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The Ball Boy
Devastated by the death of his father, Gage, an artist with a secret life, struggles to find his way back to “normal”. When rising baseball star Caleb arrives at his door, an unlikely romance simmers between them, but a cowboy coach, with major league ambitions of his own, will stop at nothing to keep them apart. Tempers flare as their deepest secrets are unearthed and the two must choose between chasing their dreams or embracing their newfound love.
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Published March 2, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
maybe
February 23, 2020ARC's now available for request from NetGalley! : )
https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/boo...
March 8, 2020
2.5 to 3?
Gah! I absolutely HATE giving negative reviews. I really, really do, but sometimes you just can't escape it. Unfortunately, that's the case with the Ball Boy. *sigh*
I really wanted to like this one and to be honest it had promise. On the other hand, this one came close to a DNF for me, but because it was so short, I didn't give up on it. The bad part about that is that the shortness of this book was its ultimate downfall. There was way too much going on to cover in less than 100 pages. WAY too much.
On a totally different note, there was way too much... um... vulgarity? brashness? I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination - you can take a look at my reading list to prove that, but the Ball Boy was one of those books that was just a little bit over the top.
Like I said, the Ball Boy did have promise and I think that if it had a little bit more length, if the story was developed just a little bit more...
I received the Ball Boy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Gah! I absolutely HATE giving negative reviews. I really, really do, but sometimes you just can't escape it. Unfortunately, that's the case with the Ball Boy. *sigh*
I really wanted to like this one and to be honest it had promise. On the other hand, this one came close to a DNF for me, but because it was so short, I didn't give up on it. The bad part about that is that the shortness of this book was its ultimate downfall. There was way too much going on to cover in less than 100 pages. WAY too much.
On a totally different note, there was way too much... um... vulgarity? brashness? I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination - you can take a look at my reading list to prove that, but the Ball Boy was one of those books that was just a little bit over the top.
Like I said, the Ball Boy did have promise and I think that if it had a little bit more length, if the story was developed just a little bit more...
I received the Ball Boy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
March 2, 2020
Where to start? Well, there is a lot to unpack from "The Ball Boy" suitcase - in fact, it's packed full and popping at the seams. There's baseball, coming out, a death in the family, two car accidents, issues involving prescription drug abuse and alcohol abuse, trans, in the closet, drag queen, foot fetish, humiliation, homophobic slurs ... all in seventy (70) pages. Whew.
Gage Garfield - a young man dealing with the death of his father, his own subsequent injury from the accident and prescription drug and alcohol abuse, who works at a gay bar as a drag queen called Kymer Rouge - meets closeted baseball player / martial arts champion Cabel Cordova when he shows up at his front door, Gage's father having signed up the family to be a host family for the minor league ballplayer.
Cabel is gorgeous and well-endowed, as in "I didn't get a glimpse of his meat, but as he walked, it smacked loudly between his thighs." And Gage refers to his own "cobra" as it "started to rise from its basket ..." or "he slurped my cobra into his mouth ..." Personally, I found this metaphor somewhat ... strange.
Because there is just so much going on here, nothing really gets fully developed, with many scenes jammed into the novella that are unrelated to the main plot (strange foot fetish scene, I'm looking at you ....) and everything is resolved far too suddenly.
Personally, this novella did not work for me but your results may vary. 2.5 stars.
I received an ARC from NineStar Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Visit my blog, Sinfully Good Gay Book Reviews
Gage Garfield - a young man dealing with the death of his father, his own subsequent injury from the accident and prescription drug and alcohol abuse, who works at a gay bar as a drag queen called Kymer Rouge - meets closeted baseball player / martial arts champion Cabel Cordova when he shows up at his front door, Gage's father having signed up the family to be a host family for the minor league ballplayer.
