REVIEWED by Jay V.

TITLE: Last Call in Wonderland

AUTHOR: Rob Browatzke

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 334 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 4, 2019

BLURB:

Wonderland is the hottest gay club in River City, but the world is changing. Brandon, head bartender and hotty, is getting older. Jesse and Colton, the Wonder Twins, are navigating their open relationship. The Queen of Hearts, resident headliner, finds herself challenged by a newcomer. And Chess, Wonderland’s owner, makes a decision to close the bar.

REVIEW:

It’s the end of an era. Chess and his now deceased partner, Jack, started Wonderland as a place for people to meet and be themselves.  After Jack passed, Chess continued on in the vein, but he’s decided that it’s finally time to close the bar.  With this momentous day coming up, everyone that works there and attends is trying to get their last moments in at the club. There are many changes going on in their lives at the same time – will they all survive the closing?

Told from the perspective of several people involved in and around Wonderland, we get to see the various reactions to the closing of the club and other life events that are happening to them. Starting new relationships, navigating current relationships, and putting to rest past relationships, they are all faced with changing perspectives and challenges.

As I read through this book, I came to the realization that this is not the book I expected. It’s not quite a straight forward romance, but more of a queer novel with flashes of romance. We have relations in and around but not really one couple falling in love as the main focus.  There are a lot of different stories and points of focus flowing through this book that culminate in an unexpected manner. As you shift around from the various characters’ view points, your opinion on characters can change. It was slightly difficult to follow everyone but I’m not that great at names so it could just be me.  I know that multiple perspective books are not for everyone, but this isn’t in the first person for any of the characters so you get to really feel what they are thinking. Even though the nights out at the bars are supposed to be light and fun, there are real struggles that are going on with all the people. Though it’s not listed as such, this is the final book in a series but you don’t need to have read the others to know how the characters are where they are today.

This is not the book I expected and it’s going to stick with me for quite some time. To say this has some trigger warnings is to be kind. There’s some harsh realities that play out with real consequences.  This author is very new to me and I look forward to more of Rob Browatzke’s writing in the future from such a differing voice.

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

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