Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: A Day in Cleburne

SERIES: The Robbie Day Duology Book 2

AUTHOR: I.M. Flippy

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2018

BLURB:

Bart and Robbie have found happiness together and Bart’s career is going nowhere but up.

Everything should be perfect, right? But going from having nothing to lose to having everything to lose is keeping Robbie up at night.

Plagued by self-doubt following the loss of Day Studios, Robbie doesn’t know why he can’t just shut up and be happy. The “King of Pain” worries that he’ll drag Bart down in his first attempt at a sober relationship. After Robbie pushes Bart away, he’s forced to wrestle with the demons that even the best relationship can’t easily fix.

When Bart runs back to Texas and Robbie chases after him, he fights to gain back the love and family he wants even more than a movie studio.

REVIEW:

“Block the door,” Robbie said, “and then while I’m doing this, I want you to sing David Bowie’s ‘Fame’.” He dropped to his knees.

“Why?” Bart laughed, gaping at him.

“Because I’m a sick fuck and it would amuse me.”

I was so darn excited to see this this book on Goodreads that I maybe possibly squeed just a little. A Day in Cleburne is the second book in the Robbie Day Duology, and should only be read as a sequel to Bart Goes to Brentwood. My review of that first book can be found here. This review contains spoilers from Bart Goes to Brentwood.

This book picks up not long after the first book ends, with our two main men, Robbie and Bart, madly in love and being “shipped” by fans around the world. But while Bart’s movie career is suddenly taking off, Robbie is struggling with the loss of his production company, Day Studios. When Bart leaves Robbie home alone for two weeks while he heads of to shoot his part in a movie, Robbie begins to lose the tight grip he needs to control his crazy life. With too much time on his hands and a visit from a friend he cut from his life years ago, Robbie’s fear of loss takes over…and he decides that Bart would be better off without him. Of course, we know better, Bart knows better, and all of their friends and family know better, but Robbie is slowly imploding, and refuses to take Bart down with him.

I’m usually not a fan of a couple who established a serious relationship in a first book going on to breakup in the second, but I can’t deny that it works for this storyline. Robbie Day is one messed up man, a celebrity billionaire with self esteem issues, a dead wife and a recent relapse into hard drug use that almost killed him. Every part of his life is played out under the critical eyes of fans and the media and in the end he breaks. This story is told solely from Robbie’s point of view, and I loved the way the author balanced the morose, confused and hopeless thoughts swirling around in his head with lighter moments of humor. I think I’ve said before that this author has a talent for throwing out the perfect lines to lift the mood of an emotional scene.

I loved that the secondary characters played a larger role in this second book, especially Bart’s sixteen-year-old sister, Jenny. Jenny was introduced in the first book, while she was getting hassled for being transgender back in Bart’s home town. I appreciated that the author took the story back to Cleburne and Bart and Jenny both got some closure on the pain they suffered there.

The epilogue is simply spectacular, very Hollywood and very satisfying, just like a good ending should be. But I can’t deny that I wish it wasn’t really the end for these characters. If the author ever decides to change the series name from The Robbie Day Duology to The Robbie Day Trilogy, I’ll be first in line to read what happens next.

 RATING: 

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