Erratum: "Some things were bound to change, but others never did not." What the hell does that mean, exactly?!
Is this Dating Him #1 or Discovering Me #1? Who knows. Maybe it's discovering me dating him? This story, which borrows heavily from MTV's Faking it 'comes out' as one about a huge rarity: a gay country singer, but the truth is that there's a score of gay and lesbian country performers already out, so this isn't exactly a hen's teeth situation.
It was a huge fail for me not because of that though, but because so much is telegraphed all the time that it feels like déjà vu all over again reading it. It's not so much telling instead of showing as broadcasting instead of showing! On top of that, the behaviors described for assorted people in the story were not remotely realistic, and worse, the main relationship was thoroughly inauthentic and the two main characters essentially, were dicks. Which I guess is appropriate!
The story is set in a bewildering world of people. I assume each of these gets their own story that has been or will be told in other novels which the publisher and authors clearly want you to spend your hard-earned money on. Not me. I'm done and I managed only about 25% of this before I tired of the nonsensical story. The idea is that rising country star "Becks" is an older friend of a guy named Nikki who is having a rough time with his bi boyfriend. Well, deal with it Nikki! He's bi and he's young. It's going to be a while before he settles on anyone - assuming he ever does. The thing is that the two of them (B&N, not N & boyfriend) have never had a relationship other than as distant friends and Becks has had virtually no contact in two years since his career began taking off.
So neither one of this pair has even thought about any sort of intimacy with the other, yet one night when playing a concert, Becks sees Nikki in the audience looking upset while confronting his boyfriend who is with a girl. This is the boyfriend that Nikki already has given up on, so we're told, so the upset seems fake at best. Becks's behavior is even more so since he jumps off the stage in the middle of his concert and kisses Nikki, thereby exposing him to publicity, which is the last thing the younger man craves.
Despite Becks not being that big of a star (which was why he was playing that venue rather than a large, packed stadium), we're expected to believe that the media world explodes, that paparazzi are everywhere demanding answers, and his recording company is demanding he run with this gay aspect because it's trending. I'm sorry but this is horseshit. None of it makes any sense. If Becks is such a huge star, his recording company can hardly hold him to ransom over this, and if Becks is such a rebel, why does he so meekly fall into line? He's not even that big of a star, so who cares about his domestic trivia, really? The story is all over the place and it doesn't gel.
For the most part it was written decently in terms of good English, although the story wasn't where it needed to be. One oddball thing I read stuck with me: "And you know as well as I that gay is just a label." Um... I'm not sure what the authors are trying to say here, but I am sure they could have worded it a lot better! So all in all - or all in one quarter anyway, I can't commend this.