Cabel is gorgeous and well-endowed, as in "I didn't get a glimpse of his meat, but as he walked, it smacked loudly between his thighs." And Gage refers to his own "cobra" as it "started to rise from its basket ..." or "he slurped my cobra into his mouth ..." Personally, I found this metaphor somewhat ... strange.
Because there is just so much going on here, nothing really gets fully developed, with many scenes jammed into the novella that are unrelated to the main plot (strange foot fetish scene, I'm looking at you ....) and everything is resolved far too suddenly.
Personally, this novella did not work for me but your results may vary. 2.5 stars.
I received an ARC from NineStar Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Visit my blog, Sinfully Good Gay Book Reviews
February 29, 2020
I was given a copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
Wow. Okay. I’m not entirely sure where to start with this one but I guess I’ll start with our protagonist’s continued reference to his penis as his cobra. Or maybe I should start with the fact that his lover is so well endowed his flaccid penis makes an audible noise when it hits his thigh as he walks. For better or worse, there are a few descriptions in this book that I will never forget.
This is a NA novel, and sadly, for the most part, it reads like it has actually been written by a 19yr old who has been consuming a steady flow of alcohol and percocet for the past few months. The book is an uneasy mix of grief, substance abuse and low budget porn. The story touches on some really complicated, difficult topics but focuses more on Gage’s fantastic and almost comical sexual escapades. It’s difficult to take the serious moments seriously when they alternate with such OTT sex scenes. The only comparison I can make is to Xavier Mayne’s Frat House Troopers books - but Mayne’s OTT sex is written with self awareness, a wicked sense of humour and some heart. I’m not sure this author actually realises how much their sex scenes read like teenage slashfic fantasies.
There is a romance buried somewhere among the drag queens, ball players and prescription pain pills. From fantasy to instalove, there’s a fair bit of naked time and very limited relationship development here, but I’m guessing it could be considered romance. The ending comes as a bit of an implausible shock but by that point, I was just glad the book had ended.
Wow. Okay. I’m not entirely sure where to start with this one but I guess I’ll start with our protagonist’s continued reference to his penis as his cobra. Or maybe I should start with the fact that his lover is so well endowed his flaccid penis makes an audible noise when it hits his thigh as he walks. For better or worse, there are a few descriptions in this book that I will never forget.
This is a NA novel, and sadly, for the most part, it reads like it has actually been written by a 19yr old who has been consuming a steady flow of alcohol and percocet for the past few months. The book is an uneasy mix of grief, substance abuse and low budget porn. The story touches on some really complicated, difficult topics but focuses more on Gage’s fantastic and almost comical sexual escapades. It’s difficult to take the serious moments seriously when they alternate with such OTT sex scenes. The only comparison I can make is to Xavier Mayne’s Frat House Troopers books - but Mayne’s OTT sex is written with self awareness, a wicked sense of humour and some heart. I’m not sure this author actually realises how much their sex scenes read like teenage slashfic fantasies.
There is a romance buried somewhere among the drag queens, ball players and prescription pain pills. From fantasy to instalove, there’s a fair bit of naked time and very limited relationship development here, but I’m guessing it could be considered romance. The ending comes as a bit of an implausible shock but by that point, I was just glad the book had ended.
February 29, 2020
~~I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads ~~
I have to admit to being a little bit at a loss as to where to start with this review. It is the fullest 70 pages that I may have ever read, and there is, hidden inside the strangeness, the bones of a romance. But whether it is intentional or not, it feels like it is written by someone high on drugs and drink, with a very odd sense of reality and continuity. As someone who tends to prefer some kind of thread of realism and is bothered by things like someone having an arm in a cast, yet it never getting in the way when he showers, has sex or driving, I found that I was frustrated at the inconsistencies.
I read it all, as I was curious as to whether I would get to the point where it all made sense, and because it wasn't very long. You may well find it more to your taste than I did, and it is true to say that sometimes such streams of consciousness can prove to become classics. Different strokes for different folks - or in Gage's case cobra strokes for dragon folks!
