AnnaLund2011

There is not a whole lot of plot in there with all the porn, even for a short novella (some 40k words). It’s a light read, but I have to admit I got a little bored with all the sex. (Yeah, I never thought I’d say that either). There was a lot of anatomy in this story. Quite a lot of fun repartees too. I would like to instate a new word describing this story: Sexcentric.

It is very British, and in case you love seeing words like lorry, prick, lad, A-levels, mum, lush, snogging, shuffed, bloke, shagging and a resounding sod off—then you are in for an eye-full. I actually adored these parts. The voice was very strong here.

I liked the characters quite well, I just would have loved them if I could have gotten a feeling of who they were, outside of the bedroom. I have a vivid picture of both their junk, but know next to nothing about who they are. It saddened me a little bit, because the little glimpses I did get were of two very interesting people whom I would have loved to get to know a bit more.

It is a sweet story about coming out and understanding why a relationship with a woman doesn’t work. (Duh. He’s gay). But he did break the old relationship off before starting in this new one, experimenting. I would have loved to see more of Mark and Rachel after the break-up, what was here was begging for a little more. Beautiful.

It was fun. A little bit repetitive on the sexing, and too many pricks and dicks—the very explicitness of the thing made it a little bit too repetitive for my taste. (I’m more of the understated kind, not so much into the tab A into slot B). My basic problem with the story is that I still have no idea why they fell in love with each other, which for me is all-important.

It’s a good little read, if you need a brain-break, between heavier reads.

I shall follow this author moving forward from here, because Jay Northcote has excellent language skills—they just need to be widened into a larger storyline, opened up to show more of the back-story to the porn. There was an interesting storyline of Jamie working hard with his dyslexia, and I would have liked to see that developed further. Also Mark’s reaction to Jamie’s dyslexia was beautiful, which I liked very much.

Language-wise it was good, I only found one instance of a dropped word, and a couple of uses of words like impossibly—but then again, I am allergic to the expression when it does not, in fact denote a state of absolute non-possibility. (“Impossibly gorgeous” does not).

As a debut novella, I found it to be a very nice read. Three full stars. Recommended for a calm afternoon of indulging in something sweet.

***

I was given an ARC of this book for free from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press.

A positive review was neither expected nor promised in return. 

The author is a Twitter friend, but Jay knows that I review with my own head, and not through friendship-filters.