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kab09's review
5.0
I need to go back and reread immediately!
I expected to love this book, since I already love Susi Hawkes other books. But, this just blew me away. I laughed so hard and wanted to hug these characters so much. I cannot wait for more! Andy/Kandi is my favorite queen since Sandy/Helena Handbasket.
I expected to love this book, since I already love Susi Hawkes other books. But, this just blew me away. I laughed so hard and wanted to hug these characters so much. I cannot wait for more! Andy/Kandi is my favorite queen since Sandy/Helena Handbasket.
hmmm_ireadthatsomewhere's review
4.0
Hilarious. As an audiobook the narrator giving the different characters different voices absolutely made this book. Some were perfect and some were laughibly bad, but it worked!!!!
kady_cordova's review against another edition
4.0
๐๐๐๐ 4.5 stars
๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ Heat Level: 3
Such wonderful characters! A story of love, sass and family!!!
I really enjoyed this book. It is full to the brim of such wonderful and dynamic characters. I loved the whole lot of them!
The story follows widower Corbin, his enby son, Gray and sassy and awesome southerner Andy. I found this story very dynamic and easy to read. The sass and humour in this book is next level! All the characters blend so well together. Corbin and Andyโs love story starts as fake-boyfriends and evolves over a dramatic and challenging time to become a โblendedโ family full of love and acceptance.
This story was a great start to Susanโs new series and a wonderful read. I have to say the secondary characters are just as awesome as the main ones and I have to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Gam-gam!
A highly recommended read!
Thanks for reading! For great stories, reviews and more please visit https://bookstattoosandtea.wordpress.com ๐
๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ Heat Level: 3
Such wonderful characters! A story of love, sass and family!!!
I really enjoyed this book. It is full to the brim of such wonderful and dynamic characters. I loved the whole lot of them!
The story follows widower Corbin, his enby son, Gray and sassy and awesome southerner Andy. I found this story very dynamic and easy to read. The sass and humour in this book is next level! All the characters blend so well together. Corbin and Andyโs love story starts as fake-boyfriends and evolves over a dramatic and challenging time to become a โblendedโ family full of love and acceptance.
This story was a great start to Susanโs new series and a wonderful read. I have to say the secondary characters are just as awesome as the main ones and I have to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Gam-gam!
A highly recommended read!
Thanks for reading! For great stories, reviews and more please visit https://bookstattoosandtea.wordpress.com ๐
liza5326's review
4.0
This was a sweet and hysterical story. I love the fake boyfriends' trope It always provides such great sexual tension. Add in the absolutely sassy Andi/Kandi and this book was such a hoot!! Corbin's son's struggle with his gender identity and his own learning experience from it was perfectly handled. I can't wait to read more in this series!
iam's review
4.0
3.5 stars
I enjoyed this for the most part, but something kept feeling off to me.
Content warnings include: bullying, assault, homophobia, queerphobia, sex on-page; mentions of: sexual assault, character gets beaten to unconsciousness.
This was a weird read. Not because of the plot or because it had a style I wasn't used to (more on that later), it just somehow felt... off-center to me. Not bad at all, and rather enjoyable, with some scenes that made me extremely happy, but at times it felt like the events were portrayed through a slightly skewed lense.
Maybe this is just the author's style - this is my first book by her - or maybe this is particular to this book.
One facet of this was Andy's voice. When I started the book my first thought was that he was... a lot. He's an out and proud effeminate gay man from the south. I have absolutely no idea about the whole Southern American mannerism thing, so I might have missed some nuance there, but I was delighted about finding a feminine gay man in a book that doesn't constantly shame him from various perspectives.
That said the first few scenes with him were a bit all over the place, but it quickly got better (either I got used to it or it got more focussed after the plot started.)
Corbin pales a bit in comparison to Andy. He's just.... there, a normal guy with no real outstanding characteristics. The one that stuck with me is that I wish he would listen to his friends a bit more literally - his reaction to mistakes that he makes is appropriate, but I wish he would take it one step further, like actually apologize in one instance or just completely overthinking one idea that his friends point out as stupid.
I'm a big fan of the fake-boyfriend trope and here, while technically the main plotline, it felt almost secondary. There is no angst about the pretending or the feelings-turning-real, and generally basically no focus on what Andy and Corbin feel for each other. There are several jumps in time that surprised me, but ultimately it was an interesting angle and execution of this trope for me.
What I really loved was the plotline about Corbin's nonbinary son. At times it felt a bit queer 101, but I really liked what was being said (and taught) even if I wasn't always happy with Corbin's reactions (or lack thereof) but even so my complains about these would be minor.
Corbin's son plays a bigger role in the book outside of him being nonbinary, and I enjoyed that a lot. Other important characters are Andy's grandmother, Corbin's best friend who is also the mother of Corbin's son's best friend, Andy's best friend and his drag mother, as Andy is a drag queen.
