Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: The Next Call
AUTHOR: Sue Brown
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 169 pages
BLURB:
Mark Grayson volunteers for an LGBT helpline, the same one that helped him through his teenage years. One day he takes a call from “Ricky,” a suicidal man being forced into a marriage he doesn’t want. For weeks Mark talks to Ricky and provides support, but he’s frustrated by the lack of information Ricky provides and the decisions he’s making. In the meantime, Mark starts a relationship with another volunteer. Then tragedy strikes and Mark takes time away from the helpline, but when he comes back, Ricky is waiting. Mark realizes Ricky is stronger than before and their relationship changes, but Mark isn’t sure what their future holds if their relationship is destined to be at the end of the phone.
REVIEW:
In The Next Call we have Mark Grayson, a volunteer for a LGBT helpline, a dater of wrong men, and a computer nerd. In the beginning of the book we open up to Mark a few years earlier seeing a young man attempting to jump off a bridge. As he talks to him he gives the young man a card from the helpline and stops him from jumping off the bridge. We then jump back to the present and Mark has just broken off a bad relationship with his boyfriend Tam who in my opinion is a real prick. He has pretty much destroyed all the self worth that Mark had. One night while working the hotline he gets a phone call from a man named “Ricky”. He is struggling with his life and hates everything in it. He gives Mark what are obviously fake names in the conversation. He has a girlfriend that wants to get married and a life that is not under his control. The call ends fairly quickly and Mark just chalked it up to a one time deal. At the same time there is a footballer named Dicky Lomax, a man who seemingly has it all and one of Mark’s friends, Jamie, who also works at the helpline jokingly calls the man gay. It’s an important detail to remember.
As time goes on Ricky begins to call more and more, wanting to only speak with Mark. Mark’s friends worry that he is getting to attached to a man that won’t reveal personal details of his life, and they want him to get out and enjoy himself again. Mark finally pulls his head out of his butt and realizes another volunteer named Ian has a crush on him. They go on a date and Mark finds his second chance at love but unfortunately after only a few months together he loses that chance again. As he deals with his grief Mark takes time away from the hotline and by the time he comes back Ricky has become close with the other workers and is having discreet affairs even though he is married. As time passes yet again he gives Ricky his personal number and begins to speak to the man outside of the hotline. This starts a real friendly relationship that grows into much more as Mark fights to deal with Ricky’s lack of personal information and his possessive feelings of a man he never met.
I did enjoy the book. Of course you aren’t supposed to like Tam but it annoyed me how many times Mark let the man into his head. Definitely makes you want to punch him in the face. But Mark was a loveable character. He definitely had a knack for searching for love in all the wrong places but he was dedicated to helping out troubled souls at the hotline. When he first talked to “Ricky” you just figure it out right away who he really is even though for Mark being heartbroken and having so much life problems that he doesn’t really figure it out until the end. I did feel bad for Ricky. You could tell that he was having a hard time dealing for a long time. Although in some ways he was a user and a coward because he just kept taking what Mark offered without giving too much of himself. Marks friends, Jez, Jamie, and Sandra definitely helped the book out a bit. Jez was a hard shooter, Jamie his lover was the softie, and Sandra represented that motherly figure. Mark’s relationship with Ian was a tad weird. I understood he loved him but he never did learn much about him, and I thought he was just settling because Ian treated him a bit better than his last boyfriend did. All in all it was a well rounded read. Not a lot of sex except for hints here and there, and a couple of phone sex scenes that were alright. If you are a fan of the author you will not be disappointed.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: