Review: ~ Review by Beverley
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2014
5 of 5 starsFor original review see The Prism Book Alliance Blog onlinePeople that know my reviews will realise I give a 5* rating very rarely nowadays. I don’t believe I have become more picky or critical. However, with the amount of books, for review, I read, I have become more able to identify problems and less tolerant of those problems when they appear again and again. So why have I given ‘Loving Jay’ 5*?Firstly, accuracy – the blurb was a good description of the story in this book, many aren’t. The grammar and punctuation was so good it wasn’t noticeable, and that is what should always be the case. I found no typos, almost unheard of! I may have missed them but if I did be assured they were not important ones, as I am hypersensitive to typos. So the bare bones of writing and editing were solid and taken care of, meaning I could relax into this story.Set in Perth in Australia it was familiar and quite British, but with enough cultural differences for me to be aware and interested in them. The characters are absolutely enchanting. Liam is so unsure about his sexuality he has tried both sides, male and female, and wasn’t particularly impressed with either. Following his car accident at sixteen, which left him with a painful leg and a limp, he’s becoming convinced that something else was broken in him. Of late though, he is becoming more and more distracted by an effeminate out and proud man he calls Jay (all is explained) who he sees on his very early morning train into the city.They meet, and slowly by buying coffee for each other, for their train journey, they become friends and get to know each other. There are incidents, which occur to hurry or slow this budding relationship, but the humour and wonder of these two characters, and the interesting secondary characters, carries this story to a different level than most m/m love stories.There are some lovely touches in the narration as when Liam is trying to convince himself that he is not gay,And I really wasn’t gay. In order to be gay you have to be in love with another guy, don’t you? You have to be ‘living the scene’, going out to gay clubs, proudly dancing in pride parades, and pinching men’s arses. And I am not doing any of that – ergo I am not gayHowever, as his attraction to Jay grows Liam’s arguments with himself change tack,For God’s sake, Liam, be a man, not a child. Say it to yourself – you prefer cock. You don’t want a soft woman with flabby tits. You want a hard body that is male and comes with an equally hard cock. You want morning stubble and furry chests and balls.Whilst Liam talks in his mind a lot Jay keeps nothing inside. He speaks an endless, breathless stream of  thoughts and his anxiety, but Liam ‘gets him’, he loves his verbosity and can handle it and they calm each other. One of the problems they have to confront is Liam’s discomfort about the subject of anal sex and here he is the most verbal,We don’t have to do it, do we? Is there some sort of written code out there that I don’t know about that says we have to do it before we are allowed to be gay?No.Then why do we have to? What we do now is hot and sexy and satisfying. We’re equals. I just think anal sex brings an element of…inequality into the mix that I’m not ready for.Like the rest of this story the subject is dealt with realistically and sensitively and with humour. This couple actually talk to each other rather than stomp out, overreact, and generally cause themselves problems often seen in such romance stories. There were so many lovely touches and sweet moments in this novel, but I will end with Liam’s response to his mother when his father reacts badly to Liam’s ‘coming out’,Mum?…Can you tell Dad it’s not his fault? I mean, the way I am? I don’t want Dad to think he did something wrong or anything. I’m the same as I always was. I haven’t… changed…in any way. I still like beer and fishing and football, and I hate gravy on my peas…I’m exactly the same, except I found someone to love now – someone who makes me feel a better man…I’ve found the person who I would marry – but he’s a guy.I loved this novel, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a believable romantic read with humour and a few sniffs. I look forward to reading more from this author and happily award Loving Jay, 5*.