dnf @ 44% (the Duck Parade)

I'm sorry — I tried. I really, really tried, but this book is just too fucking weird for me (!!). If I feel this exhausted after not even making it halfway through? I’d probably keel over before ever finishing it.

I... I have no words for this book that haven't already been said more skillfully in other reviews. ( )

I’ve been sitting on this review for over three weeks; King Perry is a book that deserves a review that will make it justice and I’ve been afraid I won’t find enough words to accomplish this.
Let’s start by saying I haven’t read anything like King Perry. When I started reading it I didn’t know what to expect from this book but I’m sure it wasn’t what I found. King Perry is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. One that almost a month later after I finish it I still can’t stop thinking about it.
King Perry is classified as a Bittersweet Romance but it doesn’t have anything bitter about it. It may not have a normal HEA but the end in his own way was a very beautiful end, an acceptable one that let me completely satisfied.

Vin Vanbly is a man that recognizes the lost potential in people; he has dedicated his life to find the lost queens and kings of the world and when he finds them he helps them in their personal journey to find their true self.

Despite his commitment issues Perry Mangin thinks he is happy and has a good life. Perry doesn’t know what to think when he is approached by Vin with the weird offer of a weakened of complete submission in exchange of the restoration of his kingship. Even though he is reluctant to the idea of spending a weekend with a complete stranger there is something inside of him that wants to yield to the offer and here is where this weekend adventure starts.

As I said before King Perry is a book like anything I have read before, it’s a book about a personal journey to find who you really are. At the same time Vin is helping Perry find whom he really is Mr. Edmond Manning with his beautiful writing and his florid prose is taking you on an emotional journey in which he makes you question which queen/king are you and what is stopping you to get your own kingship.
Perry’s journey is not an easy one, not for him and not for us as spectators; you will laugh, you will cry and page after page you will be questioning Vin’s real motives behind his actions. At the end, when you get to cusp of the story and when is almost time to say goodbye to its characters you will wish for the end not to arrive, you will wish to learn more about Vin and his kings and queens, you just want the story not to end, King Perry is that good.

One thing I want to make clear in my review is that the submission that Vin asks of Perry is nothing related to BDSM, it’s a submission of his spirit. Even though this book is M/M I would like to recommend it to all of you, including the ones that haven’t read anything in this genre. You should give it a chance, King Perry is not only an excellent story that will leave a mark on you but it’s also one beautifully written. I can’t wait to read more books by Mr. Edmond Manning. ( )

I hesitate to call this a book; it's more like an experience. It's, as others have said, almost impossible to describe and I think every person that reads it will have a singular experience.

If you love language just for the sake of it you will find so much to love about this book. The use of words and Vin’s love of words and letters will intrigue anyone that has ever had a visceral response to language. I thought I was odd in that feeling so finding a character that actually responds that way made me a little giddy. I felt like Edmond Manning was painting a picture with words and sometimes they were strange or painful to look at and sometimes they were breathtaking in their beauty.

At one point Vin makes the following comment:

"It's hard to categorize the half expressions, the ones which reside in between."

I think that sums up the book as well, you can’t categorize it and large parts of the story reside in the in between.

It was an incredibly strange and wonderful ride and I know I will read it again and again.
( )

This was a Bittersweet Dreams title (this is the definition from Dreamspinner website: Bittersweet Dreams, stories of M/M romance with nontraditional endings), and so I was not expecting from it to have a standard romance development. And indeed the story develops almost like a fairy tale.

Perry is a man with potential, but all that potential is hidden behind a layer of sadness. He is not aloof or else, and when he is approached by Vin at an art gallery, he is willing to maybe share a pleasant chat and why not, a night of mutual, enjoyable sex. But that is not what Vin is thinking to give to Perry.

Vin is like a gay fairy godmother, he sees the potential in men and allows them to spread it around, becoming from Cinderfella to King, cloaked in their own greatness. Vin does that in an unconventional way, asking to Perry to give up power to Vin for an entire weekend, granting him that, at the end of the weekend, Perry will remember the king that is in him.

I think the author picked 1999 as year for his story since the www was still at the beginning, and the world was still defined in the land you can reach by foot; Perry and Vin’s weekend is spent around San Francisco, and the magic of San Francisco is right up the alley with the fairy tale atmosphere of the novel. San Francisco becomes a main character like Perry and Vin, and Vin will use all the city tricks to allow Perry’s unleashing.

Perry and Vin are not fated to be together, Vin is preparing Perry for his bright future and he is priming him for someone else, but maybe Vin will always remain Perry’s fairy godmother, someone who will be always there ready to remember to Perry that he is a king.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613723784/?tag=elimyrevandra-20