Review: Falling Off The Face Of The Earth by JF Smith
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 24, 2012
I really enjoyed this small town romance; James is a New York City big shot name in the Advertisement industry, with a good looking boyfriend who has to remain in the closet. Actually the boyfriend is more small-town boy than James who is actually from the South; he would like to come out, he would love for James to be the one helping him facing the public opinion, but James is all for the imagine, and not at all supporting; worst, James doesn't understand his boyfriend is hurting, not until the day he finds him dead for an barbituric overdose. James's world crashes down and he can only think to go back home, to his mother's welcoming embrace. But the limited mentality of the small town he left so many years ago is still there, and worse than worst, his high school nemesis, Brick, is now his mother's second hand in the business she owns.Brick is really changed from when he was a teenager, but James doesn't trust him at the beginning. And while he is hurt from his mistakes, he hasn't probably learned from them since James starts another relationship with a closed man, who, on the contrary of his previous boyfriend, is not at all ready to come out from the closet.While James is grieving, he has not crossed the chance to have again a love life; from day one, James is ready to check out the market for a possible partner, but of course he always picks the wrong option. James will also have issues with the small town attitude, very few examples are good, like his mother and the friends he will make anew.I found the romance well developed, and in a way surprising, even if I was expecting the evolution; what I was not expecting was the sidetracking the author had for James, he didn't take the straight road (no pun intended) to happiness. And what I didn't expect was the tragic ending for one of the supporting characters, from my point of view, if the author wanted to revisit this couple, having that character out of the picture is a tremendous loss, but maybe James had to grew somehow, since, as proved, not even the death of his boyfriend was a shock enough to make him.