The book was rather light hearted, but doesn't shy away from some rather intense scenes that involve bullying and very explicit queerphobia and discrimination. On the flip side of that, there were also some very over the top humorous scenes of a ridiculousness I didn't expect that left me half scandalized half laughing out loud.
I received an ARC and reviewed voluntarily.
I enjoyed this for the most part, but something kept feeling off to me.
Content warnings include: bullying, assault, homophobia, queerphobia, sex on-page; mentions of: sexual assault, character gets beaten to unconsciousness.
This was a weird read. Not because of the plot or because it had a style I wasn't used to (more on that later), it just somehow felt... off-center to me. Not bad at all, and rather enjoyable, with some scenes that made me extremely happy, but at times it felt like the events were portrayed through a slightly skewed lense.
Maybe this is just the author's style - this is my first book by her - or maybe this is particular to this book.
One facet of this was Andy's voice. When I started the book my first thought was that he was... a lot. He's an out and proud effeminate gay man from the south. I have absolutely no idea about the whole Southern American mannerism thing, so I might have missed some nuance there, but I was delighted about finding a feminine gay man in a book that doesn't constantly shame him from various perspectives.
That said the first few scenes with him were a bit all over the place, but it quickly got better (either I got used to it or it got more focussed after the plot started.)
Corbin pales a bit in comparison to Andy. He's just.... there, a normal guy with no real outstanding characteristics. The one that stuck with me is that I wish he would listen to his friends a bit more literally - his reaction to mistakes that he makes is appropriate, but I wish he would take it one step further, like actually apologize in one instance or just completely overthinking one idea that his friends point out as stupid.
I'm a big fan of the fake-boyfriend trope and here, while technically the main plotline, it felt almost secondary. There is no angst about the pretending or the feelings-turning-real, and generally basically no focus on what Andy and Corbin feel for each other. There are several jumps in time that surprised me, but ultimately it was an interesting angle and execution of this trope for me.
What I really loved was the plotline about Corbin's nonbinary son. At times it felt a bit queer 101, but I really liked what was being said (and taught) even if I wasn't always happy with Corbin's reactions (or lack thereof) but even so my complains about these would be minor.
Corbin's son plays a bigger role in the book outside of him being nonbinary, and I enjoyed that a lot. Other important characters are Andy's grandmother, Corbin's best friend who is also the mother of Corbin's son's best friend, Andy's best friend and his drag mother, as Andy is a drag queen.
The book was rather light hearted, but doesn't shy away from some rather intense scenes that involve bullying and very explicit queerphobia and discrimination. On the flip side of that, there were also some very over the top humorous scenes of a ridiculousness I didn't expect that left me half scandalized half laughing out loud.
I received an ARC and reviewed voluntarily.
kudo5795's review against another edition
2.0
Not a hit for me
*THIS REVIES CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS. NO PLOT POINTS INCLUDED*
This book had a lot of potential. The storyline was fantastic, the characters had so much depth, the plot was great. But I really really struggled to get through this. The dialogue was so overdone and over exaggerated, I felt like I was reading a campy soap opera rather than a romance novel. "No, my gawd" is not a common statement, but it was extremely common here. And calling a 15 year old person (who appears to be a boy when you see them with the father you think is straight ) "boo-boo" is not going to get a good reaction 9 times out of 10.
I will continue reading Susan's books, for sure. But if every book was either a hit or miss, this one was a wide miss.
*THIS REVIES CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS. NO PLOT POINTS INCLUDED*
This book had a lot of potential. The storyline was fantastic, the characters had so much depth, the plot was great. But I really really struggled to get through this. The dialogue was so overdone and over exaggerated, I felt like I was reading a campy soap opera rather than a romance novel. "No, my gawd" is not a common statement, but it was extremely common here. And calling a 15 year old person (who appears to be a boy when you see them with the father you think is straight ) "boo-boo" is not going to get a good reaction 9 times out of 10.
I will continue reading Susan's books, for sure. But if every book was either a hit or miss, this one was a wide miss.
messyreading's review against another edition
4.0
Very cute family vibes, the romance and sex could have definitly been stronger points.
katmoreid's review
5.0
I love the narration of this book, I tried reading it this time but I went back to the audiobook because the narration brings this book alive. Andy is something else. He makes me happy. It's a feel-good story with a great kid trying to figure out who he is and two adults trying to find love the hallmark way. This is my third time reading/listening to this book and I still enjoy it.
lilybear's review
4.0
This book had me squealing with girl joy. Although the initial fake boyfriend deal between Andy and Corbin comes off as silly at first "it was just crazy enough to work"!! Way better than I was expecting. And I loved Andy, Gam Gam and even little Jeebus the hell hound. Such a lovely and rich set of characters and I was on the edge of my seat with worry over poor Grayson. I wanted nothing more than for Gray to come out happy and loved. I personally learned a good deal about enby. So this book was educational and heartfelt with trace amounts of sexy.
novel_nomad's review against another edition
3.0
I adored this romance. It had the perfect blend of snark, teenage sass, drag queen awesomeness and adorable men falling in love.