Release Day Review ~ Lovesick by Marina Ford
Title: Lovesick
Author: Marina Ford
Release Date: January 20, 2017
Category: Contemporary, Humor
Pages: 200
Friday, 23 January
The cat funeral.
Yeah, that happened today. I went and participated in—aided and abetted?—a cat funeral.
London life is tough on idealists. In an ideal world, after years of flirtation, Leo would be cosily settled down with Jack, his long-time crush. In an ideal world, Jack wouldn’t now be engaged to a woman. And in an ideal world, Leo would move on.
When handsome new neighbour Alex moves in opposite Leo, an opportunity to do so presents itself. But Alex is probably straight, working class, and poorer than Leo. While Jack’s engagement unravels, and Leo’s friendship with Alex deepens, will Leo manage to find happiness with the right man? Or will he succumb to his enemies: self-doubt, family expectations, and pride?
Told in diary form, this is both the story of a love triangle in London and the chronicle of a man’s struggles to confront his self-image and overcome his insecurity.
The cat funeral.
Yeah, that happened today. I went and participated in—aided and abetted?—a cat funeral.
London life is tough on idealists. In an ideal world, after years of flirtation, Leo would be cosily settled down with Jack, his long-time crush. In an ideal world, Jack wouldn’t now be engaged to a woman. And in an ideal world, Leo would move on.
When handsome new neighbour Alex moves in opposite Leo, an opportunity to do so presents itself. But Alex is probably straight, working class, and poorer than Leo. While Jack’s engagement unravels, and Leo’s friendship with Alex deepens, will Leo manage to find happiness with the right man? Or will he succumb to his enemies: self-doubt, family expectations, and pride?
Told in diary form, this is both the story of a love triangle in London and the chronicle of a man’s struggles to confront his self-image and overcome his insecurity.
5 Stars!
Please do not judge this book by its (sorry!) awful cover, as you'll be missing out on something sweet, romantic and lovely.
I put off reading this book several times, as I had others with nicer covers and this didn't appeal - I'm frankly confused as to why the author and publisher would go with something as unappealing and unsexy as this...unless there's method in their madness. However, it masks a brilliant feelgood, sweet and soppy tale that I really, really enjoyed.
It's the tale of a single gay 29yo university lecturer, Leo, who's crushing on a 40yo colleague, Jack, who despite much flirting, suddenly announces his engagement to a woman. In the meantime, a young straight male guy, Alex, has moved into Leo's block of flats, and ends up right opposite of him. They slowly become friends and taking a chance on each other, they start to become more.
Everything is a little slow, but for me, that was the beauty as well as the reality of the tale, as until now, Alex hadn't actually gone as far as having any kind of relationship with a guy, though he suspected he was bi. The tale was sweet, romantic and very, 'I can totally see that happening with the guys next door' kind of way. It was very, very low on the sex scale, with stuff told as an after-the-event for the most, or really, really innocently, and you know what? That totally didn't spoil the tale, and in fact, made it all the more believable for me. I liked both guys, even when Leo had his head up his backside and ended up breaking them up, but he redeemed himself over how tortured he was, and how much he hurt. As for Alex? I loved that he was prepared to give Leo another chance, and that despite Leo blowing it, he still took whatever steps he could to at least try to fix them. The way in which he did it? Lovely, romantic and very, very sweet.
This is a 5 Star Keeper of a tale and I am so, so glad that I ignored both the cover, and the 'Dear Diary' style of the telling - the latter actually worked brilliantly.
ARC courtesy of Dreamspinner Press and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
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