A review by whatsmichireading
For Real by Alexis Hall

emotional lighthearted sad slow-paced

4.0

There was so much about this book that I loved. I think Hall has a way of writing open door sex scenes that really connect the characters - they fully help build and move the story along emotionally. One of the things that really struck me in reading this was how present Toby and Laurie are in their sex together, not just with each other but the space they are inhabiting while having sex - there's so much talk of surfaces and tactile feelings that I think are so succesful on reading. I think the emotional journey that both Toby and Laurie go on is very compelling, and while Toby is young there's a lot of maturity in the journey that he goes on. Laurie is almost the less mature one as he tries to decide for toby what his life should be without really talking to toby about it. they keep crashing against one another's notions of who the other person is and what they want and i found it very believable and compelling.
My biggest complaint I think is that it felt just a little too long, and while i don't know what you would trim i think it would have benefitted from a slightly swifter pacing. I also think i'd recommend the physical copy over a digital as I didn't know what the stars were reference too and then at the end when i learned it was too hard to really appreciate the annotations.