review 1: Ok, so I know a lot of people hated this book, but I've read two books by these authors, this one on Black Gold. I preferred this one by a fair margin. Like this book was almost a 4 star read but not quite, whereas the other book was more of a 2.5 star read. The premise is Julien's best friend, Bobby, forgot to hire a blonde female performer for a birthday party for a fireman at his bar, so since Julien is such a convincing woman Bobby asks him to do it. Reluctantly Julien agrees only to start to crush on the birthday boy, so much so that he has to leave out of fear of everyone discovering he has a penis. The firefighter, Trent, can't get the blonde out of his head and goes back to find out who she was. Bobby gives him Julien's real name, Julien Larsen, but Trent he... morears Julia. So he uses his connections to find where Julien lives and shows up on his door. From there Trent assumes Julien must be Julia's twin sister. Romantic comedy ensues.Ok, the premise requires you to take a huge leap of faith. First you have to believe that in a room full of men not one can spot a man in drag. Okay.. Second that there is only one Julien Larsen in all of Manhattan, and no actual Julia Larsen. Fine. (Really these two need to do a little research on Manhattan, because they keep calling cabs, which you don't do in Manhattan, you go to the curb and hail one.) Third, the fact that "twins" have 1 cell phone that they share and are never together doesn't set off any alarms for Trent. Hmm..In Black Gold there was one character that was like sugar sweet and the other that the only good thing about him was that he loved the other. At least here they are less extreme. Sort of. Trent is like the epitome of virtue and just wants to be loved. (He's a little sugary.) Both characters want to be loved for who they are not for anything else. Julien is a pretty ok character, he's mostly lost and makes a lot of mistakes. I think if you suspend your disbelief, the beginning of the book isn't so bad in a romantic comedy kind of way. Trent starts to realize that he's having feelings for the brother of the girl he likes and he keeps trying to make it work with the girl because that's the acceptable thing to happen. I know people took exception with Trent's use of words like "swishy" and "faggy". I can let it go because A- he never uses them out loud and B-he's a man that considered himself straight, for the 33 years, a little mental struggle with all the negative things he's probably ever heard is ok. Actually it's required. I think the easy acceptance from everyone around was a little weird. I think the zero to love was a little much. I think the entire way the story is crafted in the beginning is good, no matter how unbelievable. I think it all falls apart when the guys get together. Like the authors got exited and stopped trying. Overall, I think if you approach this book like a Romantic Comedy Movie, it's pretty good. If you go in expecting something else you will be very disappointed. review 2: This one started strong but went off the rails fast. Trent seemed sweet, if dumb as a box of hair. His cluelessness eventually devolved to the point where he came off like a special needs kid, desperate to belong, but completely unable to understand his own behavior or the behavior of those around him. It was creepy. This was supposed to be a 33 year old man, and he's running around in his Superman pajamas from high school and talking about how he and Julian are friends, because jerking each other off is the kind of thing that friends do. And Julian went from a guy who got in over his head to completely deranged. Things eventually came back from crazyland, although never quite to the real world. The nonchalance with which the other firefighters accepted Trent and Julian seemed unlikely at best.This book was unputdownable in the same way that you can't look away from a car wreck. Entertaining for the WTF-factor, but not much else. less
