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A review by lanidon
Pucking Around by Emily Rath
2.0
I have such complicated feelings about this, which I've never said about a romance before
I truly love Rachel, Kaleb, and Jake together. I also enjoy Rachel and Mars' romance. I just can't help but feel like having both in the same book was unnecessary and just drew it out even longer. I also feel like no one element got enough time or attention for fear that it would upset the balance of the other elements. The way it all comes together as a finished product is just messy
The book is also very repetitive. Each pair has to have a parallel and independent scene showing the exact same thing. A scene proclaiming "don't call me X, you have to call me Y thing that's exclusive to us." A scene about how each character feels they don't fit and maybe should just leave. A scene about each character claiming another. A scene where they can't articulate exactly what they want but they just want "more" and repeat that until polycule telepathy kicks in. A scene about each confiding in a trusted person about how they're falling in love and how they don't know how to deal with that. A scene where they recommit to the group and how right this feels. Four. identical. scenes. for each character.
It feels like this book was written with a checklist off to the side and scenes would be added until every single box was checked. Even if they're unnecessary, even if they're repetitive, even if they slow the story down instead of making it flow. This is especially true of the abundant and lengthy sex scenes in this book where I can feel positions and combinations being checked off one by one. This book is already so long and it genuinely feels like over a third of it is just sex scenes where they're rotating positions. They're not even poorly written, they're just exhausting.
Now my biggest complaint, this simply isn't gay enough. The relationship between Jake and Kaleb is so beautiful and ripe with emotion, so full of potential, but we never get to see them falling for each other outside the context of Rachel. She is their unifying factor, yes, but we never get a perspective scene of them together without her either in it or being the topic of conversation. This makes it feel like it's checking yet another box, only a fantasy of her boys being in love with each other instead of a genuine interest in writing queer men.
There is good stuff in here, but it's buried and bogged down. Much is left underdeveloped while other parts are overly padded. It's unbalanced and messy. It could be something truly special which is why it bugs me that it didn't meet the potential
Overall I think it's a 3 star book, but the contrived plot towards the end that wraps itself up in a perfect bow like it never had gravity or point pissed me off so much it brought the whole experience down to a 2
I truly love Rachel, Kaleb, and Jake together. I also enjoy Rachel and Mars' romance. I just can't help but feel like having both in the same book was unnecessary and just drew it out even longer. I also feel like no one element got enough time or attention for fear that it would upset the balance of the other elements. The way it all comes together as a finished product is just messy
The book is also very repetitive. Each pair has to have a parallel and independent scene showing the exact same thing. A scene proclaiming "don't call me X, you have to call me Y thing that's exclusive to us." A scene about how each character feels they don't fit and maybe should just leave. A scene about each character claiming another. A scene where they can't articulate exactly what they want but they just want "more" and repeat that until polycule telepathy kicks in. A scene about each confiding in a trusted person about how they're falling in love and how they don't know how to deal with that. A scene where they recommit to the group and how right this feels. Four. identical. scenes. for each character.
It feels like this book was written with a checklist off to the side and scenes would be added until every single box was checked. Even if they're unnecessary, even if they're repetitive, even if they slow the story down instead of making it flow. This is especially true of the abundant and lengthy sex scenes in this book where I can feel positions and combinations being checked off one by one. This book is already so long and it genuinely feels like over a third of it is just sex scenes where they're rotating positions. They're not even poorly written, they're just exhausting.
Now my biggest complaint, this simply isn't gay enough. The relationship between Jake and Kaleb is so beautiful and ripe with emotion, so full of potential, but we never get to see them falling for each other outside the context of Rachel. She is their unifying factor, yes, but we never get a perspective scene of them together without her either in it or being the topic of conversation. This makes it feel like it's checking yet another box, only a fantasy of her boys being in love with each other instead of a genuine interest in writing queer men.
There is good stuff in here, but it's buried and bogged down. Much is left underdeveloped while other parts are overly padded. It's unbalanced and messy. It could be something truly special which is why it bugs me that it didn't meet the potential
Overall I think it's a 3 star book, but the contrived plot towards the end that wraps itself up in a perfect bow like it never had gravity or point pissed me off so much it brought the whole experience down to a 2