A sweet take on the nerdy college guy falls for the clueless but cute jock room-mate trope. This is NOT a short story collection though it is episodicA sweet take on the nerdy college guy falls for the clueless but cute jock room-mate trope. This is NOT a short story collection though it is episodic.
The drama here like so many MM romances comes from the unspoken attraction between the two MCs (This time with a Christmas theme thrown in as well)
It's a light hearted romp with all the angst of a Hallmark Family movie and just that amount of graphic sexual content.
Probably closer to three and a half stars than four but 'tis the season.
This novella was the best discovery I made this month. Perhaps it would be more accurate/less menacing to call this one The Boy (in the Photo) at the This novella was the best discovery I made this month. Perhaps it would be more accurate/less menacing to call this one The Boy (in the Photo) at the Bottom of the Fountain. The title and the book cover image are actually a bit misleading. Since it's revealed in the first ten minutes, it's not MUCH of a spoiler to admit this.
The book is basically angst-free and yet there is a dramatic storyline that builds gradually and benignantly from segment to segment. We encounter several likable and quirky characters whose stories intermingle in a way that author Jay Bell seems to have perfected. There's an amazing and surprising HFN ending with an absolutely unique build-up of a type that I've never encountered before in all my years of reading. It's romantic and perhaps the sweetest thing I've read this year, while at the same time being a bit of a surprise ending and eureka moment combined.
Bell spent some time in Kansas, went to college there, and met his future husband there. This book, like many of his best, is a reflection of that time and is based there. While the location is a minor aspect of this story, it adds yet another facet to the tale and was a fun discovery for this fan of his earlier work.
This is the first novel by Jay Bell that Charlie David narrates and he was a good choice for this. He does his usual yeoman-like job with the narration. And this time he did it without once invoking the "If he mispronounces that word one more time I'm gonna have to hunt him down and end him" reactions that I've had to some of his earlier voice narration efforts.
Dominic Ramos is a twenty-something deeply closeted, deeply unhappy Premiership football player who meets Lucky through a furtive Grindr hookup. LuckyDominic Ramos is a twenty-something deeply closeted, deeply unhappy Premiership football player who meets Lucky through a furtive Grindr hookup. Lucky is a homeless young guy who has turned to drugs to get him past the lows too often. Their pre-arranged, one-time-only assignation somehow goes astray, and they find they have a chemistry that neither can deny.
This is a compelling coming out story and a romance between two apparently mismatched men that are just perfect for each other.
Garrett Leigh writes these gritty tale of gay life in and around London in a way that I've come to love. Unfortunately, the audiobook here is narrated by Shaun Grindell His narrative voice was just too jarring for the story I had playing in my mind to make the switch. I checked Garrett Leigh's Strays that I read a while back and that was narrated by Dan Calley. I'm note sure if it was because I started that one from the beginning as an audiobook or not, but Shaun's voice just made this one unlistenable. To be honest, I started reading this when I found that I had scooped up a free kindle copy quite sometime ago. I was several chapters in when I saw that it was also available as an audiobook available through Audible prime. ...more
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