I have to admit to being a little bit at a loss as to where to start with this review. It is the fullest 70 pages that I may have ever read, and there is, hidden inside the strangeness, the bones of a romance. But whether it is intentional or not, it feels like it is written by someone high on drugs and drink, with a very odd sense of reality and continuity. As someone who tends to prefer some kind of thread of realism and is bothered by things like someone having an arm in a cast, yet it never getting in the way when he showers, has sex or driving, I found that I was frustrated at the inconsistencies.
I read it all, as I was curious as to whether I would get to the point where it all made sense, and because it wasn't very long. You may well find it more to your taste than I did, and it is true to say that sometimes such streams of consciousness can prove to become classics. Different strokes for different folks - or in Gage's case cobra strokes for dragon folks!
March 6, 2020
Whoa, okay, first:
Content Warning: painkiller addiction, parental loss, prior car accident, driving while high, uh... rather odd phrasing... a scene with an unusual kink that I'm not sure had a purpose... More drug use (off-page). Unaddressed painkiller addiction.
I mean. I get why it gets bad reviews. And yet, I, a picky reader, finished it, and I don't regret it. It's unusual, and the moments of vividness were unexpected rewards. The sex scenes are clunky in language. I loved his mom. Caleb was realistically knocked for a loop by attraction. Also, it was good to read a man like Gage who does drag like it's just a fact of his life. And, I liked where it ended, loose ends and all.
But it was that first chapter that will stay with me. I've rarely read anything that portrayed grief so poignantly.
YMMV on this one.
Content Warning: painkiller addiction, parental loss, prior car accident, driving while high, uh... rather odd phrasing... a scene with an unusual kink that I'm not sure had a purpose... More drug use (off-page). Unaddressed painkiller addiction.
I mean. I get why it gets bad reviews. And yet, I, a picky reader, finished it, and I don't regret it. It's unusual, and the moments of vividness were unexpected rewards. The sex scenes are clunky in language. I loved his mom. Caleb was realistically knocked for a loop by attraction. Also, it was good to read a man like Gage who does drag like it's just a fact of his life. And, I liked where it ended, loose ends and all.
But it was that first chapter that will stay with me. I've rarely read anything that portrayed grief so poignantly.
YMMV on this one.
February 28, 2020
Lucas Guard’s ‘The Ball Boy’ gets one star each for Natasha Snow’s cover art and for the two principal characters - Gage Garfield, a young man working as a drag queen (Khmer Rouge) while grieving over the death of his father, and Caleb Cardova, a closeted pitcher with major league baseball ambitions. Both young men are captivating and clearly deserving of better lives and of each other.
That’s the good news.
On the other hand, this novel graphically deals with prescription drug abuse, alcohol abuse, homophobia, suicidal ideation, trauma, and an extreme absence of self confidence. It also includes a gratuitous masochistic scene that does nothing to advance the plot. Never before do I recall an erection being compared to a cobra. While that comparison was clever the first time, after multiple references it lost its effect.
In fairness, the publisher does provide a warning note indicating that topics include a deceased family member, trauma, drug addiction, homophobic slurs, pain, humiliation, and foot fetish…”.
Others will view this book differently, but, for me, much as I liked the protagonists, it just didn’t work.
Having said that, ‘The Ball Boy’ appears to be Lucas Guard’s first book. There’s no question that Mr. Guard has a promising writing career ahead.
I received an Advance Review Copy of ‘The Ball Boy’ from NetGalley and NineStar Press in exchange for an honest review.
#TheBallBoy #NetGalley
That’s the good news.
On the other hand, this novel graphically deals with prescription drug abuse, alcohol abuse, homophobia, suicidal ideation, trauma, and an extreme absence of self confidence. It also includes a gratuitous masochistic scene that does nothing to advance the plot. Never before do I recall an erection being compared to a cobra. While that comparison was clever the first time, after multiple references it lost its effect.
