Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Wet Paint

SERIES: Transitions #2

AUTHOR: Will Parkinson

PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press

LENGTH: 214 Pages

BLURB:

Although Addy’s heart and body bear the scars from his life before he was adopted by the Deans, he’s ached for something he thought he would never find. Until he met Benny. He isn’t sure how anyone can care for someone as broken as he is, even though he wants it desperately.

High school senior Benny Peters has his whole life planned out for him, until a chaste kiss at summer camp opens a new world of possibilities. Determined to erase Addy’s insecurities, Benny works to take away his boyfriend’s pain and replace it with love.

When Addy’s past intrudes on their future, it’s going to take everything Benny can muster to show that no matter what–or who–they face, they belong together.

REVIEW:

I’m going to be frank up front here and say that I adored this book. I’m going to do my best not to start rhapsodizing over how beautiful these kids are but there are no guarantees. However, I’m going to temper my enthusiasm with a warning that while I loved this book to death, I know not everybody will agree with me.

I like reading a whole range of books from dub con and slave fic to sickeningly sweet cutesy wuv stories. So long as I manage to match my book to my mood, it all works out fine. Wet Paint pushed at my admittedly very stretchy sweetness boundaries though luckily it seemed my mood was perfect for this because I just lapped it up.

This book is the second in the Transitions series and, nope, I haven’t read the first book. It’s definitely not necessary to do so but I kind of wish I had. One, because I enjoyed this story so much and two, because the main characters from the first book are around for a decent portion of this second book. Also, and I can only guess at this bit, I think Benny and Addy’s first meeting may have taken place on page in Pitch (first book). So just to get an idea of what I missed I moseyed on over to goodreads and read through a heap of Pitch reviews before I started Wet Paint. As a result I went into Wet Paint with the impression that Benny was an absolutely perfect specimen of young adulthood and every reader seemed to be in love with him.

And that was a pretty accurate impression. Benny really is a whole lot of perfect. He speaks and acts like a much older person, or perhaps it’s just that he’s a lot more mature than I expect any seventeen (eighteen?) year old would be. Because of this “perfectness” Benny is sort of the unelected leader of their little friend group. I liked the way he had to learn to step back and not to take over every single time there was a problem, just because he could. Especially if the person having problems is his boyfriend Addy.

Poor little Addy. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with him before I’d finished reading the first page. It’s evident pretty much from the start what happened to Addy in the past and I loved the way he grew between the first page and the last.

“It was like sitting alone in a dark room and someone suddenly turned on the sun. There wasn’t a corner of my mind that wasn’t filled with light, making me face things that were hiding in the dark with me. And let me tell you, no matter what anyone else says, there’s some scary shit in the dark.”

Damaged Addy and perfect Benny balance each other out and they’re the sort of high school sweethearts that I can believe will stay together forever. That’s one of my issues with reading young adult books. I absolutely believe that teenagers can fall in love and that it can be more exciting and special than anything we experience as adults. But I have a hard time believing that they aren’t going to screw it up a few years down the track. Or just grow apart as they grow up. With Benny and Addy I was happily convinced they’d manage to live out their HEA, especially with that ending that the author dangled like a big juicy carrot.

My favourite part of Wet Paint is the time spent at Camp Care, where Addy and Benny act as peer councilors for a troubled young man named Liam. Seriously, I could happily read a whole book about this awesome camp that had previously been such a big help to Addy. And I’m really, really hoping that Liam will be the focus of book three in this series. Or maybe Larry? I don’t know why but I always want to see the bad guy reformed and in love.

So while I loved this story, I’ll stress that I’m only recommending this if you like young adult books. Sometimes I’ll say, even if you don’t like YA you should give it a try, but this book is not one of those. There’s nothing sexy about it, although there is some non-explicit sex between Addy and Benny. Instead it’s beautiful and so darn sweet you’ll feel the need to brush your teeth for fear of cavities.

Oh – and side note. I adore the cover. It’s what caught my attention instantly and made me consider reading this when I don’t tend to read a lot of YA.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon