, two sobbing jags and an almost-kiss. Otherwise, Derrick shut down and denied, and Lane man-slutted around (but apparently couldn't perform because he was so busy obsessing over Derrick and Nathan) and denied. Then one day Derrick has some routine blood work, freaks over the results (can't say I wouldn't myself in that case) and comes home, and a page and a half later all is well, everyone's in love, and they're perfect (and, of course, Sexxxing it up, because after all -- it's been 50-some pages with no lovin'.)
So, recap. I love the concept. I actually really liked the writing; it was engaging and funny and kept me involved. It's just that when I actually THOUGHT about what was going on, the actual story didn't live up to the promise. Part of the problem is that the author never let the main characters interact, like at all, and part of it comes from the format. 56 pages on my Sony Reader is at best short novella length, and this could have used a LOT more room to get inside characters' heads and to maybe give them time to have to stumble over each other more. I didn't like the "flipped switch" method of working things out; I thought the concept deserved a more thoughtful approach. If Nico and Tee pop up in stories by this author I may be tempted to read them, just because for being secondary characters, they -- Nico particularly -- seemed more fully fleshed than Derrick and Lane. Or at least more interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2011
Okay! So I normally don’t read stories that are about loss because I cry. Derrick’s loss comes in threes. 1) Cancel 2) loss and then death of his partner Jason and 3) death of a best friend, Kasey. My heart clinched in sorrow for Derrick as his hopes and dreams walked out on him in the middle of his cancer treatment. (Rat-B*st*rd)
Lane is estranged from the only family he has, his sister Kasey. After her death, Lane and Derrick are thrown together for the next six months by a clause in Kasey’s will regarding her son.
I have to admit, I chose sides. I loved Derrick and I think I cried along with him every time. A little communication would have went a long way as you watched these two people dance around each other; one believing that he couldn’t be loved and the other believing that he didn’t deserve love. The withdraw and self-destruction was painful to watch and I hoped for that one defining moment that would change their lives again.
Excellent story, even if I did cry.
Lane is estranged from the only family he has, his sister Kasey. After her death, Lane and Derrick are thrown together for the next six months by a clause in Kasey’s will regarding her son.
I have to admit, I chose sides. I loved Derrick and I think I cried along with him every time. A little communication would have went a long way as you watched these two people dance around each other; one believing that he couldn’t be loved and the other believing that he didn’t deserve love. The withdraw and self-destruction was painful to watch and I hoped for that one defining moment that would change their lives again.
Excellent story, even if I did cry.
June 2, 2011
Ms. Petros' Cobalt: Tattered Remains is the first contemporary story by her that I've read, and she does a bang-up-job with it. While I tend to like long books--epics, I think that Ms. Petros did well laying out her story in under 100 pages. It held my interest, I liked the characters (some less than others), and the dialogue was crisp and to the point. All in all it's a cute story that's well written and I would like to see more contemporary stories from Ms. Petros.
I give Cobalt: Tattered Remains four stars.
May 30, 2011
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews