Review: St-St-Stuffed (Enemies to Lovers) by Anyta Sunday
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 23, 2013
Don't know why but I had the wrong idea this was a paranormal romance, and on the contrary it's far from it. St-St-Stuffed is a contemporary novel, about two young men, and they fall in love, so you can add "romance" to the description, but I wanted to highlight this is more wide story than the love story.This is the story of Karl and his search for a path in life, and of Paul, who was thinking to have found that path and instead everything crushed around him. Karl and Paul together is another story as well. And then there is Karl and Charlie, Paul's son, a father-son relationship Karl was never expecting to find and love so much.If I have to be true, when I read the impromptu of the story, of how Karl was the bully that made Paul's life an hell when they were only kids, I thought, "I have already read this story" because indeed was really similar to another novel and to add to it, also in that other novel there was a kid. But St-St-Stuffed is a completely different situation, and the old fight between Karl and Paul is only a mean to give a complex layer to the relationship building between them now as adults.Then there is the totally absence of labels; Karl is gay, probably Paul is bisexual, but it's not that this is categorizing them into label. In no way Paul is prejudiced about Karl, and actually I don't seem to recall a moment in the story when Karl says to Paul "I'm gay", being gay is being Karl, not need to "declare it"; on the other hand, it's not like Paul comes to Karl saying "I'm straight" or "I'm bisexual". Sure, when it's Paul's time to admit he is attracted by Karl, then there is an obstacle in the story they will need to overcome, but that is Paul's past coming up and showing his fragility.Again, as for another novel but Anyta Sunday I read, closing this novel, I have the feeling that, wrapped in a romantic story, I read something deeper and complex.