Disastrous Dates & Dream Boys

Gay Youth Chronicles

By: Mark A. Roeder

Narrated by: Bryant Sullivan

Disastrous Dates & Dream Boys is the story of teenage boys who want what we all want - to love and be loved. Shawn yearns for a boyfriend but fears his father's wrath if he discovers the truth. Dane seeks a soul mate and tries to leave his checkered past behind. Brendan has created a new life for himself and his boyfriend, Casper, but the past haunts him. Nathan also has issues from his past to resolve. Disastrous Dates & Dream Boys is a tale of fathers & sons, lovers & friends, and love & understanding.

©2007, 2014 Mark A. Roeder (P)2015 Mark A. Roeder

It just keeps getting better.

I have really come to enjoy the Verona boys. Can't wait for the sequel . The 80"s were not the easiest to be out of the closet.

I absolutely love this series

this series of stories is totally awesome. I want to write my story so bad an have it published an turned into a audiobook. but my story has not had a good ending to bring it to. there is still a lot of pain an suffering an people hating me an me at times wishing I could die.
Jim Arrowsmith
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Melodrama

If you go for repeated exclamations such as “Oh God!” you’ll like this title. If you’re looking for real literature, look elsewhere.

Wasted Time

Sorry, Mr. Roeder, but your work isn't for me. I really WANTED to like these stories. I had read about the author, who said that his goal was to provide positive affirming stories for gay youth, and I appreciate the good, loving intention behind that goal.

I have tried three of his books now, this one being the third. I just can't stomach them. Unfortunately, his good intentions cannot make up for glaring ineptitude in his writing. His character development is non-existent. His sentence structure is atrociously amateurish. The dialogue is just plain awful. The plots are so far-fetched that they fail to draw the reader in. It would require such a suspension of belief to buy in that this becomes impossible. I don't like having to say this, but this is the most nonsensical documentation of unrealistic drivel I have ever had the misfortune of listening to.

I felt like the author was deliberately "dumbing down" his story because he is targeting younger readers. The three books of his that I have read all have these problems. They read as if they were written by a grammar school student as an English assignment. I thank you for your well-meant intentions, Mr, Roeder...but I JUST CAN'T...sorry!

Also, the narrators on his books do NOT help matters any. In this case, I don't think that better narrators would have helped though. The material itself is beyond saving. However, the poor narration is another trait that the three I read had in common.

It ain't Shakespeare

Highlights the lives of several gay teens in the Midwest living soap operish lives facing very topical terrors growing up in the early 1980s. Captures the adolescent angst nicely, but isn't particularly well written.