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veritytease's review
3.0
2.5 stars rounded up
What an interesting premise.
In a world where many celeb romances are as fake as a Kardashian's arse, what an interesting twist that two male stars of a waning TV show would drum up interest and boost ratings by appearing to be the next hot couple.
Fandoms are packed with passionate shippers fascinated with fanfiction (Johnlock FTW!), eager to go nuts at the mere mention of two male characters getting all hot and steamy.
Honestly, I felt like the idea could have been pushed even further- can you imagine two heterosexual men trying to navigate (faux) dating when the object of their affection, at least in the public eye, is another man?
Unfortunately, the interesting plot was buried under an avalanche of words and I think a few ruthless beta readers would have whipped this book into shape. It reads more like fanfiction.
Just to clarify- I LOVE fanfiction. Not only was it my gateway to MM stories, but I also ended up writing my master's thesis on the topic.
The problem is that readers expect much more from publish books and I think this one is in need of more editing and a critical eye.
It was the little things like not knowing who "he" referred to in a sentence or the repetition of words which grated. All I can say is let's not be afraid of synonyms.
What is more, the book has pacing and story developement issues. By 30% I still wasn't sure who I was rooting for. I was afraid I'd misunderstood and the hot lurve will happen between Aiden and his gay BFF Oliver, who seems to feature much more prominently than Noah.
Again, an eagle-eyed beta would spot such problems and, what is more, point out that there's no need to rehash the same ideas when a good paragraph or two would suffice. MM readers are more than fine with a 100-page book if each sentence is well crafted, meaningful and pushes the plot forward.
All in all, this is an interesting debut and I look forward to watching Mark Summers grow as an author. The ideas are certainly there and after ironing out issues I think we can expect interesting things from him in the future.
Copy kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
What an interesting premise.
In a world where many celeb romances are as fake as a Kardashian's arse, what an interesting twist that two male stars of a waning TV show would drum up interest and boost ratings by appearing to be the next hot couple.
Fandoms are packed with passionate shippers fascinated with fanfiction (Johnlock FTW!), eager to go nuts at the mere mention of two male characters getting all hot and steamy.
Honestly, I felt like the idea could have been pushed even further- can you imagine two heterosexual men trying to navigate (faux) dating when the object of their affection, at least in the public eye, is another man?
Unfortunately, the interesting plot was buried under an avalanche of words and I think a few ruthless beta readers would have whipped this book into shape. It reads more like fanfiction.
Just to clarify- I LOVE fanfiction. Not only was it my gateway to MM stories, but I also ended up writing my master's thesis on the topic.
The problem is that readers expect much more from publish books and I think this one is in need of more editing and a critical eye.
It was the little things like not knowing who "he" referred to in a sentence or the repetition of words which grated. All I can say is let's not be afraid of synonyms.
What is more, the book has pacing and story developement issues. By 30% I still wasn't sure who I was rooting for. I was afraid I'd misunderstood and the hot lurve will happen between Aiden and his gay BFF Oliver, who seems to feature much more prominently than Noah.
Again, an eagle-eyed beta would spot such problems and, what is more, point out that there's no need to rehash the same ideas when a good paragraph or two would suffice. MM readers are more than fine with a 100-page book if each sentence is well crafted, meaningful and pushes the plot forward.
All in all, this is an interesting debut and I look forward to watching Mark Summers grow as an author. The ideas are certainly there and after ironing out issues I think we can expect interesting things from him in the future.
Copy kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
atheresa's review
1.0
This was a YA book. Unbelievable double Gay for You. Was not convinced that Noah was attracted to Aiden. There was emotional chemistry between the two, but no physical chemistry. The only sex scene was at 97% and was rushed and quite a let down considering the long build up.
cadiva's review
3.0
The idea is good but execution needs polishing
This isn't a bad storyline, the basic premise, while an often used trope, actually has decent planning and a nice twist with a scheming gay best friend
Unfortunately, the execution of the tale is muddled and there are simply too many voices all trying to be heard at once. On top of that, the secondary story with Adi's family just confuses matters and doesn't really need to be there for me as it simply distracts from the development of the GFY friends to lovers relationship of Adi and Noah.
Gay best friend Oliver also sometimes gets in the way too, we don't really need to see inside his head so there is a slight naivety to the whole story which comes from the MCs only being 20.
I think if they'd been say 25/26 then the idea of Adi taking on his two younger brothers wouldn't have seemed so unlikely.
However, having said all of the above, the central relationship between Adi and Noah is executed perfectly and is well drawn and believable and has a sweet conclusion.
A little bit of tightening up on the silly tense changes, odd grammatical errors and editing mistakes like the wrong character name being used and thus book could have jumped up to a 4* review easily. I think Summers has talent and with more experience and more a tighter editing and beta reviewing team, he could have a decent career as an MM romance author.
* While I downloaded and read this via Kindle Unlimited, the author did ask me to provide an honest review so I'm popping this disclaimer on.
I will also say a lot of the little errors probably stand out more to me having had a near 20 year career as a journalist and sub editor.
The cover is a definite plus point too ;)
This isn't a bad storyline, the basic premise, while an often used trope, actually has decent planning and a nice twist with a scheming gay best friend
Unfortunately, the execution of the tale is muddled and there are simply too many voices all trying to be heard at once. On top of that, the secondary story with Adi's family just confuses matters and doesn't really need to be there for me as it simply distracts from the development of the GFY friends to lovers relationship of Adi and Noah.
Gay best friend Oliver also sometimes gets in the way too, we don't really need to see inside his head so there is a slight naivety to the whole story which comes from the MCs only being 20.
I think if they'd been say 25/26 then the idea of Adi taking on his two younger brothers wouldn't have seemed so unlikely.
However, having said all of the above, the central relationship between Adi and Noah is executed perfectly and is well drawn and believable and has a sweet conclusion.
A little bit of tightening up on the silly tense changes, odd grammatical errors and editing mistakes like the wrong character name being used and thus book could have jumped up to a 4* review easily. I think Summers has talent and with more experience and more a tighter editing and beta reviewing team, he could have a decent career as an MM romance author.
* While I downloaded and read this via Kindle Unlimited, the author did ask me to provide an honest review so I'm popping this disclaimer on.
I will also say a lot of the little errors probably stand out more to me having had a near 20 year career as a journalist and sub editor.
The cover is a definite plus point too ;)
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