Rating: 3 stars
Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel
“A man possess all the power in the world if he can put joy into someone else’s’ life.”
This review is a difficult one for me. I am a fan of Brita Addams. I have read much of her work and have enjoyed it, without fail. So I leapt on this new book of hers, Tarnished Gold, and was intrigued about its subject matter—a silent movie star’s rise to fame and his introduction to the “gay” side of Hollywood.
Let me begin by recapping the story, which admittedly was a sprawling saga that spanned almost the entire life of Jack Abadie, a poor farm boy from Louisiana that had aspirations to one day become an actor. He and his lover, Emery, were set to run away on Jack’s birthday when Emery suddenly got cold feet and refused, leaving Jack to travel to Los Angeles by himself. He ended up in a boarding house and working as a waiter where he was discovered by a successful director, Eric Ballance, who worked for a up and coming production company.
As Eric opens up the world of acting and movie star fame for Jack, he also shuts down any emotional ties Jack may fancy he has for the director. Instead he instills in Jack the idea that men, like he and Jack, are to never “give themselves” to another. Rather they are to take and keep an emotional distance. This lesson will come back to haunt Jack when he finally meets the man he is destined to fall in love with and, ultimately, share his life with in the end. The story sweeps through each facet of Jack’s life in episodic moment, not unlike an old silent movie, and never really flows as a normal novel would. Rather much like the films of old, it develops a herky-jerky feel to it, using Jack as the central theme that must tie each segment to the next and hope that it keeps the readers interest in this admittedly long winded novel.
I do believe for those avidly interested in the working aspects of the “old Hollywood studios” this novel will be of keen interest. Also, there is a decided light BDSM element to the novel overall that is touched upon again and again but never fully developed or even moved much beyond orgasm control and spankings. The love story that develops between Jack and Wyatt provides some deep and lovely moments to what otherwise could almost be described as a biography of one man’s life.
I found this novel often tried my tenacity to hold on to the plot. Because the author chose to introduce a myriad of characters and take us point by point through Jack’s life, we are forced to move at a fairly slow pace and, often, I did not always find the story interesting enough for me to want to continue. Jack was such a conflicted person in so many ways and then stubborn over things that you wanted to warn him off of, for instance his desire to be open about his relationship with Wyatt. It was so admirable that he wanted Wyatt at his side and time after time he wielded his considerable box office appeal to get what he wanted in the boardroom but, due to the brief vignettes that made up this novel, I never felt as though I got to fully savor his victories or cheer on his stand against injustice. Rather I was merely swept along to the next moment in his life and after several chapters of this I was left curiously empty and devoid of any real excitement over the novel as a whole.
So, I must admit that Tarnished Gold by Brita Addams was simply not a five-star read for me. I must reiterate, however, that this author is one I will read again. She is an excellent storyteller and while this novel did not appeal to me overall, I admire her work.
I’m sad to say this was a DNF for me. I got to Part Two and just never cared to go back. I didn’t feel a connection to Jack and his emotions, which rang false or didn’t have enough to back them up so I was feeling them too. For example, when he finds out Emery’s not going, Jack’s upset, they have their thing at the station with tears and “I love you,” but then it’s like how does that affect him? Four days later, he’s saying Emery didn’t want him so he didn’t want him either and moves on. Okay, I can see that; some people react that way to being thrown over, even though this was someone he was going to start a new life with. Then, when things with Eric happen, which were not in anyway to the depth of what we were to assume they’d been with Emery, Jack holds on like nobody’s business, putting a lot of energy into someone who also does not want him. Now, okay, we can make some leaps and justifications as readers for why that might be, but I don’t think we should have to do that. I was frustrated that I never understood why Jack was so fixated on Eric, and since their relationship was a huge component of Part One, I was left bewildered.
I was actively trying to make a connection to Jack after I wasn’t feeling it. I don’t necessarily think readers should have to try that hard to feel a connection, but when you like an author, you do that sometimes because you know they have something valuable to give you. I don’t know if high expectations got the best of me, but I simply did not feel this one at all.
Sorry to go on so, but I have had these thoughts sitting in my head and was feeling that turmoil I get when I don’t get a book where I see others giving it great reviews, and this was the first one that I’d run across saying it wasn’t 5-star. Thank you for helping me with the angst, Sammy. 🙂
Thanks for your comments Carolyn. I agree it is somethings disconcerting when your opinion varies so much from what others think. It happens to me too! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hi Sammy and Carolyn,
I am so sorry that you didn’t like Tarnished Gold. It is a departure from what I usually write and certainly not your formulaic romance novel. Sammy, you did characterize it correctly – it is very much a biography of Jack. I intended it to be that, as biographies are one of my favorite types of books. I love to know what makes people who they are. What forces work to shape a person’s personality and their feelings about things. We all come to points in our lives where we realize that events have created us, that we aren’t who we thought we were, or who we were twenty years or more ago. Jack certainly discovers that, in spades.
Jack’s emotional growth was central to the book. His attachment to Emery starts it off, which, ultimately, proves less enticing than the call of Hollywood. Jack is very much me at that age, as I left everything that meant anything to me and struck out at 18 for greener pastures. Scary – from farm town in upstate New York to Boston.
My goal for Tarnished Gold was to chronicle Jack’s life, from farm boy to retirement. I’m sad that you couldn’t connect with Jack and Wyatt. They both spoke to me so clearly during the writing and I understood them better perhaps, than any other characters I’ve ever written.
Hugs to you both,
Brita
Brita, you are lovely and gracious as ever. It was true turmoil and angst to not finish Tarnished Gold and to not understand, to not see what everyone else was. I should have said that I was glad so many found so much to love and connect with in this book. As Sammy said, this will not keep me from reading your books again as I think you have so much to give to readers.
Hugs,
Carolyn