Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Lucky Seven
AUTHOR: E.L. Esch
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 195 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 1st , 2021
BLURB:
Dante Mathers has forced himself to go out with girls in the past and he does it again when he’s approached by the beautiful Serena one day on campus, desperate to prove to himself that he’s “normal.” But when he loses a drinking contest and is dared to go to the next campus LGBTQ meeting by his best friend, he’s not sure how to handle it. Sure, he could blow it off, but something nagging at the back of his mind compels him to go anyway. After all, his secret first crush was a boy in high school. But is he really forcing himself to go, or is he finally starting to be honest with himself? No need to overthink this, Dante tells himself. It’ll be get in, get out. No need to talk to anyone. Easy, right?
Then he meets Sven. Sexy, toned, wearing a leather jacket with spiked up bleach-blond hair, Sven’s bad-boy flare sticks out on campus and catches Dante’s eye. But there’s more to Sven than his punkish looks, and Dante’s about to find out all the sultry little details.
REVIEW:
This book confused me a lot. It started with a somewhat misleading blurb. The events in the blurb are presented in a different order than in the book itself, and it sort of changes the whole nature of the story.
Also both main characters act at times in ways that I just didn’t understand. While it didn’t feel “impossible” for them to act the way that they did, it did feel unmotivated or unnatural (in the sense that they didn’t act as I’d expect based on my life experience). Just one example is Sven’s continued feuding (to the point of fights) with a group of guys. I’m not the toughest of guys but who knowingly goes up against multiple guys multiple times and walks away each time? No ambulances, no police involvement and apparently no end in sight?
Another example… a young gay guy claiming that he dresses in women’s clothing because he likes how men treat him when he’s “passing” as a woman. (Except of course for the guys who beat him up every time) And saying he dressed that way initially to attract the attention of a guy he assumed was straight? I’m not saying that it’s not possible, it just seems unlikely based on my experiences with guys who are just coming out.
At one point I was even pulled out of the story by one character’s unimportant but odd Chinese food order… The character, Serena orders “Mu-Shu Pork with noodles.” In America Mu Shu is typically served wrapped in a rice based pancake with Hoisin (a fermented soybean sauce ) In short, sort of China’s answer to the burrito. I was thrown when the character asked for it to be served with noodles. As I said, it’s incredibly unimportant in the overall scheme of things, but it was jarring and discordant, (sort of like a character asking for extra pepper on their hot fudge sundae) Upon googling it, I found that Mu Shu can be served that way but as it was, it was one of those unexpected details that interrupted the “movie in my head” without really adding anything to the story.
Notwithstanding all that, the two main characters were both charming in their own befuddled ways and I did enjoy spending time with them as they fought past their weird quirky behaviors and by the end I was pulling for them as much as any of the M/M couples I’ve read about.
Strangely, now that I know how the whole story plays out, I think I’m rating it higher than I thought I would earlier on. I think that, if I can keep my “back-seat writer” quiet, I might even enjoy this tale more on the second time around and be less critical of the unmotivated character quirks. But my “back-seat writer” also wonders if perhaps the author here was too familiar with the subject matter to maintain a healthy perspective and might have been let down a bit by any beta-readers.
Still, as they say, “individual mileage may vary.” Perhaps you should read this one for yourself and decide. Despite a few “bumps in the road” the overall trip is pleasant enough, and well worth the taking.
RATING: 
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