A complex story. Not the typical romance. Very good characters that are real/flawed. 4 Stars ( )

I read Amor En Retrogrado by A. M. Riley because Treva Harte said it was cool beans. Reading the synopsis, after I bought it, I was initially not that keen as the book focuses on an established couple and the break down of their relationship. I am rather guilty of preferring that first flush of romance between a couple and all that lovely anticipation. I was happily proved wrong and could not have enjoyed this book more. It was romantic, heart breaking and beautifully written. I think I almost got what I wanted really, but don’t want to spoil it! I loved it. Check it out at ARe.

http://sharrow.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/shorts-8/ ( )

Another winner by A.M.Riley.
All my comments from "Elegant Corpse" ring true.
What I really liked about this book is the political/historical/cultural slice of Los Angeles the reader obtained.
Parts of the story centred on the Rodney King riots, but the pre-AIDS era and the whole hispanic culture played a vital role in this book.
The time jumps again made it mandatory for the reader to pay attention and think. ne of the things I really like about A.M.Riley's books.
If I had a little quibble it would be the way she introduced the character Christopher to the story. He snuck in under the radar (which was her intention) but I would have liked to find out more about how Bill felt about him. Perhaps though again that was her intention, Bill didn't want to think too deeply about him and their relationship. In which case, again A.M.Riley has delivered.
As the two characters will appear again in subsequent books, it will be interesting to get an answer to the question the reader will no doubt have about the two of them.
The main protagonists were skilfully drawn.
Again, I would definitely recommend the book. ( )

Much better writing than many m/m books have, but oddly weaker characterization. Or maybe we are dealing with genuine flawed people, but then we shouldn't get shock twist endings, and more should be explained earlier on. Fundamentaly a book about jealousy and trust, with acts of bad faith on either side. Both men escape into addictions - one alcohol, the other work, neither is intimate enough, both are highly sexual. I liked the writing and will look for more AM Riley but was not really satisfied with this book, though I class it as a noble failure, at least she was trying to do something different and interesting here! ( )

I'm enchanted. Amor en Retrogado is one book I hardly will forget. It's heartbreaking and real. It's a brilliant piece of fiction. It's not a M/M romance, cause it's a lot more. Have you understood that I love this book?

JD and Robert are a fifteen years old committed couple. But they have split one year before for a lot of reasons. But when Robert receives a call in the middle of the night telling him that JD is in hospital, in intensive care, and the man who was with him is dead, Robert doesn't esitate a minute to fly to his lover, his husband. Only that, when JD wakes up, he doesn't remember the last ten years of his life. He has bits of memories which tell him that he is in love with Robert, but doesn't remember to have left him. And doesn't remember who has shot him outside a gay club and killed his friend.

So Robert brings him home, to their home where he hasn't lived a real life since JD has gone, but he is reluctant to reawake their relationship, he fears that when JD will remember all the things he has forgotten, he will leave, being unable to forget Robert. Cause even if all Robert's friends seem to retain JD an heartbreaker who follows all the twinks he meets, Robert knows that the real reason of JD's abandon is the green monster, the jelausy, he can't prevent when someone else is around his man. And then there are problems old of years between them that time has not helped to smooth: Robert, even if gay and not ashamed of it, is also a very latino man, a bit bossy and very jelaous, but with the idea that fucking without love is not betrayal (obviously if the man who does it is him, cause if he only thinks to JD with another man...); instead at the beginning of their relationship JD was a man who feared his desires, an Irish catholic man who struggled to deny his love for Robert, and when finally he admitted it, he turned in a poster man for gay, being involved in all the association he could find and igniting even more Robert's jelaousy.

The story starts with Robert who hurries to the side of JD and then, little by little, the flashbacks from their past live are fed to us, allowing the reader to understand this very in love couple who seems to not be able nor to live together or to live apart. Who is right or who is wrong is not important, what it is important is that they can find a way to accept the weakness of the other and walk together to an happily ever after, that maybe it will not be simple and smooth, but maybe this time it will be everlasting.

Robert and JD will not change. They will find a compromize and they will try to trust each other, but there will be a lot of fights between them. It's the life and it's the way a relationship should work: you don't have to change your partner, you have to complete him.

Obviously there is also a mystery, a very good one, let me say. For all the book you would try to find the clues to identify the culprit, but till the end the answer will evade you. I think this book will appeal to a lot of readers: to who wants the romance, but also to who loves mystery and thriller and even to who likes social matters, Robert and JD's story is also the story of a couple who met before AIDS, who lived through it and who survived it.