Bobz

I rarely ever give anything 5 stars but this nice short read really impressed me. Coming of age stories are a dime a dozen, not as much for for lgbt stories but even still the field is saturated enough that its rare to find a story with characters that stand out with a great balance of wit, drama and lovey-dovey fluff with just a touch of magic. Another testament to the authors writing skills is how the story still feels very modern even though at the time of this review the book is almost 11 yrs old it might even be set in the future the story is set in a pretty much idealistic world where sexuality and gender identity (for the most part) aren't social stigmas (I'd love to live there) Great characters, good story short and sweet.

DNF at 2.5 hours

I really wanted to like this book, however after 2.5 hours there still had not been a murder. A few of the chapters describing the sought after object felt like listening to a well written instruction manual. The writing is beautiful and witty, which is both a strength and weakness as I feel the author felt the need to make sure the reader knows this, but it's a bit heavy handed and the pacing suffers because of it. I am giving up on this book however, this author has a large catalog of work with mostly very well received reviews so I may check out another one of their other novels, this one just wasn't for me.

Audio notes: The narrator gave an above average performance and was paired well with this style of writing.

This was a delightful read! Unlike most murder mysteries that I usually read this was pretty non-violent and non-sexually motivated but that is not to say that its light-hearted and watered down as it has themes exhibiting of the of the worst traits of humanity but not brutal and in your face like other novels. Character driven with a strong ,likable yet somewhat mysterious lead and great supporting cast (although I do feel as the the story line with agent Nichol was underdeveloped and somewhat unfinished) the coziness of this little town was almost tangible. I very much enjoyed this first in the series and look forward to the next.

This was a good read, I'm sure if I would have read this book when it was first published that it would have made more of a impression on me but I'm thinking that for its time it had set the groundwork for coming out stories of lgbt youth. I did really like how the author put the different chapters in the perspective of the different characters

This was a slog to get through especially after thoroughly enjoying Full Dark No Stars. Unenjoyable, unlikeable characters, no surprising twists...not gonna be in a hurry to read the sequels