Review: Solid
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 20, 2012
I was debating between a 3.5* and a 4* rating, but I decided to round it up because the strength of this book is probably the missing of the "wow factor".Cole and Marc are ordinary people with their own aspirations and insecurities. At the beginning I didn't really like Marc, because his tag-chasing seemed a bit childish and paired with his writing career I had the impression he was living in his own world. Page after page I was able to see that he was instead pretty grounded and also that he was trying to achieve his goals with discipline. I immediately sympathized with Cole and his daily struggles. I liked to see how everything was difficult for him at the beginning, but how Marc's help made him focus on his studying first and on his therapy later.The story didn't have the big drama, even if Cole had to deal with a lot, since he missed his years in the Marines, he had PTSD syndrome and his father couldn't accept his sexuality, but the ups and downs of his relationship with Marc felt real. It was also interesting that Marc, who is a writer and therefore he's probably more used to expressing his emotions, was also the more rational of the two of them. Or maybe it's not strange at all. I also appreciated that, while the interaction between Cole and Marc was sweet and romantic, there were no big declarations of love or never-ending expressions of feelings. The concern Marc and Cole showed to each other was more than enough to show the depth of their feelings. I also think Cole was really starving for love, and I confess for a while I wondered if he wasn't falling for the first guy who was available. By the end I was convinced he was very lucky instead.Even if I am a sucker for angst and drama, I liked the light hand the author used to tell us the story of her characters. It was my first book by Cat Grant, won't be the last.