Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Bigger Love
SERIES: Big Love #2
AUTHOR: Rick R. Reed
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 191 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 13, 2018
BLURB:
Truman Reid is Summitville High’s most out-and-proud senior. He can’t wait to take his fierce, uncompromising self away from his small Ohio River hometown, where he’s suffered more than his share of bullying. He’s looking forward to bright lights and a big city. Maybe he’ll be the first gender-fluid star to ever win an Academy Award. But all that changes on the first day of school when he locks eyes with the most gorgeous hunk he’s ever seen.
Mike Stewart, big, dark-haired, and with the most amazing blue eyes, is new to town. He’s quiet, manly, and has the sexy air of a lost soul. It’s almost love at first sight for Truman. He thinks that love could deepen when Mike becomes part of the stage crew for Harvey, the senior class play Truman’s directing. But is Mike even gay? And how will it work when Truman’s mother is falling for Mike’s dad?
Plus Truman, never the norm, makes a daring and controversial choice for the production that has the whole town up in arms.
See how it all plays out on a stage of love, laughter, tears, and sticking up for one’s essential self….
REVIEW:
Having read Big Love, the first book in this duology, I was super excited to see that Truman was getting his own book.
It’s probably not necessary that you read Big Love prior to Bigger Love, but I would definitely recommend it. Big Love introduces us to a younger Truman, who is struggling to pull off “out and proud”, is bullied to extreme lengths, and is literally balanced on the edge of a building working up the nerve to jump. While this second book ensures we meet Truman in a way that those readers who haven’t read Big Love will quickly fall in love with the young man, I think that reading both books allowed me to appreciate the growth of our MC between one book and the next.
Truman is the most amazing character, unapologetically gay in a small town filled with small-minded people. Well, to be fair, things are better for Truman these days, as he’s a lot more confident in who he is. Which means he’s not such a fun target for the bullies. Now Truman is basically counting down the days he has left in town, until he can break free of everything he dealt with growing up and become the star he knows he is meant to be. But when plans for the school play go pear shaped and Truman ends up playing the female lead, all the haters come out of the woodwork and Truman once again finds himself fighting to simply be himself.
This book features some awesome secondary characters, my favourite of which is Truman’s mother, Patty. That woman loves her child as fiercely as any parent could and the relationship between mother and son is one of the reasons I love both of these books so hard. The fact that Patty and Truman coincidently find themselves dating a father/son duo just adds further complications to Truman’s already dramatic life, and to be honest, I wasn’t keen on Mike for Truman throughout most of the story. Someone as strong as Truman needs an equally strong partner to stand with them, and I really didn’t think Mike fit that role, until right at the very end when Mike makes the most elaborate gesture of support, and my confidence in their relationship was cemented. With that one gesture, the author very creatively sold me on this teenage romance and convinced me that these boys just might have the balls to fight for their happily ever after. Well, I was always sold on Truman.
I case anyone missed it, this really is a teenage romance, a genre we don’t normally see Mr. Reed write in. However, I imagine that Truman was such a fascinating character in Big Love that the author couldn’t deny him his own story. If you’re a reader who doesn’t normally go for the young adult reads, maybe give Big Love a go first. That one has two adult main characters, and I feel pretty confident that You won’t be able to resist picking up Bigger Love to find out what happens next for Truman Reid.
RATING: 
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