Review: Sweet and funny, the perfect relaxing read.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2014
How can I not like this book? It's about a bookworm. I'm a bookworm. It has a beauty in it. I wanna [make violent love to] a beauty...then fall massively in love. (Really, is any that too much to ask?) And that cover! Would licking that guy's abs and then sucking on his nips constitute sexual harassment? Yes? Bloody PC police, a girl can't get away with anything anymore.Let me tell you something about librarians, ok? You probably imagine them as old ladies with glasses, who say "shhhh" a lot. But the librarians I know are nothing like that. About 150 years ago I worked at the Knight Library in Eugene, OR. One Christmas I had a party and I invited the librarians. I thought I was pretty hardcore as I drank white wine and ate marshmallows while decorating for said party. Then the librarians showed up. Let me inform you of something: THOSE PEOPLE CAN PARTY. What I thought would be a nice little get-together turned into a rave. Drinking, smoking, jumping off my apartment's roof into the pool next door. I'm not even joking. It was cray-cray. With an extra splash of cray.The MC in "Beauty and the Bookworm," Mason, is nothing like this. He has a cardigan for every occasion. He keeps his nose so close to his e-reader there's probably a permanent oil stain there. (Okay, that sounds disgusting, but c'mon! I've had to wipe mine down with alcohol a time or two. Or once a day. Whatever.) The worst thing you can say about him is that he has bad taste in men when he's drunk. (Who doesn't?) He spends his time reading MM Romance. (Who doesn't?) Clearly the author is a dude familiar with the frequent ridiculousness of MM (or any romance):"'Easter Lust'...a story about a bunny rabbit shifter who meets a chicken shifter. The come together, fall in love, and then, tragically, discover they're both submissive bottoms. They try bumping butts for a while....and then they meet a dominant wolf shifter....He buggers them both mercilessly and every one ends up happy. 5 stars."I completely identified with Mason. (See nose to e-reader remark above.) He's not quite shy, but he is a sarcastic introvert. He answers the question "what are you reading?" with utter lies. He also reminds me of a more sarcastic version of Pageant's MC Billy inBilly's Turn (Rose City Stories). Both Billy & Mason spend so much time looking down or reading books they fail to notice anyone around them. There's an excellent quote about this from "Billy's Turn":"[Y]ou never *let* yourself meet anybody. Stop staring at the...ground all the time or Prince Charming is going to walk by without noticing."In "Beauty and the Bookworm", Mason's gran makes a similar statement:"It's time you stopped reading about love and started looking for it."Okay, ow! Those quotes are like a one-two punch to the kidney. In both these books, Pageant shows he understands what it's like to be one of life's observers. He's familiar with at least the idea of feeling like an outsider even amongst those who accept him. What it's like to use humor as your only defense. His talent lies in his ability to communicate these feeling subtly, without obvious statements.Ok, let us speak of Shane. Other for some grammatical mistakes and mixing names up at one point, Shane is my only real complaint (not a serious one). Like the love interest in Cardeno C.'s "Perfect Imperfections", Shane is a little too perfect. Other than some light issues with his brother, Shawn, Shane is the perfect, supportive boyfriend. I like a little more conflict in my romance. Not too much, I hate angst for the sake of angst, but a tad more would be nice. However, I feel the same way about Shane as I did about Reg in "Past Imperfections": I DON'T CARE. Color me I DON'T GIVE A POOP. I love Shane, I love his jockstraps and I really love how much he likes Mason. I especially love his attempts to impress Mason and his sexual fantasies. He's a bookworms dream come true. I want to smoosh his face between my boobs and shout "woobie, woobie, woobie!" (Except that would also constitute sexual harassment. Jeesh!)I was pretty impressed by the novel's main conflict. Ah...and that's really all I can say without spoilers. Sorry. However, I will say that it's not what or who you think it will be.This book is like a less exhausting "Tell Me It's Real." They're both funny, they both use first person narrative and both narrators speak directly to the reader. I like "Tell Me," it's hilarious, but I frequently find TJ Klune's rat-a-tat-tat gunfire humor, followed by heavy angst, exhausting. I liked the sarcastic humor found in this book a little more. There's a lack of vagina mentions, a lack of running into walls & no running over love-interest with a car. However, there is a lesbian-biker grandma that is as over the top as the parents in "Tell Me" who likes to drop unnecessary comments about sexual acts as well.So why 4.5 stars instead of 5? Well, I think the writing could be tighter, a little less wordy in parts. Also, Pageant could've created some conflict between Mason & Shane by exploring the differences between a real relationship and the relationships found in a romance novel. There seemed to be a set up for that, but no follow through. Other than that I really enjoyed this book. It's a great, light-hearted, funny read by an author I expect will only improve as time goes by.P.S. For the sake of honesty I will mention that the author and I are very new "online buddies." However, it's not like we've gone out for coffee. I've never given him a noogie. And I accepted no payment in exchange for my honest review. Having said that, I would like to mention to any author out there that I will accept payment in the form of large jars of Nutella. You know, the ones you find at Costco. A spoon would be nice as well.