by Kate Willoughby
rating:☆☆
published: 28th June 2016
spoilers? yes
Goodreads
Galley provided by publisher
Like with most of these kinds of novellas, I feel like they would actually work better as a full-length novel. As it is, there is not nearly enough time (~90 pages) for the required character development to be realistic or seem effective.
Mostly, my issue lay with the plot of this book seeming kind of unbelievable. The interview for one, seemed a bit confusing. Like, why would some newspaper be so interested in Jeremy's story? And the presidents desperate desire to promote how diverse and accepting his school is. I mean, I guess it's entirely plausible that a school president is that eager to promote diversity, but when it gets to the athletes willingly making this incredibly cheesy video to basically just prove that they're not homophobic or anything, that's when I call bull.
I could have probably lived with it, but that plot's that seem unreasonable and implausible tend to turn me off books, and that's compounded by my other issues.
Firstly, Jeremy is somewhat obsessed with Hart, before he even knows him. And it's a little creepy how much he knows about him, and how closely he watches his game. Also, the part where they meet when Jeremy goes to the players' entrance seemed a little contrived. Surely they could equally have met at an after-party of something? It would have made more sense.
The subsequent blowjob in the car in the parking lot of the ice rink was also pretty unrealistic. I mean, they've just me, Hart has told Jeremy he was putting him off his game, then all of a sudden the conversation switches to experimentation and how if you kiss a boy it doesn't make you gay, right? (You do know there are more than two sexualities, right, bud?) This then leads to this wonderful quote:
It [his cock] tasted good. Salty and earthy, like virility in 3-D. He gobbled up more of it...
I have trouble enough reading sex scenes because they're uncomfortable, but then ones that throw sentences like this in just put me off entirely (and make me burst into laughter, which I'm sure is not the author's intention). (See also, later on: You want to hear me grunt?)
A minor point: I'm not a huge fan of experimentation storylines to begin with - I mean, I don't mind them, but I wouldn't pick them over everything else - let alone ones where someone's desperately trying to convince themselves and the other person that they're not gay, while they've got their dick in that person's mouth.
There's also that really irritating thing where the characters seem to have to say 'I love you' to one another. Even when they've known each other for not that long, and it's really not believable. 'I like you lots' would have done surely.
A final final point, it did make me tear up a little when Hart said he had to deny himself to be big in the NHL. I'm weak. (And perhaps rating too harshly.)
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