Book Info
Author: Kevin Klehr
Series: Actors and Angels
Release Date: April 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-945952-93-7
Format: ePub, Mobi, PDF
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Category: Literary/Genre Fiction
Genre: Paranormal
Word Count: 72200*
Pages: 221
Sex Content: Non-Explicit
Pairing: MM
Orientation: Gay
Identity: Cisgender
*Novel
Excerpt
Drama Queens with Love Scenes
Kevin Klehr © 2017
All Rights Reserved
Trailer: https://youtu.be/UyDB_UZ9iEU
She looked like Jayne Mansfield without the attributes. Her cherry-colored wide-brimmed hat complemented her black unbuttoned jacket. A low-cut white dress completed the look. She seemed overdressed and would have looked better wearing a casual pink T-shirt and torn jeans, like a pinup girl sparking the imagination of a lusty army boy. Her pleasing smile said she had been waiting to greet us.
An angel stood next to her, barefoot in old blue jeans and a ripped-sleeved khaki shirt. While he didn’t have the glam factor of the female, his striking dove-gray wings drew focus. They spanned his height and then some, towering above his head by at least an arm’s length. He rarely made eye contact with us and stood hunched with his hands lightly clenched below his navel. His demeanor implied a vanilla hint of gayness.
Just what did we actually get up to last night?
My friend, Warwick, and I safely considered this scene from the doorway of our tiny room.
A moment ago, we had said goodbye to my uncle and his girlfriend, and now we were facing two strangers on what looked like the set of a Greek epic.
Our confused oohs and ahs echoed off the marble black and white tiles, which stretched so far into the horizon they became gray as they met a set of stairs. Each step alternated in color, again black and white. Someone had overdosed on 1980s pop videos when they conceived this design.
“What do you make of the red velvet curtains, classic or uninspired?” I asked my friend.
“Allan, they’re lush. Just lush.”
“Don’t be alarmed, gentlemen,” the Jayne Mansfield look-alike said with an air of whimsy.
As we nodded awkwardly, she shot a concerned glance at the angel and whispered, “Don’t smile like that. It doesn’t match the décor.”
Discouraged, he rolled his eyes and mislaid his smile.
I began biting my thumbnail as my eyes darted between our hosts and the opulent aspects of this room.
“A sex kitten and an angel,” I timidly said to Warwick. “Does this mean…?”
Warwick stepped through the doorway and addressed the angel. “Those wings? Please tell me they aren’t real.”
The angel gracefully flapped them three times before shrugging. I switched my denial into overdrive.
In the past week, Warwick and I had left our chaotic beach-town lives for a little break. My dead-end job was getting me down, and my partner in crime suggested a holiday would be the best remedy. Until this point, he was right. All had been going as planned. We’d visited my uncle Bryant and his new love interest in Melbourne before considering a driving trip around Tasmania. Who could have imagined this strange twist in our plotline?
Our hosts seemed to study us like a diplomat about to shake hands with a head of state. The angel endeavored to smile again, while the blonde bombshell gave us a moment to gauge our bearings. Then her arms extended in greeting like Jesus in a biblical painting.
“My name is Samantha, and this is Guy. We’re here to welcome you.”
Annette Gisby –
This was a fun-filled romp through a theatrical afterlife, or as Guy the angel puts it, The Limelight District. While Allan pines for Warwick from afar, they both become involved in the theatre productions, where there is just as much jealousy, backstabbing and bitchiness as on the mortal plane.
The book is in first-person from Allan’s point of view, so we only got to see Allan’s opinions of the other characters. I wanted to be in some of the other character’s heads for a while, especially Guy, the orphaned angel who was never taught how to fly, I really adored him.
I wouldn’t necessarily say the characters were true to life, most were flamboyant and over the top, but maybe that’s what a lot of theatre people are like and I just haven’t met them. The world building is good, with lots of different districts from different eras of Earth history, but the characters wander about to the other ones at will. There were also some little mysteries to solve such as how Allan and Warwick died and who is trying to sabotage the plays.
The path to true love never did run smooth, but the author has made Allan’s journey to not only find love, but to find himself a very engaging tale.
It’s a fun little read, well over 70K words is not that little, but I got so engrossed in the story and the characters that the pages flew by.
TJ Burzynski –
When I saw the title of this book and read the little description, I was not really expecting what I actually got. I was expecting ‘Nelly, Gay Fluff.’ Instead, I got a truly magical story with a lot of heart, well thought out and memorable characters, an intriguing plot and a ‘heavenly’ setting.
The book did start out a little slow and kind of scattered, but once the main story and the plot was established, I could NOT put the book down! I read the entire book in one day. I was engrossed in the story wholeheartedly. I gave a damn about the characters, they were not stereotypical gay cardboard cut-out ‘queens’ that I usually read about in gay fiction. They behaved like real people and it was so refreshing! The little mystery sub-plot was a lot of fun to read and try to figure out.
If you want to read a real Gay Fiction book, with a real plot, real characters and just the right amount of humor, sadness, intrigue, romance and naughty bits, READ THIS BOOK. I cannot wait for a sequel!