Bane of Boston - J.P. Barnaby The premise of the story is one that I actually like. Jack is plagued by being the Bane of Boston for catching a foul ball eight years ago that would have won the game for his beloved Red Sox. Since then his life has been miserable - his partner has left him, his family hates him, he's had to constantly move and he ended up changing his name. Now in Chicago, he feels like he's found somewhere he can stay. When he meets Ryan, he's lonely and thinks life is starting to look up. Ryan, on the other hand, realizes who Jack is on their way to Ryan's apartment and suddenly Ryan realizes he can get some sex and a story good enough to launch his journalism career.

I enjoy watching baseball, although I'm not a die hard fan, I can actually see this type of thing happening. I felt bad for Jack and how horrible his life has been since that moment in time. However, I couldn't like Ryan. His thoughts and his actions were two completely different things. He thought Jack was hot, yeah, but he was also looking to make Jack into a story. He didn't have any remorse for that but was anticipating how to make Jack talk. Except, when Jack found out about Ryan's profession, Ryan's excuses and explanations were totally contradictory to what Ryan thought during his POV. I didn't feel like he was genuine because of this. If maybe we had gotten more of his POV, to see the development to his decision that he liked Jack enough not to proceed with writing the story, then maybe I could have liked him but as it is, I didn't feel like Ryan was given enough opportunity to grovel to the point of forgiveness, especially given the situation and what Jack has already been through.

In the end, this had a lot of potential but due to the length of the story, it wasn't given the justice it deserved. A longer story that was more fleshed out would have been better. I liked the premise and Jack but I didn't like Ryan or the overall execution of the resolution. It felt too quick, rushed and not resolved at all, IMO.