Book Review by DMac: Amnesia, by Sean Michael

Amnesia, by Sean Michael
Second Edition, originally published 2008
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: June 13, 2016

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

When Thaine wakes up in the hospital after a bull riding injury, he has a few problems. He’s got a broken leg. Stitches. Bruised kidneys. Worst of all? He doesn’t remember the last five years, or his new boyfriend, and all he wants in the world is his ex-lover Jerry. Thing is, he and Jerry broke up a long time ago, and no one is sure Jerry will come. Thaine’s best friend Jesse makes the call, even though he thinks it’s a pretty crappy thing to do to the new boyfriend, Drew.

Drew is everything Jesse has always wanted, young, optimistic, and hard-working. He can’t believe his buddy Thaine would pass Drew by for an old flame, even if his friend can’t remember the kid. Jerry is flattered that Thaine still wants him around, and he still carries a torch for his cowboy, so when Thaine asks to go home with him to recover, Jerry agrees, even though he knows Thaine could get his memory back any day.

Can Jerry and Thaine make a future that wipes out their past? And can Jesse convince Drew that he was looking for love in all the wrong places? Can Thaine live without the last five years, or will he remember everything and have to choose between his old life and his new one?

Sean Michael pens a masterful love story in Amnesia, one that will make you believe in the power of love, no matter what the odds.

M/M Pairing
Gay Characters
Amnesia
Cowboys
Second Chance

This book did not make me believe in the power of love. To be honest the two star rating is me being generous because the writing itself was solid. Apart from that I hated most of this book.

The biggest problem for me with this book was how quickly both Thaine and Drew just started getting down with other people. I get why Thaine would since he didn’t remember their relationship, but Drew moving on so quickly I couldn’t believe. It was gross to me because I am vehemently anti-cheating and so it bothered me a lot.

Jerry was a total asshole. I get that he was still in love with Thaine but the way he treated Thaine’s friend Jesse and Thaine’s pre-amnesia boyfriend Drew was abhorrent. To be honest it reeked of abuse (keeping someone away from their friends etc.) and the way he was so aggressive to them was honestly confusing to me. It was like he knew what he was doing was wrong so he was lashing out.

“Far as he knew, Thaine still didn’t have those five years back. Which sucked for the kid, but Jerry wasn’t sure what Jesse wanted from Thaine.”

I don’t know, maybe he wanted his friend to act with some compassion even though he didn’t remember Drew? Like a real human would? Maybe he wanted to talk to his friend. Why is Jerry getting so aggressive with Thaine’s supposed best friend? Especially since they would have known each other from before.

Sorry if this sounds like I am putting down amnesiacs, but would they really just start treating everyone like garbage just because they didn’t remember some time? Really? It made me think that Thaine was pretending to be a good person and then reverted back to his garbage personality when he got amnesia. What is even worse is that Thaine kept going WHY IS JESSE MAD AT ME???? Because you are a douchecanoe supreme. Mystery solved.

Personally if I knew someone that got amnesia and they treated me like that when they lost their memory, I would never talk to them again. Even if they got their memory back and grovelled. Get wrecked. Friendship is more important to me than most things and so maybe this is just hitting me wrong because of that, but it really made me dislike the book.

Let’s focus on what I did like about this book. After I kind of blacked out the whole Drew-kind-of-cheating-on-Thaine thing I actually really liked Jesse and Drew together. They were really sweet to each other and I enjoyed them.

Apart from that the book was too dramatic and had too many problems for my taste.

Often referred to as “Space Cowboy” and “Gangsta of Love” while still striving for the moniker of “Maurice,” Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to “Chicago.”

You can learn more about Sean or his books over at his website (click here)