Review: Bowl Full of Cherries by Raine O’Tierney
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Publish Date: December 5, 2014
Reviewed by: Heller
How I got this book: E-Arc from Publisher
“Porker, Fatty, Tons-of-Fun: Crowley Fredericks has heard it all. He’s dropped a lot of weight since his high school days, but he’s still a big guy, and the painful words and bullying follow him. Rejected—again—because of his size, Crowley is starting to think that maybe love just isn’t meant for huskier men.
Averell Lang and his twin are so different they might as well not even be related. So when Rell’s brother brings his roommate home to snowy Susset for the holidays, Rell expects the worst—another uptight, pretentious hipster. What he discovers instead is Crowley. Nerdy, fascinating, attractive, Crowley. Rell never expected to look at a man this way, and what he sees in Crowley Fredericks is something he didn’t even know he was looking for. If both men can overcome their hang-ups, they might unwrap more than presents this holiday season.”
This book had me laughing…a lot. The dialogue was snappy and fun. I loved the characters here, all of them interested me, from secondary to mains but I wasn’t expecting this to be a New Adult story. Not one of my favourite things to read but this was so much fun, I just went with it.
Averell (Rell) ended up being in a position in his life where he’s really not sure about his direction. Everyone thinks he’s a slacker so it adds for a bit of snark when his family talks to him about his future. Crowley, who I found adorable, has some real body issues with a borderline eating disorder. I was happy to see some of that be addressed here.
These two connect on all fronts and I loved reading about them falling for each other. There is one aspect of it that irked me. GFY stories can work for me but I don’t like it when one character has no attraction to men at all and all the sudden he’s goes gaga for a guy. I like to see simmering attraction for men there but perhaps never acted on, when it comes out of nowhere it just doesn’t sit quite right for me or feel totally authentic.
Still even with that the men work well together. The sex is seamless, which for two virgins for gay sex seemed a bit too seamless but I went with it because, damn, the writing is just so good.
Even with the issues that I had with the story line I adored this book, I found it endlessly amusing. Everything flowed so well and I found myself laughing out loud several times during the read and I just couldn’t put it down until I was done. I love it when a book surprises you
into an all night read because you just need to know how things end up.
I’m giving Bowl Full of Cherries a B+