Review: Could have used a bit more fleshing out at the end, but I liked it
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2013
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 7/10PROS:- The author does a good of establishing pity for Josh right away. Six pages in, and already I ached for a happy ending for him.- It's quite funny at times. One of my favorite comments comes after Evan says he's been "stuck in a pokey cupboard with a piece-of-[crud] boiler" all day, and Josh's aside is, "Evan was a plumber, in case you're wondering. He didn't have a kink for hide-and-seek."- There's a nice tone to the writing. These are genuinely British-sounding characters...and not the cultured, High English sort. They're ordinary people ("studly and salt-of-the-earth," as Josh says) who use their own jargon and who don't have loads of money. And I loved reading the details about Bath, especially the non-tourist areas.- Josh's musings about whether or not he's interested in kink felt realistic to me. More than once I thought, "I've been there."CONS:- This is a necessary drawback of first-person narration, I know, but I really wished that I could see some scenes from Evan's and Rai's perspectives. What is it about Josh that makes them break their relationship rules for him? Where are they in the process of falling for him when he's already madly in love with them? Do they realize how left out he feels all the time?- The resolution of a fairly substantial emotional conflict takes about 3 pages, which was a bit of a rush for me.- Much as I appreciate the fact that Josh's friend Denise is probably a good friend what with her bluntness and honesty, I didn't much like her. I thought she was mostly just a jerk.Overall comments: There's a bit of sadness in Josh's constant feeling that he's a "spare part" in the other men's relationship, but the angst never went overboard for me. The story didn't leave me wallowing in pity for him for very long before picking things up again. And it's got a nice, sweet ending.