Review: Alas. Another Jelly Bean Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 25, 2014
By which I mean, very sweet, very one note, can be consumed mindlessly, no sustenance. When I read I want to be fed! Even if it's a novel meant for quick consumption. And the crying shame is that this author assembled all the ingredients that really do it for me in M/M romance, that I so rarely find, but either lacked the skill to make them resonate or, more likely, was already plotting the next book in the series as she colored in the lines for this one. Don't mean to be harsh but I was quite disappointed.I LOVE opposites. I LOVE flamboyant, flirty fellows with a camp sensibility being  adored and desired by macho men. Femmey boys and the men they swoon for. Not everyone's cuppa but such pairings are not at all uncommon among gay men and deserve their place in a homogenized sea of musclebound cowboys, closeted Mafiosi and hard boiled detectives. Give me an Edward and Jack anytime. Vive la difference because it's hot! But give me a story worthy of their sizzling chemistry. Don't tell me how they feel. Make me feel it! So much rich back story to explore! So many motivations to untangle. But nope. Everything is very quick and, snip snip, Jack's twenty year, tightly controlled, closet fortress crumbles in less than a week. I do believe in love in first sight but not instant commitment for ever and ever. To come to that realization takes time and that's just what the author seemed incapable of giving the reader.Okay, this book wasn't so terribly bad as these things go but it was too formulaic. The female author doesn't have quite a realistic grasp of the 45 year old male refractory period. Immediate, constant, "bone hard" erections after six months? Give me what he's having! The last third was sticky sweet and not only were they in love and committed in six days, Edward had aquired a whole new set of devoted pals and cohorts willing to rally and support him in the same six days. The Meemaw story was touching and made me cry but I sniffle at laundry commercials so take that as you will.I so wanted to love this book. And I just. Didn't. Not enough anyway. Winston the little bulldog was cute with personality to spare. Would that the author had painted a Jack and Edward's romance with such a deft hand.But, contrarian that I am, I do plan to buy at least one of the other stories in the series. The Sammi/Mitchell one. Again, because fey boys being delightfully and willingly manhandled by big, silent types totally does it for me. Until a nice thick steak of a story with that dynamic comes along I guess I'll continue to feed my kink with cotton candy. So I score four for the characters and Winston the dog. Two for a rushed, sloppy story. Make this one a three,