Review: Angel of Thirteenth Street by Eden Winters

I've not made it a big secret that I greatly admire this new author's writing, so I was looking forward to reading her new novel, Angel of Thirteenth Street.  I'm happy to say that this book lived up to expectations.

The book opens with our hero, Jeremy, being chased down the street.  He's on his way home from school to the dank basement where he lives since the money ran out and his foster parents kicked him out.  The men chasing him are Trent, a former lover who 'groomed' Jeremy intending him for a life of prostitution, and Trent's cronies, all of who work for Willie Carnell, a pimp who likes to have men who look younger than their years in his stable.   Jeremy fits the bill for that, but doesn't want anything to do with Willie or Trent.  He's in line for a full scholarship and just wants to keep his head down and finish school so that he can escape his life with its dreariness and hunger.  After dodging Trent, Jeremy ventures out to a local laundromat where he is discovered by Noah.  Noah owns the bar attached to the laundromat and has a reputation as a man who seeks out young male prostitutes and persuades them to return home.  Noah is impressed by Jeremy's determination to improve his circumstances and offers him a place to stay and food to eat in exchange for working at the laundromat, a decision which changes the lives of both men.

The tone of this book is darker than previous books by this author, as you would expect from a book which deals with themes of homelessness and prostitution.  However, balancing out the darkness in the story is a rather sweet story of hope, and a lovely romance between two initially different men.  Noah is a former whore who failed to finish high school.  He's got plenty of street smarts and a determination to succeed.  His bar runs well, but mostly due to long hours and hard work rather than a result of business sense.  Jeremy is astute and intelligent.  He's also determined to succeed, but has a structured goal centred mind when it comes to business.  The two men compliment each other in this respects which is why the age difference of 10 years worked well.  Jeremy is also an interesting mix of being old for his years and yet also very young.  He's able to fend for himself and act maturely, but then he's also horribly naive and prone to jump to conclusions.  I felt this worked well considering that he's only 18.  In terms of sexual experience Noah is obviously ahead of Jeremy, but Jeremy isn't a blushing innocent either.  I really liked this, liked that Jeremy wasn't afraid to act on his attraction to Noah, even when Noah is trying to be all noble.  I found that I really liked both characters, especially as both of them have their faults.

I also liked the character of Willie, the pimp.  Noah and Willie have a history and I found their back story to be poignant and very sad at times.  I also liked the way that Willie is a result of a path that diverges, Noah going one way, Willie another.  The addition of Noah's relationship with Willie gave Noah's character more definition and he was definitely the more rounded out of the two heroes as a result.  Some readers may not like that some of the book is focused on Willie and Noah and their shared history together, but I felt that those scenes were necessary in order for Noah to move on into a relationship with Jeremy.

The story itself varies in tone as it shifts between quiet intense scenes, to scenes of action and danger, to scenes riddled with sexual tension.  Noah and Jeremy's relationship develops gradually and those readers looking for pages and pages of hot sex are going to be very disappointed.  This is a plot led book, and the sex, whilst there, beautifully done and well worth the wait, is not the focus of the story.  I liked this a great deal because I'm a big fan of books where the heroes get to know each other before jumping into bed.

Overall, I liked this book a great deal - as you can probably tell by the number of times I've written the word 'like'!  It was a strong drama with sympathetic, realistic characters that was set in the seedy side of life, yet still contained a thread of hopefulness amongst some of the despair.  I'd recommend Angel of Thirteenth Street with a grade of 'Excellent' for those who are looking for a book with an interesting plot and well drawn characters.

Buy this book HERE.