Review: Loved the prose, learned to love Liam
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2014
I received a copy of this book via Goodreads' Don't Buy My Love program in exchange for an honest review.This is a contemporary New Adult M/M romance, with a mysterious vigilante....The Raven.Liam Davis is an asexual college student writing for the SCRIBE, a weekly periodical on campus life. The story presumably takes place in Pittsburgh, but...well, it doesn't feel like that--at all. Mostly because the diction and grammar screamed British. More on that later.Liam is hopelessly socially awkward, with no 'friends' only acquaintances.  He's stodgy and tactless, with no sensitivity filter. Liam read as if he was either a 76 year old British man, or Sheldon from Big Bang Theory--evoking a painful humor. Almost. He's the product of an affair, and has no real relationship with his dad. He has no siblings and his mom is rather detached. All Liam wants is to become the Feature Editor of the SCRIBE so his editor father will give him an apprenticeship at his news magazine. See, Liam's dad won't even stick his neck out that far for his bastard son...K. So, Liam is devastated to not get his dream editorship,at SCRIBE, and horrified by his new assignment: the party page. Now the world's most awkward college student has to go to parties, and report on them. Sounds like Liam's gonna fail. If he does, well, goodbye Features.Liam does man up. Goes to a party. Meets no one. Leaves, and assists a drunk gay student he meets along his route, home. He's then attacked, and rescued, and driven to the hospital by two randoms he'd seen at the party. Shannon and Quinn are nice, and, when Liam can only be released to the company of a friend, Quinn steps in to help again.Turns out Quinn needs a new place to live, and after some posturing, Liam gets him to move in--Liam knows he needs to make some friends and he keeps running into Quinn anyhow. Quinn is gay and thought that would put Liam off--but Liam's totally cool. He even strikes up a friendship with Hunter, Shannon's brother, who is both gay and paralyzed following a hate crime attack.It seems Liam's rescuer, The Raven, comes to the aid of gay men being beat up. Which makes little sense in Liam's case as he isn't gay...or is he? Well, living with Quinn surely gives him the opportunity to test those waters. And, Liam's thorough, passionless, scientific examination of his sexuality--or lack thereof--would make Sheldon proud, no doubt.There's a lot of kerfuffle regarding the vigilante Raven, and Liam gets involved, wishing at first to reveal the hero--but then simply wishing to protect the Raven from threats. It's an interesting read. I am a confessed Anglophile, so I loved the Brittiness of the prose, but I don't for a second buy Liam as an American. There are just too many colloquial constructions that gave Liam's voice a fantastic Londoner feel--and that's problematic.Again, the awkwardness. It got really uncomfortable, at times. I'm glad Quinn was such a great sport. He never gave up on Liam, and the smoothing over of Liam really was endearing. He tried SO hard to just be approachable, yet every "natural" thing he would do had to be fully analyzed, and means-tested, FIRST. I'm a sciencey gal, and I've known many a stodgy academic. For someone who works with words to have such little faculty with actual communication, well, it was an issue for me.Why did I like the story? I grew to enjoy Liam. I totally liked Quinn from the start. I enjoyed their repartee. I enjoyed Liam's metamorphosis. The smexytimes were well written and had a good bit of steam without being sloppy. The Raven mystery was a fun plot arc. I had fun with this one.