Reading is like breathing...

4 stars.****Review posted March 23, 2014





His whole face had changed from the moment I'd handed him the camera. Back near Connie's house, apart from the brief flash of grief, his expression had been devoid of emotion. Now there was full focus. After a while the intermittent glimpses of almost frightening intensity whenever he lowered the Pentax became too much for me, so I gazed out to sea instead.



"You're probably just like all the others--see the outside and assume the rest."
"But it's the outside that interests me. Not that I wouldn't love to get closer acquainted with what's underneath." His voice dropped to a sexy drawl as he uttered his last words. 

"Sometimes you don't have to jump off a cliff to die. You can die inside little by little and still appear to be alive on the outside. That's how it was for me. I hid myself here away from the world. I thought I'd lost the capacity to love and live. (…)

122 very good pages. A story about grief and the right of every man to mourn a loss however they see fit. A story also about loyalty and critically scrutinizing their own self.



I would have loved to read a longer story because let's face it, Nat is a gorgeous and very intriguing hunk and I have a weak spot for artistic main protagonists. Photography is something very intimate and sensual and I felt irrevocably drawn to our sexy lead character. Also, I wanted to see more of Daniel and Nat as a couple; Caught hardly spanned 48 hours of their lives and I wasn't ready to let them go yet. To balance out the somewhat melancholic and sad atmosphere of Caught, A.B. wrote an excellent scene when Daniel did a great drag performance. Thanks for putting a goofy grin on my face, sweetie.

“Oh, sweetie, you’ve made my day and I haven’t even started taking the hormones yet.”

Minor quibbles
Maybe due to the shortness of Caught, there's a bit too much insta-feel thrown into the story and everything happened so fast. On the other hand, I must say it was beautifully done and very engaging. The secrecy bugged me when Daniel didn't want to tell Nat why he approached him. Although the reasoning was understandable and the ensuing resolution was fine by me.



Caught was my second read by A.B. Gayle. Fact is, I really like her writing style and the way I bond so easily with her characters leaves (almost) nothing to be desired. More please. 

The living moment.

Recommended read.