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 The Bonds of Love by J. M. Snyder
Our story opens at sunset in Richmond, Virginia. Vic Braunson has just attended an all-day concert at Brown's Island on the James River. The day's heat and the crush of the crowds have put him in the mood to retreat for home with his lover Matt DiLorenzo. He thinks of how lucky he is to have met Matt three years ago at the gym where he still lifts weights and Matt continues to coach the swim team.
At first sight, they do make an amusingly mismatched couple. Matt is handsome with olive skin, dark curly hair, green eyes, and the lithe build of a swimmer. Vic, while really a mild-mannered guy, looks intimidating with his stocky build, shaved head, piercings, and facial tattoos. Who would guess that he's neither a devil-worshipping biker nor an ex-convict mercenary? He actually drives a city bus route for a living. After three years together, Vic and Matt are hopelessly in love.
Now, as Vic tries to coax his tipsy lover to the car, he thinks about the first time they had sex – and Vic consequently developed super-powers. Whoa! You might re-read that sentence, but it's true. We've just taken a step out of Contemporary Fiction and into Fantasy. It's so smoothly done that, here at Obsidianbookshelf.com, I just laughed in surprise and went along with it.
Whenever Matt and Vic have sex, super-powers get conferred upon Vic. If you can think of a super-power, Vic has probably already experienced it: the ability to fly, self-heal, teleport, be invisible, or develop immense strength. Some powers are of dubious use: once his bones kept melting away, and he had to call in sick because he couldn't drive a bus with a boneless arm!
Matt doesn't get the super-powers; they originate from him and pass to his sexual partner. That would be Vic who always prefers to be on the receiving end of sex. Why do these super-powers originate from Matt? It's never explained, so don't worry about it. In this first adventure of Matt and Vic, the "why" is not too important. It can be explored, or not, further down the road in the series.
In The Bonds of Love, Matt and Vic accept their situation because the super-powers are irrelevant so long as they have what they really want: each other. They are happy and don't get overly theoretical about the super-powers – other buying a copy of Kama Sutra for Gay Men and trying different sexual positions. Different things confer different powers upon Vic, and the powers wear off after a day. For example, having sex in the swimming pool causes Vic to develop gills! One thing that doesn't go away is the close telepathy that Vic and Matt share. This will play an important part in the story.
Anyway, as Vic drives them back from the concert, Matt decides he wants a Slurpee. This necessitates a stop at the nearest 7-11 convenience store where our heroes have the bad luck to be there during an impulsive armed-robbery by teenaged thugs. Poor Vic takes a bullet point-blank. When he wakes, Matt is half-crazy with fright and police officers fill the store. Officer Kendra Jones gets a little too interested in how Vic managed to survive. Our two heroes manage to duck her for the moment, but she will have a part to play later on.
Back at their apartment, Vic and Matt swear to each other that they will be more careful. In the days to come, they shrug off the brief publicity of the 7-11 shooting, and try to get back to their normal routine. But little do they know that a creepy ex-boyfriend of Matt's is about to make the scene. He's heard the news about the shooting and remembers when he and Matt were together and he had the super-powers. Now he plans to get them back, with or without Matt's consent.
The Bonds of Love is an unusual but enjoyable story. Those used to the epic adventures of Superman and the X-Men might wonder at the author's decision to keep everything so low-key. Instead of spanning the globe, the action takes place in suburban Richmond: the gym, the city bus route, our heroes' apartment, and a cookout at the suburban bungalow of an acquaintance. However, I enjoyed the mundane setting, which helps to ground the whole super-power concept.
I remember this same level of detailed realism in Stepping Up to the Plate: the broken pay-phones, the badly-lit convenience stores, the lumbering city buses, and the shabby apartments. Some writers neglect the details of place and maroon us readers on a generic stage-set. Still others overwhelm us with endless descriptions. But Snyder knows how to place strikingly realistic details just where they are needed, which provides the reader with total, vivid escapism. It's one of her unique strengths as an author. She recreates Richmond like Anne Tyler recreates Baltimore, and you feel you're there.
Since sex is integral to the super-powers, you get numerous hot sex scenes in The Bonds of Love. (About 23 to be exact.) Our heroes, who are endearingly devoted to one another, are appealing characters: unpretentious guys just trying to get through the workday. Both get viewpoints, and both have to cope realistically with one another's rough edges and insecurities.
The Bonds of Love starts out feeling like a light erotic comedy, and then grows darker as the ex-boyfriend makes his move. The shift in tone happens smoothly and believably. There is non-consensual sex, but it's not graphic, and it is integral to the plot. I enjoyed the comedy enough to regret the shift away from it, but I also knew it had to happen to achieve true follow-through and resolution of the conflict. I enjoyed The Bonds of Love, and I think many readers will, too.
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