I hope everyone had a great weekend! It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new story to be featured in the GA News Blog. This week we're featuring the story that Cia picked for the February Hosted Background. If you haven't already downloaded your background, it's not too late. You have the choice of one with or without a calendar. You can visit the Hosted Background blog entry and get yours now!

Now, time for Cia's review of Love In A Chair! Enjoy!

Length: 147,154
Status: Complete
Reviewer: Cia

*Spoiler Alert* I give a broad outline of the plot in this, so if you really want to read it without knowing… stop reading my review and use the link to go read the story already! LOL

I thought, for February’s Hosted feature, I would share a love story. Now, a lot of stories here have a romance. But this was not only an author’s first story, it was a story about first love in a coming of age/coming out story. Most of us have memories of our first loves—and for those who don’t, it’s coming—and treasure them. The age varies, of course, but many of us were teens.

Teenager hormones flare wildly and often seesaw girls and guys into extreme behavior. That’s especially true when it comes to attraction, lust, and love. A lot of people don’t think teens can fall in love, but I do. I met my husband sixteen years ago, when I was just a few months after the older of the main characters was in this story. I could relate, in a way, to the story and so I decided to feature Love in a Chair.

Some aspects of the story were spectacularly told. The ups and downs and accompanying drama definitely fit the teen characters. Aaron and Brian, while young, knew how they felt about each other. They both grapple with their sexuality and what it means to be a gay teen when not everyone is willing to accept differences. Kids can definitely be cruel, and it wasn’t easy.

Of course a large part of the conflict in the story comes from an accident. Brian and Aaron panic when they think their relationship is going to be exposed, and a series of unexpected events leads to tragedy. Aaron faces persecution from Brian’s parents after a car accident where he was driving illegally leaves Brian paralyzed. He also faces prosecution from a botched investigation by a biased and bigoted sheriff’s office.

Meanwhile, Brian is facing a life completely different from what he ever expected. Physically and emotionally he has to adjust to his new reality, harsh as it is. It leads to good things for both teens and then it all goes bad… anger, depression, attempted suicide, a near death experience all lead up to a dramatic climax.

So, that’s the plot. As for the writing… well, this just goes to show how much a person can improve. I can’t speak to the sex scenes, since I skipped those due to personal preference, but the overall writing was rough. Not enough to prevent enjoyment of a story, but not nearly close to Altimexis’ current writing ability. While I believe that teenagers can fall in love, and stay in love through those years into adulthood, it’s not easy.

It takes a lot of maturity, in fact. However, sometimes Brian and Adam’s dialogue was far too mature for their years. It felt unrealistic at times.

What I loved about this story? The research and realism of the technical aspects of the plot elements. I’ve worked with quad and paraplegics. The medical information was spot on and the difficult, and often messy, aspects of learning to deal with/live with/care for someone with a disability like Brian’s wasn’t downplayed and glossed over. That impressed me because all too often people use the disability trope in a story and handle it poorly.

Overall, I give Love in a Chair a 3.5 out of 5 stars. The amount of sex was a bit much for me, even for teenage characters, but if you don’t mind minor rough writing and like a long, complex teen story about coming out and coming of age with some serious bumps along the way, you should check out this story!