This was a fun read. I started off really enjoying it. It was one of those you can tell where it's going after the first meet but weren't put off by it. Genuinely wanted to see how the author would get there. There was a particular scene where the main character Tannor gets blamed for a plumbing accident that got my biggest laugh. Comedy gold. My problems arose as the book continued.
It was an okay book but it didn't leap in any real original way. Once I got to the good bits the dynamics between Billy and Tanner didn't cross new ground. Without the side characters and the comedy, it didn't move or more accurately grow much. Instead of being excited about Tanner's big reveal, I felt annoyed. Like of all the times, this is the time you do it? It made so little sense beyond one obvious bit, to drum up some drama to make the story more interesting. Instead it just seemed like another unrealistic plot moment designed for people who like drama and can suspend heap loads of reality for the sake of it.
The other thing that got me was the book seemed to want me to dig deep without really taking me down that path. Like Tanner talks about how hard it is being at college/university but I don't think, for the amount of time it's brought up, he ever actually deals with that emotion. I get the sense I'm supposed to feel that verbalising it is dealing with it. It's not. People say stuff all the time and never actually deal with it.
It was the same with Billy. Talking about how he had to stay home instead of going to culinary school, but it feels so effortless. Like it wasn't that much of a struggle. He had no choice in the matter and the story reads like it wants me to feel some sort of way about how it affected him, but he gets along so well with his family and this issue never gets brought up in a way beyond just talking about it. Much like Tannor supposedly living a lie about being a star athlete. He keeps saying it but I get the sense he is still a star athlete and it's just harder than he thought with all the competition. So where's the lie? And scraping by academically... he never deals with that either. And I was waiting for him to tackle this one with his parents.
The side characters gave this book life. Specifically both moms and Tanner's grandma. Laughter abound. Especially how Tanner's mom acts after the reveal. Hilarious. My second biggest laugh in the book.
The romance angle and the sex didn't lift much for me. There's something about the way a college experienced student and a boy who's been out of high school as a working adult for two years talk and approached adult themes that felt very sixteen instead of twenty. A lot of the time I was brought out a bit like no 20 year old would say this. Especially if a sexual encounter was happening, the steamy talk did this a lot. Even if they had never had sex before something about their sentence structures I found lacked the experience that working and being around older and maturer crowds for two years would have. It was a bit too juvenile for their age bracket. A lot of the reactions, situations, and the way things were worded through the novel in its entirety sometimes made me think of teen fiction trying to mascarade as adult fiction.
That was what undid it mostly. With all the hilariously good moments that kept this book alive, the main characters still felt like they were a few years behind the age they actually were. The story was clearly more than G rated but a lot of the times read PG13 and never quite lifted to the level of real character depth that I continuously felt I was being pulled towards. It hit one good note and sang it really well. But it had so much potential to hit all the other notes also. And after reading some of the other reviews I noticed I'm not the only one that found the writing a bit juvenile as a whole. It definitely felt like a teen writing an adult book.
Lastly, I am here for books where being gay is a non-issue. However, I couldn't suspend enough belief that in a small southern Christian town literally no one has an issue with this. Like no one. And, plot spoiler, the local minister marries them I found out in the second book. Again, small, southern town. No one cares. Let that sink in a bit.
This book gets three stars for the comedy and overall southern sass and mostly Tanner's mom's reaction to his coming out. You can't beat that kind of writing. I'm here for it. Beyond that, it doesn't have much going for it. If you're looking for a hilarious romance about two guys navigating their way through first love. You'll love this book. If you're looking for an adultier worded, slightly more angsty, in-depth type of read along with your comedy, this is probably too safe for you, outside of the sex scenes of course.
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