Well, here we are again, another review and recommendation from me. This time, its not a book, but a series of books. With my reading I seem to be on a real gay furry romance kick at the moment, not a genre I used to be interested in, which seems weird to say, considering I'm gay, furry and have a romantic side.

So what's got impressed me enough to make me want to write a whole journal recommending it? It's the 'Dev and Lee' books by Kyell Gold, consisting of 'Out of Position', 'Isolation Play', 'Divisions' and 'Uncovered'. A fifth book is on the way, but is, rather frustratingly, more than a year away from publication at this point.

Its a gay furry romance, a wonderfully well written story about relationships, about figuring out who you are and the search for acceptance and understanding. I'm going to try and avoid too many spoilers, but I think a few may creep in, so be warned.

So, let's talk about the story. It's about Devlin Miski a tiger who's a jock on the football team of the college he attends. One night, he picks up a vixen at a bar and goes back to her place. But then he discovers she's not a vixen. It is in fact a male fox by the name of Wiley Farrel (or Lee for short), he's a gay activist, out to humiliate a jock by tricking him into a gay experience as part of an ill-thought out revenge scheme after his best friend was beaten up and hospitalized by a couple of football players for being gay. But neither of them expected Dev to enjoy it so much, or for him to keep coming back for more. And certainly neither of them expected to fall in love with each other.

And that's just the beginning. From there, the story follows their unlikely romance and relationship as it grows and develops, through their final years of college and beyond, as Dev embarks on a career as a professional football player, thanks to Lee's help, support and encouragement. They attempt to continue and explore their relationship, but have plenty of obstacles to overcome, from disapproving parents, unwanted media attention, and Lee's former best friend, among many other things.

The characters of Dev and Lee are simply fantastically well written, there's no other way of putting it. I just fell in love with them. The relationship that develops between them is sweet and wonderful and passionate. It's not always smooth sailing with them, Dev's earnest honestly often clashing with Lee's quick-witted sarcasm, and they have their fair share of fights, but that all just serves to keep things interesting. The whole thing is written in the first person, but with different chapters being told from either Dev or Lee's point of view, allowing the reader a chance to get inside both of their heads and see how they think, a set up that works very well in getting to the reader to understand and like them.

Overall the whole series is extremely well written, juggling mature character drama and emotional complexity, exploring a wide range of issues revolving around love, relationships and homosexuality, all while telling a damn good romance story about a couple of great characters, and managing to pack in plenty of fun, touching and heart-warming moments as well.

I should say that the books do feature a fair amount of football, the American kind. As someone who is very much not a sports kind of guy, it initially made me a little hesitant to give it a try, but I'm very glad I did. I will confess I found the football stuff a little tough to follow at times, but in the end it was worth the effort. There are two brief chapters at the beginning of each book, one written from Dev's point of view, the other from Lee's, that serve as a sort of 'football for dummies' allowing those clueless about it like myself to get an idea of the game. All in all, the football stuff is handled well, and I could get caught up in the excitement of the game here and there. I'm glad I didn't let that aspect of the series put me off, and would advise not to let it put you off to, if it might.

The other thing the books feature a fair amount if is detailed gay sex scenes. But they are well done, integrated well into the story, and are used to serve as physical expression of the love between the characters.

I should also mention that the books are peppered with the occasional illustration by the artist Blotch, which are all rather cool, nicely detailed and portray the characters well. Although some are rather explicit, in case that bothers anyone. Colour versions of a few of them can be found on FA in Blotch's gallery. This one in particular depicts one of my favourite moments from the series: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5322503/

Summing up then, this is a great series and if you haven't picked up on how I feel yet, I loved it from beginning to end and am whole heartedly recommending you all check out, if you haven't already. Here's a quick rundown of the books:

Out of Position

A fantastic start to the series, introducing Dev and Lee and their relationship. While the first few chapters are good, when the story really gets going, it becomes something special, all building up to a fantastic ending.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Positio.....dp/B003PPDAXQ/
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/out-of-position
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=out-of-position

Isolation Play

One review I saw for 'Out of Position' said that one of the great things about it is that you then get to enjoy the sequel. And that's a sentiment I'd have to agree with as the second book is better than the first, upping the ante in terms of character drama and emotional depth, as Dev has to deal with being the first openly gay professional football player, and Lee has to deal with being back in the closet for the sake of his job.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolation-P.....dp/B006GHJ0E8/
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/isolation-play
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=isolation-play

Divisions

The continuing success of Dev's team puts him under more and more pressure, while circumstances draw Lee back into the world of gay rights activism, which threatens to put him at odds with Dev's desire to just focus on being a football player. A great continuation of Dev and Lee's story, throwing new challenges at them to deal with.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Divisions-D.....dp/B00E9N6W2Y/
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=divisions
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/divisions

Uncovered

The fourth book sees Dev and Lee's relationship put under more pressure than ever before as their different goals see them being pulled in different directions. After three books following and loving these guys and their relationship, the difficulties they face here made for quite difficulty reading in places as they are put through the emotional wringer in a major way. Its a fantastically written book that had me utterly engrossed. I literally stayed up through a whole night reading it to the end.

www.amazon.co.uk/Uncovered-Dev-Lee-.....4-ebook/dp/B00N4923SG/
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/uncovered
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=unc.....dev-lee-book-4

Another neat aspect of the series are the bonus stories. Kyell Gold has apparently promised that if any of his books sells more than a thousand copies in its first year of publication, he will write a short story connected to it and post it online for free as a thank you. The first three books managed this (the fourth has been out less than a year, but I'd be surprised if it didn't manage it as well), so there are three bonus stories out there. 'False Dawn', 'Heart' and 'Getting to Sleep'. They are included in the ebook versions of the books, I'm not sure about the print editions. But they can also be found on Kyell Gold's web site, but its probably best to have read the books first: http://www.kyellgold.com/books/stories.html

And I'll just wrap this all up by sharing this cute video I found. Yes, the animation is sort of basic/unfinished, but it still gets its point across, it matches the song well and is ultimately rather sweet, at least to me: https://youtu.be/c8G5lEk9nPE