Femme

I tend to avoid first person books where the POV switches between the main characters; the reason why I didn't close this book as soon as I realised it is one of those books is because it has a really catchy opening, but also because the chapter titles aren't the names of whichever POV they were featuring. I'm still lowering the rating because of that. While I did like the writing style quite a lot and both of the main characters, the first person switching POV is a pet peeve of mine. I could go more into why I don't like it, but pet peeve works just fine.

And there are a few other reasons why I couldn't give Femme the full stars rating anyway. For one, I would have like more background on Lionel. I wanted to know what happened. I got just some snippets here and there and I feel like a lot was left out. I felt like his background was shown enough for something to be there and also played it quite safe, not really giving details. While it is nice that it leaves room for the reader to fill in the blanks, there are too many blanks. Then there's Doug who I liked, but I think he got away with his screw ups way too easy.

I also would have liked more on the side characters too. Some more background on Carlos. And I didn't really like the team's attitude, I would have expected more from them for some reason. I kind of get it, but at the same time I don't.

But I started with the things I didn't like and there are actually things I did like too. I liked how Lionel and Doug differed. There was some sort of contrast between them. And I liked the dialogue in the book, with everyone. The writing style was nice, I liked how the characters' personalities came through. And it was a funny as well. Not laugh out loud funny, but witty funny.

The most I liked the theme of the book and the way it was dealt with. I'm not going to elaborate on that.

I'd describe Femme as an easy read. It rolled out nice and smooth, it didn't drag at all and it pulled me in. I thought I might drop it simply because of my pet peeve, but I actually enjoyed reading it.

Cute contemporary romance with a message (“be yourself, everyone else is taken”) and a gentle but sincere criticism of bias within the gay community. Lionel is fabulous (even when he tries not to be) and Dog/Doug is earnest (and master of the Grand Gesture). Thornton wisely doesn't wrap up the book with a flowery HEA, just a hopeful HFN that sees the two very different men working together on a genuine, promising relationship. I was confused and bothered by the book's “punchline,” (the masc guy likes to bottom) which seems to counteract the author's warning not to get caught up in stereotypes, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.There is a sequel ([b:Masc 39717722 Masc (Femme, #2) Marshall Thornton https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1522859181s/39717722.jpg 61387128]) but I don't think I'll check it out. I'd prefer to leave the two MCs as they are at the end of Femme, without creating new drama to keep them apart.