Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: You Are The Reason

SERIES: The Tav #2

AUTHOR: Renae Kaye

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 240 Pages

BLURB:

Davo’s a pretty average guy. He has a decent job, owns his own home, and spends his weekends at the pub. He fully accepts that he’s gay, but doesn’t want to be one of those gays who are girly. He likes football and other masculine pursuits, and firmly avoids anything that could be seen as femme—including relationships that last beyond fifteen minutes.

Then Davo’s friend and gay idol not only gets a boyfriend, but also adopts a baby girl. Davo is seriously spooked and scuttles down to the pub. That’s where he meets Lee, cute from her cherry-red hair to her pretty little dress and pointy red shoes. Davo is charmed—but how is that possible? He’s gay. Isn’t he? Then Lee tells him he’s actually a guy—he just likes to wear women’s dresses occasionally. Thoroughly confused about an attraction that’s out of character for him, Davo begins the long journey to where he can accept himself without caring what everyone else thinks.

REVIEW:

When I was eleven years old, I worked out what it was to be gay. Being gay meant you were a boy but liked girly things. Being gay meant you were bashed at school and ridiculed by the sports teacher. Being gay was not good.

I didn’t want to be gay.

Just because Davo is gay, doesn’t mean he has to be a girl. Davo is a man and no body had better come near him with any sort of girly shit because it’s a well known fact that pink is dangerous and has been known to transfer. Femme may be fine for those gays but they need to keep their swish and their glitter far away from Davo. Would Davo ever date a guy in a dress? Ha! If someone suggested the idea Davo would punch them in the face before heading home to watch footy, drink beer and use his power tools to make something out of wood – cause that’s what real men do. Well, that’s what he may have done, until the night he met Lee and was forced to rethink his opinions of what it means to be a gay man.

Am I a Renae Kaye fan? I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a few steps away from tattooing her name on my butt. The only thing stopping me is a fear of needles and imagining my husband’s reaction. But I don’t think my obsessive love for her books is unwarranted. This author’s books are the ones that I reach for when I’ve had a bad day and need a strong dose of happy. Or when I’ve just finished a book that left me in emotional turmoil and I need a story that will make me feel the love. They’re not mere flufftastic tales but tackle real issues in true romance novel style. I received an ARC of You Are The Reason a couple of weeks before its release. I had a list of other books I really had to read first. I resisted for a whole twelve hours before I started reading – I was so strong!

You Are The Reason is part of The Tav series, a sequel to The Blinding Light, but at the same time it can be read as a standalone. Should you read it as a standalone? Hell no! Because you are going to meet Patrick, aka Patti-cake, and Jake in this book and you aren’t going to be able to resist reading their story too. So, best to start in the correct order. For everyone who has already read the first book, you’ll be pleased to hear that we see plenty of those two wonderful men in this book and we also get to meet Maxine (their daughter) who plays a big part in helping Davo overcome his femme-phobia.

But here I am talking about the secondary characters when I’ve yet to tell you all about Davo and Lee.

I was actually a little bit scared when I started this book. A few chapters in and I was starting to worry that I wasn’t going to like Davo. The story is told solely from his perspective and as much as I was amused by his antics, his hatred of all things femme bordered on the ridiculous. And when I say ridiculous, I don’t mean that the author did a poor job of convincing me that a grown man could fear “girl germs” I mean ridiculous as in Davo’s attitude was just as intolerant as some of the bible shaking bigots out there. Throughout most of the story I continued to have this love/hate (well not hate, but you get the idea) relationship with Davo until finally he opens up to Lee and we understand the trauma that shaped his outlook. But don’t get me wrong, Davo is definitely a likeable character, he just has some very real flaws that need to be addressed before he’s good enough for Lee.

Lee was the most brilliant of brilliant characters. He knows who he is and is brave enough to show it to the world. I loved the way he treated Davo, pushing his boundaries but never forcing him to accept anything that he wasn’t ready for. He put up with Davo’s anti-femme stance but only to a point, and he always let him know how his attitude made him feel. Lee was written as a perfect example that femme doesn’t equal weak. I think Lee is one of the strongest characters that this author has written us so far.

“The possibilities are endless when you accept that there are no set limits, no set rules. That you can do anything you want and stuff the rest of the world.”

Davo and Lee together – well that was just amazing. The sex was hot, very hot. Picture items being swept off the kitchen bench top so Davo can ravish (yes, ravish) Lee, and Davo telling Lee to run as soon as they get inside if he wants to make it as far as the bed. Of course, they don’t make it as far as the bed. But it isn’t just the sex between them that captured my attention. From the moment they met, when Davo believed Lee was a woman, you could see that being with Lee made Davo a better person. One of my favourite aspects of this story is that Davo actually considered a relationship with Lee before he knew that Lee was a man. Davo isn’t bi, he’s gay. And he’s never questioned that. But he felt such a pull towards this apparent female that he was open to exploring something. Sort of like gay for you, but in reverse.

There are also some great scenes between the two men such as Davo dealing with the baby poop nappy from hell (which he compares to an ebola outbreak), visiting a LGBT youth drop-in center and Davo rescuing Lee from a particularly bad situation in true knightly fashion.

Have I convinced you yet to read this book? I strongly urge that you add it to your TBR list. Actually no, no adding it to a list, you should just head to whichever site you buy from right now and start reading. See below the five well deserved hearts…buy links. These are not a suggestion people but an order! Go forth and read. You can thank me later 😉

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon