Reviewed by Taylor
Title: Nothing Serious
Author: Jay Northcote
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 158 pages
Blurb: Mark O’Brien is finally being honest with himself. His relationship with Rachel is over and he’s moving out of the home they’ve shared for six years. They get along, but he can’t fix a relationship when the person he’s with is the wrong gender.
Jamie Robertson, one of the removal men, is huge and ridiculously gorgeous, and Mark is smitten at first sight. When a cardboard box splits, revealing items of a personal nature that Mark never wanted anybody to see, he’s mortified. But it sparks the start of a beautiful friendship with benefits.
As Jamie initiates Mark into the joys of gay sex, the two men get increasingly close and “nothing serious” turns into something rather important to both of them. But communication isn’t their strong point. Will either man ever find the courage to be honest about his feelings?
Review:
So it’s been said repeatedly about this book, but truly there’s not a whole lot about this book that’s serious or super angsty. It was easy and I would imagine many people would like this as a “break” book. Something to read when you’ve been drowning in drama, tears and the like from other books. There’s no real tension, it’s a lot of sexual exploring and everything runs smoothly for the men. I’m all for those kind of books.
What didn’t really work for me in this instance was that I never grew attached to the characters. Imagine a TV show that after one season or so let’s go one of the characters and states, “their storyline ran its course”. I feel like this book’s characters would have been one of those let go. They are really sweet men that met when Mark finally came out to his long-term girlfriend and decided to move out and move on. Jaime is one of the moving men, experienced and offers to teach Mark the joys of gay sex and keep everything not serious. Along the way, the men fall in love simply and quietly. That’s it. So you see, it’s one of those things where their kind of love happens every day all the time, but it’s not all terribly exciting to read about or ‘witness’. And because I wasn’t attached to them on any level I started questioning whether these men would realistically work out. Because they were friends with benefits and I didn’t feel like any character growth outside of that A,B, Cock’s of gay sex happened, so I’m kind of scratching my head as to whether they’ll make it in the long haul.
Most people will like this, I imagine, but for me it was just an OK read.
Rating: 
Links: Dreamspinner Press :: ARe :: Amazon