Review: Not quite as fabulous as I had hoped.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2013
Don't hate me friends... I'm struggling a little with how to write a coherent review for this book. As with any book that most of my friends love and I don't quite connect with in the same way, I feel like I missed the party bus and I'm left standing in the dust waving my hands screaming "Guys! Wait up!! You forgot about me!" I so so so wanted to be invited to the "How to Repair a Mechanical Heart" love-fest but I think my own personal preferences got in the way.Let me start with what I loved. This book was funny and well written- no two ways about it. I just about died reading the posts on the Abandon fan-fic site. The fanfic girls squeeing and blogging about their exploding vaginas was some of the funniest stuff I have read in a while. I could have read a book just of blog posts by this author. Brilliant stuff. I also loved the actors from Castaway Planet in all of their drunken, anti-role model glory. These were some moments that I really loved this book and thought it was going to be a 4 or 5 star read for me. However, not all of the parts of this book worked for my own tastes.I think my major issue is that I don't really like religious themed books. The constant insertion of the priest talking in Brandon's head just irritated me, and I felt like so much of the focus of the story was on religion and Brandon getting over his Catholic guilt. While other readers might like that journey, I quickly grew bored with it. The preachy aspect of the book was too much for me.I can work with fade-to-black sex in books and still love them. I don't mind it as long as I feel the chemistry between the two guys. Here, I felt more of a friend vibe than anything else. My favorite moments were when Brandon was describing the emotions of his first touches with Able... the way his whole body froze and broke out in sweats.. that kind of level of detailed description is what I live for. However, once they had their first fade-to-black hook-up, all of those intimate details evaporated. I wanted more intimacy, even if I couldn't get the dirty details.I have to say, though I have never been involved in fanfic (another one of my problems with this book- I think I would have connected with the story muuuuuch more if I was in a fan-community), I can tell that the writer is no stranger to the world of fan-dom. Her writing about the fan fic bloggers and the Castaway Planet-con felt so authentic. Those moments were the highlight of the book for me.Don't get me wrong, this was a very cute and enjoyable read, however, I won't be putting this one on my favorites shelf.