Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Coffee Boy
AUTHOR: Austin Chant
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 89 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2016
BLURB:
After graduation, Kieran expected to go straight into a career of flipping burgers—only to be offered the internship of his dreams at a political campaign. But the pressure of being an out trans man in the workplace quickly sucks the joy out of things, as does Seth, the humorless campaign strategist who watches his every move.
Soon, the only upside to the job is that Seth has a painful crush on their painfully straight boss, and Kieran has a front row seat to the drama. But when Seth proves to be as respectful and supportive as he is prickly, Kieran develops an awkward crush of his own—one which Seth is far too prim and proper to ever reciprocate.
REVIEW:
Unpaid internships to become the office coffee boy are not exactly the holy grail. Even if it does mean that Kieran will get an opportunity to work with his first political campaign. It’s not that he isn’t grateful for the “job” being offered to him by his former professor, but having to spend his days around people who will probably constantly misgender him is not his idea of fun. And he gets enough of that during his real job at a fast-food joint. If he backs out now, though, his best friend will never let him hear the end of it. When he meets Seth, the man running the local branch of the campaign, he is not at all reassured. If ever their was a man in dire need of a quick removal of a long stick from certain hole, it is Seth. He is also ridiculously hot, of course, once you get past the whole cool exterior. Not that Kieran is looking.
I really loved this book. Like it left me all happy-sighing all over the place when I finished it. The trans part was incredibly well written, and the author did a good job of making it part of the story without making it all of the story. It is very much a love story…that just happens to have a trans character. And, yeah, that is gonna mean that certain aspects of what life is like for trans people is gonna come up, but I don’t think it ever came off as if the author felt the reader needed to be Educated.
There was also something about Kieran’s whole grumpy trans guy that really spoke to the grumpy trans guy in me.
But honestly, trans stuff aside, this is a damn good story. I really wish the author had decided to keep it going for a bit more. I wanna know more about these characters and the campaign. Does the lady running win? What happens with the people in the campaign office? How do Seth and Kieran handle dating and working together? I NEED TO KNOW! I love being this invested in characters (some of which I’ve never even met in the story), and it was a damn shame it had to end where it did.
I know that some of the shorter books are not automatic buys for some people because they don’t know if they are getting their money’s worth, but please take my recommendation down to your nearest ebook seller and pick this up. It may be only 90 pages long but it is a fantastic story and I don’t think you will regret it. I loved this book and will be adding the author to my must-stalk list.
RATING: 
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