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A review by eesh25
Deal Maker by Lily Morton
4.0
Update: I'm rounding up to 4 because I reread parts of the book a few months ago. And it is a memorable read. I love Jude and Asa. And it is funny. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood when I first read it, but this is a book that I quite like. The "laugh track" feeling and my issues about Jude's job still stand, though. That's why the rating's still 3.5. Just rounded up now, instead of down.
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3.5 Stars
I'll admit that, after how much I loved Rule Breaker, and after seeing the wealth of positive reviews this book has received, I may have had high expectations. But I don't think that's coloured my opinions much. At least, I hope it hasn't.
And I wanna add that the reason for the lower rating in this case may be more subjective than it usually is. Something I'll elaborate later.
The book is about two guys, as one would expect from an M/M romance, and a kid. Jude is a highly successful model. We met in him in Rule Breaker and I loved him. His apartment is having some... maintenance done after a bathtub fell through his ceiling. Due to family reasons, he needs to find a cheap place to live in until the apartment gets fixed. One of his model friends suggest his cousin, Asa.
Asa is actor who's been taking some time off for the past few years to raise his son, Billy, who is now seven years old. Asa agrees to let Jude stay in his house as long as Jude helps him with some assistant stuff.
The two of them are attracted to each other. The point of contention is that Asa is very prejudiced against models. He thinks they're all shallow and dumber than a bag of bricks. Can't entirely blame him since his ex and his cousin fit "shallow" and "dumber than a bag of bricks" respectively, almost to a T. That's doesn't mean Jude has to put up with him being as ass. And instead of trying to prove Asa wrong, Jude decided to prove him right.
This is followed by a very fun segment of Jude messing everything up on purpose and Asa having to resist the urge to strangle him. This book was funny and both Jude and Asa were good and likable characters. I also loved everything that involved Billy, who was absolutely adorable and had an equally adorable relationship with Jude.
I also liked the story. You know, the history with Asa's ex and how it affected him, as well as the things that were going on with Jude's family. There were only two things that I didn't like but they weren't small things.
First is the humour. It wasn't my kind of humour, I guess, since I've read reviews saying they loved it and I know the author is funny after reading the first book in the series. It just didn't work for me. It felt like the book was trying too hard and worse, it kept telling me that a certain things was funny. Like a character would laugh or snort, indicating that I should be doing the same. It was almost like a laugh track, but in a sitcom that I didn't find entertaining. It didn't always bother me, but often enough to be grating.
The second issue is Jude's career. I don't claim to be an expert in how often models have to work, but it's more than once a month, right? They have to make certain appearance and all that? But if one were to believe Jude's life, models barely have to work at all. He doesn't even work out much! And the I-don't-gain-weight-no-matter-what-I-eat excuse only works to an extent.
Overall, this was an entertaining book and I still thinks you should give it a shot because it might work for you. But for me, it wasn't that funny or that memorable. In fact, the misfiring humour even took away from my investment in the characters. I definitely liked Rule Breaker more and because of that, even though this one was a bit of a miss, I'm still excited about the third book, which follows Henry.
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3.5 Stars
I'll admit that, after how much I loved Rule Breaker, and after seeing the wealth of positive reviews this book has received, I may have had high expectations. But I don't think that's coloured my opinions much. At least, I hope it hasn't.
And I wanna add that the reason for the lower rating in this case may be more subjective than it usually is. Something I'll elaborate later.
The book is about two guys, as one would expect from an M/M romance, and a kid. Jude is a highly successful model. We met in him in Rule Breaker and I loved him. His apartment is having some... maintenance done after a bathtub fell through his ceiling. Due to family reasons, he needs to find a cheap place to live in until the apartment gets fixed. One of his model friends suggest his cousin, Asa.
Asa is actor who's been taking some time off for the past few years to raise his son, Billy, who is now seven years old. Asa agrees to let Jude stay in his house as long as Jude helps him with some assistant stuff.
The two of them are attracted to each other. The point of contention is that Asa is very prejudiced against models. He thinks they're all shallow and dumber than a bag of bricks. Can't entirely blame him since his ex and his cousin fit "shallow" and "dumber than a bag of bricks" respectively, almost to a T. That's doesn't mean Jude has to put up with him being as ass. And instead of trying to prove Asa wrong, Jude decided to prove him right.
This is followed by a very fun segment of Jude messing everything up on purpose and Asa having to resist the urge to strangle him. This book was funny and both Jude and Asa were good and likable characters. I also loved everything that involved Billy, who was absolutely adorable and had an equally adorable relationship with Jude.
I also liked the story. You know, the history with Asa's ex and how it affected him, as well as the things that were going on with Jude's family. There were only two things that I didn't like but they weren't small things.
First is the humour. It wasn't my kind of humour, I guess, since I've read reviews saying they loved it and I know the author is funny after reading the first book in the series. It just didn't work for me. It felt like the book was trying too hard and worse, it kept telling me that a certain things was funny. Like a character would laugh or snort, indicating that I should be doing the same. It was almost like a laugh track, but in a sitcom that I didn't find entertaining. It didn't always bother me, but often enough to be grating.
The second issue is Jude's career. I don't claim to be an expert in how often models have to work, but it's more than once a month, right? They have to make certain appearance and all that? But if one were to believe Jude's life, models barely have to work at all. He doesn't even work out much! And the I-don't-gain-weight-no-matter-what-I-eat excuse only works to an extent.
Overall, this was an entertaining book and I still thinks you should give it a shot because it might work for you. But for me, it wasn't that funny or that memorable. In fact, the misfiring humour even took away from my investment in the characters. I definitely liked Rule Breaker more and because of that, even though this one was a bit of a miss, I'm still excited about the third book, which follows Henry.