Guest Reviewed by Morgan
Title: My Favorite Uncle
Author: Marshall Thornton
Heroes: Martin Dixon/Carter Dixon
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 220 Pages
Publisher: Wilde City Press
Release Date: June 25, 2014
Available at: Wilde City Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Martin Dixon’s carefully constructed peaceful life is turned upside down when his super Christian eighteen year-old nephew Carter shows up unexpectedly on his doorstep and announces that he’s gay, Martin’s first impulse is to send him back to his parents. But when he discovers that Carter has been in a mental hospital to cure his gay-ness he realizes he’s stuck with the boy. Unfortunately, the two get on each other’s nerves, each driving the other to distraction. Independently, they each arrive at the same conclusion. The other would be much less annoying if he only had…a boyfriend.
Review:
First let me start off with the fact that this is NOT a romance. Sure, there are some romantic elements, but this is more of a coming of age/family relations story than anything else. The relationship between Henry and Carter is way too flawed to be considered a romance in the sense of the genre, and though we do see a HFN with Ernesto and Martin, their story is really more of a side story than the main feature.
It is a LONG book. Very long. Almost 5000 locations long. There is a fair amount of dry humor, and some of it was even a little laugh out loud, but for me – the book was too long, despite the humor and the romantic elements.
To be fair, it’s not the author’s fault, it’s just that I was hoping for more of a romance than I got. If I had read the reviews beforehand, I would have seen this – many people have noted this is not a romance, but alas, I didn’t read anything but the blurb, and it seemed really cute and fun. Which it is. But it’s not a romance.
The cover is adorable too – and that persuaded me some as well. (I have a thing for well done covers, don’t judge.)
Ok – so what was there to like? Well, the writing is excellent. The author has a great grasp for characters and sets an even pace throughout the book. No starts and stops, but solidly moving forward, with moments of laughter and some tears to punctuate the fairly stoic telling of what many would interpret as a pretty horrifying experience. (Carter is admitted to a psychiatric hospital for Sexual Dysmorphia by his parents in order to cure his “gayness”.) Maybe because the author is a man, or maybe because all the characters are men, there is not much discussion of this – and when it is discussed, there is not much response to it. That may sound like a criticism, but it’s not. I think that men and women think differently and process differently, and I appreciate when that is portrayed well in a story. Like here.
The relationship between Martin and Carter is also well done. Without a lot of sobbing and hugging, we see them grow closer and closer and in a way that felt really organic and real.
Being a newly transplanted Angelino myself, I liked the peeks into SoCal living and appreciated the subtle humor to be found just navigating roads in the Los Angeles area.
Maybe it was because there wasn’t enough romance in it for me, or maybe it really could have used more editing, but I felt the book could have been shortened and told the same story. Hard to know for sure.
All in all it was a good book. I liked it, and if I was in the mood for a non-romance with romantic elements, I may have loved it. I’ll let you decide.
Overall Impression: I liked it
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
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