Thirteen years ago, Marc did the right thing and left Pablo so his young lover could have the life he deserved. Now Marc is a successful, sought after artist. And he's blind. Pablo finally finds Marc again, and neither of them is willing to let go this time, so they begin to build a new life together. Second Sight is a moving, emotional story of how young love changes and grows into something that two very different men can share, learning to live their lives again after years of longing for each other, ultimately getting that happy ending they both hoped for so long ago.
Often referred to as "Space Cowboy" and "Gangsta of Love" while still striving for the moniker of "Maurice," Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to "Chicago."
A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.
Barring any of that? He'll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.
When I bought Second Sight by Sean Michael, I was shocked that it was over 500 pages. I knew it would take some time to read it, so I put it off. (Admittedly not the best decision I’ve ever made). I’ve been in a Sean Michael mood lately, so I decided to wipe the cobwebs off of it, and give it a try. The first thing I noticed was, when I went to list it here on goodreads; there must be two different versions for it. There’s a version that’s about 268 pages. My review is for the longer version of this book.
First let me say that I’m glad I’ve got the longer version. Even though it’s a big book, I loved every word of it. I thought the relationship between Pablo and Marc was one of the best relationships I’ve read in this genre for a long time. Second Sight is now one of my favorite books written by this author, and it’s also definitely top 5 of my all time favorites. When I finished this book, I immediately read it again. That’s how much I loved it! I laughed, I cried and I fell in love with both Pablo and Marc. I know that Second Sight will be a story that I will reread many times, and I know I’ll love every moment of it.
Pablo and Marc are young adults when they first meet. Pablo is a senior in high school. He’s smart, cute and has a dream of becoming a great writer someday. When he’s not studying he can be found at the local library, snuggled up in his favorite comfortable chair, and reading about everything from Marco Polo to Louis Armstrong.
One day, he discovers a tall and skinny redheaded young man sitting in his favorite chair and it surprise him so much, that he trips over a book, causing a loud scene. Mortified, he is immediately put at ease by the eclectic redhead, and Pablo is immediately smitten. They start talking and soon become friends, then lovers.
Marc has had a rough life. His parents have been a non-existent force in his life. Because he struggled through school, he dropped out, moved away from home and is living in an abandoned home. He survives by doing odd jobs, selling his art and mooching off of others. Even though Marc has a hard life, he tries to be optimistic about becoming a famous painter, and getting out of the hell hole he lives in now, but Marc is also a realist, so he knows that most likely will not happen.
When Marc meets Pablo he is immediately attracted to Pablo’s intelligence and the sweetness of his soul. Pablo makes Marc want to be a better person, and to work to improve his life, instead of giving up on his hope and dreams for a better life, because he wants a good life with Pablo.
Marc has some self esteem problems because he is steadily losing his eyesight. He’s been told he’ll be completely blind in a couple of years, and even though Pablo loves him and tells him he could never be a burden, this plagues on Marc’s conscience. When fate steps in and causes Marc to give into these fears, he runs away and leaves Pablo behind, thinking he is doing what is best for him.
What follows is thirteen years of loss and yearning for one another. Over the years, Pablo has hired private detectives and has never been able to find his lost love.
Pablo now writes independently as an art critic. When he is asked to do an article on the famous artist Mac Allen, he is shocked when he sees several sculptures in his exact likeness over 13 years ago. The moment he sees the sculptures he knows he has found his lost love.
I loved this book so much! I thought it was very interesting to watch Pablo and Marc find their way together again after so many years apart. Pablo must learn how to live with a blind man without being overprotective. It was fascinating to read how Marc has learned to live pretty independent despite the loss of his vision, and how Pablo must deal with that loss as well.
Second Sight has a very happy ending which I loved, and I can’t wait to read it again.
Heavens to Murgatroyd! This book started with an interesting premise: Two teen boys - Marc is a homeless artist, Pablo is a promising student - fall in love. Marc is slowly losing his eyesight and Pablo plans to stay with him and take care of him. Pablo's mother convinces Marc to go away so Pablo can live a 'normal' life, go to a good school, etc. Marc goes, with explaining to Pablo. They are apart for 13 years. Then Pablo, now an art critic, finds Marc, now a famous sculptor (and blind). After about 2 and a half minutes of angst, they renew their love. This all happens in the first 150 pages or so. After that, it is one sex scene after another, with even less plot than the Jarheads books (which I really enjoy), for another 350 pages. I skimmed most of it. Oddly enough, one of the things that turned me off was how much they said "I love you" to each other. I got tired of it.
An absolute stunning book. The relationship between Pablo and Marc will take your breath away. Michael's sometimes gets too caught up in the sex between the characters. This book is a perfection of Character development, the relationship between them and HOT sex. Highly recommend this book to everyone that is a true romantic at heart :)
Wow. I honestly do not know where to start with this book. I can't rate it because I can't say I hated it but I can't say I loved it either. There is really no middle ground on this one for me.
