A review by judeinthestars
Flinging It by G Benson

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fate can be unfair. When you keep bumping (literally) into the same person, it has to mean something, right? But what if that person is married to your boss? As they work together on a program to help at-risk parents, Frazer, chief of the midwifery department of a hospital in Perth, Australia, and Cora, head of the social work department, go from distant politeness to wild attraction. Cora is convinced she’s straight and only looking for a distraction from her failing marriage. Frazer is still hurting from a breakup with a former coworker and not looking for anything, especially not with another colleague. She’s content with being single and no one else waiting for her at home beside her fish. Best laid plans and all, feelings get involved.

I’d never read this book by one of my favourite authorsone of my favourite authors and I was looking for something to listen to on a road trip when I saw this audiobook on Scribd (want to try Scribd for free?). Perfect opportunity, except that the narration really doesn’t lend itself to a car trip. We moved on to Integrity (read my review
read my review), but once home, I went back to Flinging It. The narration works much better in a quiet environment. While it’s a bit linear, the pace is great and all the voices are perfect.

I love both MCs, the vulnerability of falling in love and finding yourself even when you’re not aware that’s what’s happening to you. The push and pull felt very real, as frustrating and heartrending as it was for the characters. Because of that, the characters aren’t always lovable, and I understand that this could make the book hard to read for some, but to me, since the romance is born from cheating, I took it for granted that the characters would be flawed and I was ready for it. I also liked that they’re both Australian from immigrant families (India for Frazer, South Korea for Cora, and her best friend Liza’s family comes from Vietnam).

Besides the MCs, there are also excellent secondary characters, my favourite being Frazer’s pushy younger sister Jemma. The siblings’ interactions are some of the best I’ve read. I liked all the friends as well. Benson has a knack for dialogue and there were some absolutely delightful scenes. The repeated accidental meetings felt a tad overdone but I didn’t really mind. And I really really liked Jack’s arc, the pregnant trans teen Cora and Frazer support through the program.

While this will not become my favourite Benson book, I enjoyed the angst, the humour, Cora’s discovery of her queerness and all the possibilities of a life that is not limited by psychological abuse, and the manner in which that author dealt with infidelity and the guilt it entails. It takes a very skilled author to touch on such a delicate theme and give us characters who feel both genuine and endearing.

Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars