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A review by melaniebopp
Building Up to Love by J.V. Speyer
1.0
I...do not like this book. I wanted to, and I will be trying this author again to see if it's just their writing style I don't enjoy, but let's just get into this.
Jared and Logan were together once upon a time, but when Logan found out Jared was bi and not gay, it ended badly (with comments about how bisexuals are gross whores who can't make up their mind, etc etc etc). Jared is left with a broken heart and endless trust issues. a decade or so later, they are thrown back together in a twist of fate that has defense lawyer Logan with mob assassins after him and construction company owning Jared somehow saving him in a variety of ways, including shooting someone with a nail gun. You know, as you do.
So let's talk about the problem I have with this.
There are major issues with the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community here. First of all, I have a hard time rooting for a relationship where one of the two players starts off in such a bad place, but even more than that is the overall, well, anti-normalization of the gay community. It's pretty gross, honestly. At one point, one hero actually thinks that the cops were being surprisingly professional seeing as they are there to interview witnesses to an assassination in a gay bar. Really? Are gay bars really that uncommon? I mean come on, the story takes place in Boston, it's a major city, there are tons of gay bars, and I'm reasonably certain the Boston police department has talked with gay people, you know, once or twice. At least.
On a side note, apparently Jared's cuts start healing in a couple of hours. He must be an X-Man....
Jared and Logan were together once upon a time, but when Logan found out Jared was bi and not gay, it ended badly (with comments about how bisexuals are gross whores who can't make up their mind, etc etc etc). Jared is left with a broken heart and endless trust issues. a decade or so later, they are thrown back together in a twist of fate that has defense lawyer Logan with mob assassins after him and construction company owning Jared somehow saving him in a variety of ways, including shooting someone with a nail gun. You know, as you do.
So let's talk about the problem I have with this.
There are major issues with the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community here. First of all, I have a hard time rooting for a relationship where one of the two players starts off in such a bad place, but even more than that is the overall, well, anti-normalization of the gay community. It's pretty gross, honestly. At one point, one hero actually thinks that the cops were being surprisingly professional seeing as they are there to interview witnesses to an assassination in a gay bar. Really? Are gay bars really that uncommon? I mean come on, the story takes place in Boston, it's a major city, there are tons of gay bars, and I'm reasonably certain the Boston police department has talked with gay people, you know, once or twice. At least.
On a side note, apparently Jared's cuts start healing in a couple of hours. He must be an X-Man....