First, I will say that there are obviously two different versions of this book. One with 200-something pages and another with a heck of a lot more. Mine was the latter. According to my laptop, there were 662 pages. That alone should have made me not read it. The last book I read with that many pages was a J.R. Ward book.......... a book I was eager to read. This book was simply supposed to be a time-waster until I found something else that I was interested in reading. And the story really did seem like it would be a good one.
It started out well. Pablo is a high school senior who spends a lot of time in the library reading anything he can get his hands on. He then meets Marc, a homeless teen who spends a lot of time at the library looking at art books and drawing. Marc paints when he is able to get a hold of art supplies. He lives in an abandoned building. Pablo lives with his large, traditional Hispanic family. Pablo and Marc get close and they end up falling in love. Marc confesses to Pablo that he is going blind. Something happens (I won't give away the story) and Marc leaves. All of THAT was great. I love how the two got together. I was sad when Marc left. Really the beginning of an outstanding story. I could not wait to read the rest.
Then............ what happened????????????? It went from being this really, really good story to nothing but a sex fest with page after page after page of unnecessary details. And where there should have been certain details thrown in? Nada! There was very little in regards to what Pablo and Marc did during the 13 years they were apart. A page here. A page there. It didn't give much of a timeline. Then they find each other again and Marc is totally blind. He is also a very successful artist/sculptor. I WILL say that I totally loved that particular part of the book. That was probably my favorite out of all 662 pages. But after that, it totally went downhill. Everything was about sex. I mentioned...... more than once............ the 662 pages? Probably 645 were all sex. Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration............. but maybe not. There was that much sex. Some of it was good but most of it did nothing to help the story along. I found myself skimming over it from about the 50% mark while looking for dialogue that wasn't about having sex or wanting to have sex.
There really wasn't a story after Pablo and Marc found each other again.
I love books where the characters say "I love you" more than just at the end of the book, as a lot of them do. But this one? I seriously wish I had a dollar for every time those 3 words were said. It was literally CONSTANTLY.
And since when did 32 become middle age? Or am I...... at 44...... just old? LOL Marc calls himself middle aged a lot in this book. He was 32. Seriously? 32 is middle age?
(.......... okay, letting THAT one go now)
In fairness, had I read the shorter version of this book I probably would have totally loved it. Pablo and Marc were very likable characters. The secondary characters (though there weren't many) were good. But it was just way too much for me.
This will not prevent me from reading more from this author. I will just look at the page count next time before I commit to buy.
I liked it. But at the same time, I dont think I really should like it. This book is one of the.. um.. weirdest books I've read.. I mean.. It's quite literally one long sex scene..
Before starting this book, I read one review, where it said that the person didnt like how many times the characters told eachother "I love you". I remember thinking, that it couldnt be that bad.. Yeah.. I was wrong.. They deinitely use the word 'love' a lot.. A little too much, but then again, I kinda felt how much they loved eachother, and maybe hearing it that often helped..
I liked the story, I really did, and I even ended up with teary eyes at the end, but I get that a lot from happy endings, so maybe that doesnt say much, but I really did enjoy reading this.
I would have liked a bit more plot or story though. Yeah, the sex was hot, but we could have done without, lets say, 223 of the sex scenes and still been left with a steamy story.
I'll try this one again, eventually. The thing is, Sean Michael has so much smut and so many sex scenes, that it's hard to get through his full-length novels if you're looking for any substance at all. So ... if you get tired of reading nothing but 20 sex scenes in 18 pages, it just kind of falls flat. =/
I must think... now if I write a review still angry I'll give 2 or 1 star to this book... was amazing, up to approximately 60%... them I start to get really annoyed... I like dramatic books, but this book was like eat honey with 100 cups of sugar and a gallon of vanilla... yeah... sappy
This book is wonderful. I fell in love for Marc and Pablo and their journey to achieve hapiness. Important how Sean Michael was worried in showing all the aspects of the relationship. The good ones and the hard ones. Just LOVED.
I'm starting to have a hard time reviewing Sean Michael's work. I love the characters and the stories are so good but as is often becoming my gripe is that there is too much sex and not enough character interaction beyond that.
Sean does go farther with his character building and that is often why I'm disappointed since I would LOVE to learn so much more about the MC's. In almost every instance when the characters interact it ends in sex. That often seems to be the high points of the story... after bad news, dealing with family problems, crises of the mind, next comes the sex. And because of this the scenes can become routine. I don't think that love between characters should become so rote that I feel I can skim over it to get to the real story.
I loved Marc and Pablo and their growing love for each other at the beginning was so tender and sweet and non-judgmental.
I cried when Marc left to spare Pablo the future of dealing with his illness. And I hated Pablo's mother. I don't know how she could see how her son suffered and not know that what she had done was wrong.
I was surprised that it took them so long to find each other since their careers actually had them moving in a lot of the same circles. But I was so happy that even though Pablo ran at first, he knew he could not lose Marc a second time.
