Hey, all! I'm reading this AWESOME book right now that I got off of Lulu.com. It's called "Christopher", and it's described by the author as "A Gay Retelling Of Beauty and The Beast intermixed with a little Phantom and alot of my imagination" (HIS imagination, not mine )! This is my review of it, which I posted on Lulu.com:

Sheesh...I honestly wish more people would be exposed to the existance of this story. This is, without a doubt, the most heart-wrenching, fantastical, powerful, atmospheric, romantic, and perfect love story I've ever read or seen...Even more so than "Titanic" and "WALL-E". That says A LOT. Of course, I'm gay myself...But I believe this should be read by EVERYONE, gay or straight.

"Beauty and the Beast" was ALWAYS one of my all-time favorite stories. "Christopher" takes a fresh new approach to the tale. Sure, one can expect a "happily ever after" at the end, but there are a lot of unexpected surprises and twists along the way. And sure, there is some doubt that the relationship between Christian (the "Beauty") and Fiyero (the beast), the two young lovers, would ever work out so well, it always feels genuine and true. It's real easy to root for those guys!

Even the supporting characters, while mostly taking a back seat to the two protagonists, are given a lot of, well, character! Alan, Christian's life-long friend, and Gerald, Fiyero's childhood friend, are my personal favorites among the supporting cast.

The overall style is dark and atmospheric, yet gets incredibly romantic and heart-wrenching as the heroes' relationship develops. Yet it's also a very fast read, which is good for me since I tend to hate spending too much time on 600-plus page books. At times it feels reminiscent of another one of my favorite reads, "Eragon".

One thing about "Christoper" that I find very interesting - and, over time, very effective - is its use of varying first-person POVs. As in, Christian would narrate from his POV in one chapter, than Fiyero would take over in the next chapter. The only other book I read that featured that was "Treasure Island". It's a great approach, and most of the time necessary to progress the story and/or provoke a new look at the story - especially when Fiyero is narrating.

Now, if there is one thing about "Christopher" that bugs me, it has to be the fact that it has a lot of grammatical errors - for example, there are several times when Christian is mistakenly called a female by the author. As I read it more I easily ignored them, filling in the blanks in my own mind. These errors take a while to get used to, and are easily to set aside if one is both a creative reader and easy-going (such as myself). But I mention this as a warning to anyone who is interested in reading it.

Otherwise, this is a nearly flawless romantic fantasy. For those gays who were waiting a long time for a good homosexual fairy tale: Their dream story lies here. For straight people who like romantic fantasies: Read this anyway; it's seriously just as good - maybe even better - than any straight rom-fant (I just made that up, FYI). I would recommend this to just about anyone. It's THAT good.

Rating: 5 out of 5

For those who are interested, here's the link to buy the hardcover and e-book versions: :[link]