Reviewed by Tammy
TITLE: Nothing Serious
NARRATOR: Michael Pauley
AUTHOR: Jay Northcote
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 4 hours 3 minutes
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:
Nothing Serious is about Mark O’Brien being honest with himself, his girlfriend of nine years, his mother and Jamie Robertson, a Uni student who has always known and admitted he is gay.
Mark has always known he’s gay but it was easier to pretend to be straight, he could never quite bring himself to tell his mother he preferred men. When he was at Manchester University he met Rachel, he didn’t fall in love with her but they were best friends. They got on well together and enjoyed each other’s company so Mark couldn’t see what the fuss was about until his mother started nagging him to marry Rachel. He realised then that he had to be honest with not only himself but Rachel and his mother. In the aftermath of coming out, Mark is leaving the flat that he’s shared with Rachel for six years and this is where he meets Jamie who is helping his brother who is a removal man.
Jamie has never denied he was gay that’s just the way he is and everyone accepts him for who he is. When Jamie meets Mark for the first time it’s over a spilled box of porn magazines, DVD’s and sex toys! Mark is mortified and Jamie is intrigued. As they talk about the reason Mark is moving out, Jamie comes to the realisation that other than a hand job from another boy in school Mark has absolutely no experience with men. Jamie offers to let Mark ‘test it out’ on him and considering the fact that Jamie is incredibly good looking with the body of a god Mark decides to take him up on his offer of being friends with benefits.
Both Mark and Jamie develop deeper feelings for each other but as the arrangement is to be friends with benefits neither feel they can tell the other they’ve fallen in love. Jamie is scared that all Mark feels for him is a ‘coming out’ fascination because he can feel Mark holding back when they’re together. Mark doesn’t realise he’s fallen in love with Jamie until he visits with Rachel one night and they’re talking about their new partners, Rachel has fallen in love with a new co-worker and as Mark tells her about Jamie he realises just how deep his feelings are.
I found this to be a very sweet book of two men finding love when neither expected it. Jay Northcote handled the whole subject in exactly the right way! This is the first audio book I’ve listened to and I would definitely recommend it to everyone both curious and seasoned audio book listeners.
RATING: 
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