I was amazed that Marc often felt he was a burden, or that he was weak. Considering what he had to overcome and how he had re-made himself it was surprising to realize how vulnerable he was because of his condition.
Pablo also has an internal strength. He deals with his fear of losing Marc again, of not being there for him, of wanting to take care of him. He often has to hold himself back from going overboard in his efforts to care for Marc, but he does, though sometimes his fears get the best of him.
I loved this story and all the characters, Marc's friends and even Pablo's family, his Papi is someone special.
Great love story, hot and steamy sex (regardless of my personal feelings on the overabundance :) and lots of real people. Recommended!!!
I have to agree was sick of all the 'love' references and all the sex. There was not much depth more sex and more sex with a little story thrown in here and there. It would explore some aspects of the story line and not follow through. For example towards the end they talk about Bev harassing about the paintings done prior to Marc's going blind. It is made in reference though you never read that. You never really read about any interactions with Bev, more with her sister. While I made myself finish the book and it was okay, it could have been so much better. This was the longer 500 pages edition and you would think with this many pages there would have been more depth. I know there is a newer version but I cannot see myself trying to read it in the hope it fixed huge mess.
The first half of the book is absolutely 5 stars, heart wrenching, tear jerking, innocent and beautiful. I love it so much and cried as much. But the second half... Just there is too much sex in it. Some real coflicts and angst situations happen, but those become very quickly buried in sex scenes. Makeup sex, cheering-up sex, running-away-from-the-problem sex, affirmation sex, love-you-to-death sex, longing sex, compensation sex.... You name it it's thete. So in the end, it feels like those conflicts are just openings for following whatever sex scenes.
way too little story with way too much sex for my taste. When I start thinking things like "Oh no, not ANOTHER sex scene!" something is seriously wrong. and I thought it way too many times while reading this. It could have really been something, but after the first couple of times of reading about them devouring each other it just gets seriously boring. I felt relieved when I got to the end. "Finally!" This one just wasn't for me.
Really good premise for a book. Starts off really really well, but after they reunite it just turns into half a page of plot for every twenty pages of sex. Most of the sex after their reunion could have been cut out without hurting the overall book.
I'm giving it 3 stars based on the strength of the beginning.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book was amazing. I loved and hated so much about it, including the reasons for leaving behind the one you love. It hurt to see these two torn apart by prejudice and familial hatred, but it healed the anger when you find out how their separate paths brought them back together and changed them over the years.
I really enjoyed the story - it was wonderful and sweet... sans endless strings of "iloveyous", moping over the lost years and never ending sex and bad editing. I would have given the book 4.5 stars if it were about 200 pages shorter. As it is - 3 in the rating.
Sex Sex Sex and then more I love yous than ought to be legal. I liked the thought of this story, reunited after so many years but all it was was sex. In the end I sort of just skimmed through the blow jobs and was hoping that they would fight or something but then they would just have sex again.
It is somewhat odd reading this book mainly because they find each other again so early on and then the reader is waiting for the other shoe to drop...and it never does. It isn't bad, just somewhat anticlimactic. Oh and there is a lot of sex, felt like 1/3 to 1/2 of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The blurb annoys me a bit. Don't tell me what to think. If I find it moving and emotional, then I'll find it moving and emotional.
The cover's odd. It looks like a modern rendition of a Heian period portrait.
The story itself...it's completely different from any of Michael's work that I've read before. It's almost abstract in its execution; there seem to be breaks in continuity which sometimes make it feel alinear.
I think part of it is that it's more along the lines of "typical" M/M, for whatever reason.
The thing with Marge was weird. The thing with Mama was weird.
It was like the author was trying to create a "them against the world" situation, except it was so biased against everyone else that I ended up feeling sorry for everyone else and not the MCs for all the world has put them through. At the same time, I didn't quite like Marge and Mama Cervantes.
So, there was angst, and then skirted over angst, and then sweetness and floofiness and lightness.
And it's so slice of life that I kept waiting for something to happen. It just felt like it went on and on and on and oh, god, on.
Wish i had known this book had a shorter edition. Really liked the premise and the strong start, but it all goes downhill at 50%. The sex parade and the 3k ily's made it hard to enjoy it.
As many rewiers i found myself skimming pages to find some dialogues sex and ily free. All i found was the end of the ebook and a huge sensation of relief!!!
Im glad the author recent's books are better than the ones written a decade ago!!!!!
While the premise of this book was good, the writing wasn't great, and the book was so long that I started skimming not even a fourth of the way in. It got to the point where it was all sex scenes and “I love you”. And the sex scenes themselves were pretty dry and unimaginative. Definitely not my favorite.
I absolutely loved this book the first time I read it in 2007 however this time I didn't like it quite as much. I still enjoyed the overall story and all of the characters (except for Mama) however I found myself skimming through the overload of sex scenes.
By far one of the most beautiful and loving stories I've read. The main characters were exceptional and so believable from start to finish. I truly could not put it down.