Review: Cute story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2013
This review can be found at The Blog of Sid Love.When I read the blurb for this, I was thinking it'd be along the lines of the movie The Wedding Date, which I adored and have watched a bunch of times. While it does have a similar vibe to the movie, the big difference is this takes place mostly before the wedding and follows Tristan on his journey to finding a date to his ex's nuptials. Going on blind dates and then online dating, he discovers Darren's secret. Darren never meant to keep the fact he was gay from Tristan but he just never found the right time to tell Tristan or their friends. When the two get together, they start a relationship a little too fast and soon Darren is agreeing to go to Stuart's wedding with Tristan. But now the question remains, is Tristan just using Darren or does he actually have feelings for Darren?Tristan is a passionate individual. Even after years of being broken up from Stuart, he still loves him enough to be sad over being invited to the wedding. Tristan's a bit melodramatic and exaggerates which makes him a bit of a handful at times. To counter that, he also has a love of sports that means he doesn't exactly fit into the stereotypical gay role. He's a bit self-absorbed but overall he's sweet. Darren has been Tristan's best friend since college and been in love with Tristan for years. He's been in the closet for a while now, making Tristan believe Darren was straight this whole time. Together they're a cute couple. Darren is shy but obviously adores Tristan while Tristan is a little over the top but eventually comes to realize his feelings for Darren.A source of amusement throughout the whole book was the constant wondering just why Tristan's ex, Stuart, would invite him to the wedding. More than that, the phone calls and weird conversations they would have had me chuckling a few times. While I can't say I exactly liked the fact it was so focused on the ex, I can say that while Tristan's actions towards asking Darren to the wedding are questionable, Tristan's overall feelings for Stuart are more of affection towards a friend than a soul deep love between ex-partners of ten years, even if they have been broken up for a while. I will say that I adored Tristan and Darren's friends. Kevin, Hugh and Alex had me chuckling a few times with their competitive sports banter and their figurative nose wrinkle at thinking of Darren and Tristan together because they all think of the two as `brothers'. It was cute and funny and I really enjoyed those parts.I've always been a sucker for friends to lovers stories so I found this book overall sweet. It's a bit predictable but has a cute execution. At times, the story dragged because a lot of it is spent in Tristan's head so the monologue got a little too heavy for me especially when it seemed a bit repetitive. There's also the problem that I felt like a lot of it was told instead of shown, which hindered my ability to get to know not only Tristan better but overall Darren. I didn't feel like Darren was fleshed out enough, I couldn't connect with him. I found him sweet but I ultimately couldn't feel that connection between them because Darren wasn't developed as a character. In the beginning, it was hard for me to stick with this story, I kept putting it down because it didn't grab my attention. Around the 40% mark, however, it started to pick up and I was enjoying it but by the end, the epilogue kind of damped my enjoyment because the whole thing is told and I was expecting a little more something between Darren and Tristan to show how their relationship was after the wedding. I didn't really feel satisfied with the ending because it just made me feel like I was missing much more than I should have been considering the length of time that passed and that made me sad.Overall, I enjoyed the story but it took a while for me to do that. I found Tristan very amusing and I did like the potential between Darren and Tristan but I didn't exactly feel like it was fleshed out enough for the level of love and commitment that they were explained to have. However, I think if you're looking for a sweet, quick and semi humorous story, you'll enjoy this one.