Jay Bell (1) (1977–)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Remember that hunky guy on YouTube who caught your eye? The one with the awesome pecs and killer smile? I bet you couldn't stop watching his videos. Just imagine if you had a chance to meet him and all your fantasies started coming true. There's only one catch: Between you and your dream guy is his less-than-pleased boyfriend. They say that love conquers all, but can love conquer love?

My Review: That was a charming 50-page freebie that I am very show more pleased to have read. Sweet doofus meets his high-school crush, now a hawt slab o' beef; boyfriend of hawtness is visibly unhappy about the luuuv connection; and then...nothing happens.

I like that.

Nothing happens because doofus has a sense of fair play and empathy: Would he want *his* man in the arms of another? No. So, no.

Don't get me wrong, I like the smexy tales of boys doin' the nasty on every flat surface and many vertical ones, too. But there's more to life than porn. (I can't believe I just typed that.) Once, about a squillion years ago, I fell in love with the man I went to see the movie Maurice with. We weren't either of us newbies. We watched the film, sighed in the same places, held hands (and that's all!) as we watched the men tangle their lusts and loves up, and even have an implied happy ending (in the non-massage-parlor sense). As it was 1988, the happy ending was not able to be explicit.

As we left the theater, I sighed something approving about how sweet it all was, and BJ gave me the side-eye before saying, "What do you think those guys are gonna talk about after a year?"

And that, my chick-a-biddies, is all it took for me to know I'd found the real thing. Someone who found the same plot holes in life that I found, who wasn't more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift. And I was right. When he died four years later, it was a horrible wrench, and I miss him still. But, like Evan the doofus, I knew what was going to make me happy, and waited for my happiness to catch up to where I already was.

Never, ever been sorry a minute, no matter that it ended long, long before it should have. And that's what this story put me in mind of, that realization that "this is it, this is what I waited for," and I enjoyed every minute I had of it. I expect these men will too. So yeah...a good story.

In 50 pages, you don't expect a whole lot of character development. I found the boyfriend, Orlando, a bit too hastily limned, and knocked off a star for Tony the hunk's facile presentation...a *little* depth would've been welcome...and the throwaway character of Julie, the doofus's fag hag, needed a more complete role. None of these are fatal flaws. They're points of information, and the issues raised would raise this very solid, enjoyable tale into a novella I'd be warbling from the rooftops about.

It's free on your Kindle today, 9 July 2014. Get it, read it, pass a pleasant half-hour and support a promising writer with a lot more to say.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

It didn't matter that I knew a part of Jace's story. It didn't matter that I knew how it ends. It still hurt so fucking much.

But, you know, a good kinda hurt and all that.

It is going to take a while to be able to calm myself enough to read the other three books, especially knowing where the stories end. Wow...my mind, my heart, my whole body is completely overcome by this book. It took unconventional routes, breaking predictability, and while I did guess some things before they happened, more often than not this story surprised me with its twists and how the characters reacted, which made me so very happy, so very heartbroken, and really transformed this show more story into something inexplicably beautiful, painful, and unique.

Ben, Tim, and Jace all were incredibly deep and multi-layered characters that grew over time, and often surprised me with their actions. They made me soar in happiness (Jace and his trips and understanding and love; Ben with his process of growing up and his bravery and choices; Tim changing over the years and slowly becoming the man he needed to be but keeping his love for and sights set on Ben), they pissed me off (I can't go into detail without spoilers), they broke my heart into sand-fine pieces, and they forced me to understand and accept all of the twists and turns in their lives. They all feel so real that I almost believe that they must be out there in the world.

This is one of those rare books that has so much power in it, it makes you stop and sit back and think about life. As much as I want to rail against things that happened at the end, get mad and yell "why" and find a way to change the events, everything played out the way it had to, and to be honest, partly the way I had expected originally, but there was so much that the characters had to do and experience before the resolution. There had to be the pain, no matter how much I hate it, because otherwise they would have missed out on monumental and defining parts of their lives. I have goosebumps just thinking about everything, and I don't want to go to sleep because every time I think of the strongest and most horrible scene in the book (I can't say which because I won't spoil it) my stomach starts to hurt with deep sadness. I don't think that I'm actually going to be able to fall asleep for a while, and I really don't know what to say or do. This book has reached so deeply into my soul that it just tops every other.

It deals with so many issues so thoroughly and well. From growing up, to coming out, to first love, to loss, to building relationships, to being human and just making the best out of what you have while going to for what you want...it is truly an all-encompassing story. The story goes through so many phases but the lives of the characters remain entertwined, and they help each other get what they need to become the best people they can be.

I have no confusion as to how this has gotten so many stellar reviews. As I said before, it is one of those few stories that goes beyond the rest and doesn't stop until it has run through every avenue possible to explain itself and make you feel. This is definitely one of my favorites. I think everyone should read this, it is that rare of a find, but be prepared to have your heart torn up and soothed back together multiple times while you go though this in one sitting. I know that I am going to be obsessively remembering this book for a long time, and am going to have to slowly work up the courage to read the others. Thank you Jay Bell...your story gave me one of the few most amazing and transformative experiences a book ever has, and I will never forget it. show less

It doesn't take much for Ben to fall in love with the hot boy he keeps seeing jogging around in his neighbour. He is painfully attractive, and it's hard for him to not keep looking for him as soon as he leaves the house. That's why it's such a disappointment when he turns out to befriend the rude jocks by the end of summer. So much for dreaming of a future together.

However, it all changes when Ben accidentally skates right into him; leaving his crush with a broken leg. With his parents out show more of town and an offender who feels ridiculously guilty, Tim quickly finds a nurse in Ben who is more than happy to take care of him a few hours a day; even if it involves skipping school more than once. There's no place he'd rather be than right next to Tim.

As they wait for Tim's leg to heal, they live in their own little world at Tim's place; a place where it's just the two of them, together. If only it was always that easy.

I've seen this book series around a lot, especially on Goodreads. Considering my inability to not read anything even vaguely lgbt-themed... I bought it. I guess my feelings about spending money on this book sums up this review better than my rambling will but basically, there's a bunch of really good lgbt books I rather would've spent my money on. Because I'm not that certain I want this on my shelf, especially as I'm uncertain wether I even want to recommend it to someone else.

Here's the thing, the book started out great. Honestly. It was a very gay, fun book about two young men falling in love. There's the struggle with homophobia and being afraid to be out. It's deep and it's caring and it's wonderful. It's towards the end of the book that it completely falls apart. Not only does Tim give off creepy, abusive vibes as he tries to break up Ben and his current boyfriend – but it's made very clear that he is actually an abuser. Tim's on and off boyfriend shows up with bruises all over; bruises Tim have caused.

What bothers me about this is that Ben still lingers on Tim, still praises him. I'd understand if he was the one abused by Tim and then having these feelings; there's a certain bond between the victim and their abuser. But Ben literally sees what Tim's done to this young man... and yet, he's still trying to somewhat pursue him because he can't let go off his horny teenage fantasies about teenage Tim.

Tim is abusive and manipulative and it became very romanticised in this book in a way that made me really uncomfortable. The author literally killed off the sweetest character ever to allow Ben to go back to Tim's abusive ass. Because he was hot in that stereotypical jock way. C'mon. show less