In fairness, the publisher does provide a warning note indicating that topics include a deceased family member, trauma, drug addiction, homophobic slurs, pain, humiliation, and foot fetish…”.
Others will view this book differently, but, for me, much as I liked the protagonists, it just didn’t work.
Having said that, ‘The Ball Boy’ appears to be Lucas Guard’s first book. There’s no question that Mr. Guard has a promising writing career ahead.
I received an Advance Review Copy of ‘The Ball Boy’ from NetGalley and NineStar Press in exchange for an honest review.
#TheBallBoy #NetGalley
March 3, 2020
I'm never one to be critical of writers, but Lucas Guard just left me incredulous more often than I could take it through The Ball Boy.
First of all, the writing style is choppy, full of one or two words sentences. It's obvious the author is infatuated with full stops, or maybe he hates commas. Second, a penis was never called as such,or any normal option of wording. Starting with being " like a captured animal trying to break through the fabric", to being a COBRA. Maybe the first time might have elicited a snicker, but then it kept happening, to the unbearable point of two times on the same page, only a couple of sentences apart. " My cobra started to rise from its basket", then " my striking cobra head slipped between his furled lips".
So, yeah, that's The Ball Boy for you. It DOES have good bones for a first try at writing for Lucas Guard and if you have the cents to spare, give it a try.
*ARC provided by the author through IndiGo Marketing&Design in exchange for an honest review
First of all, the writing style is choppy, full of one or two words sentences. It's obvious the author is infatuated with full stops, or maybe he hates commas. Second, a penis was never called as such,or any normal option of wording. Starting with being " like a captured animal trying to break through the fabric", to being a COBRA. Maybe the first time might have elicited a snicker, but then it kept happening, to the unbearable point of two times on the same page, only a couple of sentences apart. " My cobra started to rise from its basket", then " my striking cobra head slipped between his furled lips".
So, yeah, that's The Ball Boy for you. It DOES have good bones for a first try at writing for Lucas Guard and if you have the cents to spare, give it a try.
*ARC provided by the author through IndiGo Marketing&Design in exchange for an honest review
February 29, 2020
It's way too short, and everything took place in what 3 or 4 days? the whole thing was botched, or were chapters chopped off intentionally? It's a shame because I think the story is promising and could be better if it had more depth and more characters' background.
I give it Two and a half stars
I give it Two and a half stars
March 2, 2020
**Received ARC from NetGalley for review**
This was the cheesiest, weirdest 90 pages I’ve ever read in my life. Super choppy writing. I would have enjoyed a true love story between Caleb and Gage but this did not hit the mark for me!!
This was the cheesiest, weirdest 90 pages I’ve ever read in my life. Super choppy writing. I would have enjoyed a true love story between Caleb and Gage but this did not hit the mark for me!!
February 29, 2020
This was surprisingly elaborated for such a short thing. A bit too leaning towards the angsty side for my comfort. But entertaining nonetheless.
*ARC provided by NetGalley*
*ARC provided by NetGalley*
January 28, 2021
se me hizo muy confusa :C
April 11, 2020
This book started off sweet and with a premise I thought I would enjoy, but it fell a bit flat for me. Gage is dealing with the death of his father when Caleb shows up. Apparently his father signed them up to host a local ball player for the season without Gage and his mom being aware. Caleb is in the closet, so that causes some challenge. Unfortunately there were some random events throughout the story that seemed unnecessary to the story and pulled me out of it (the whole thing with Jay-WTF and why was that needed-and Gage’s visit your Chloe’s). The ending seemed to tidy with no real meat to it. This was a relatively short story so it would’ve been nice to have a little more resolution to the ending. This was a 2.5-3 star read.
I am voluntarily reviewing an ARC provided by IndiGo Marketing & Design
I am voluntarily reviewing an ARC provided by IndiGo Marketing & Design
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews