Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: This is Real
AUTHOR: Barbara Elsborg
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 268 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2022
BLURB:
A snarky English nerd. A hot American actor. When Christmas brings them together, they have more in common than they know…
Murdo doesn’t do Christmas, but this year, he’s looking forward to spending time with an old friend. Elodie’s working on a film starring Murdo’s Biggest Crush, the gorgeous Lukas Olsen. When Elodie asks him to give Lukas a lift from Logan International, Murdo can’t believe his luck. Lukas might be straight, but ogling’s acceptable—right?
Lukas arrives at the airport to find a gaggle of fans but no driver waiting and when he does turn up, the snarky Englishman can’t even remember where he’s parked. When they finally reach their destination, Lukas tries to tip him and Murdo makes his current opinion of Lukas very clear. His crush is over.
Things move from bad to worse when Murdo tells the director that Lukas’s English accent isn’t authentic. But a pang of guilt, and maybe a remnant of lust, has Murdo offering to give dialect lessons to a resentful Lukas. Only once they’re in Lukas’s house, annoyance turns into something far more dangerous, because Lukas isn’t out and never will be. He has too much to lose: career, fans, family and friends.
Yet something about Murdo makes Lukas want to risk it all…
REVIEW:
Barbara Elsborg consistently crafts characters with depth and complexity and makes them endearing and relatable. Elsborg’s latest, This is Real, provides a perfect example of this. Her holiday/Christmas romance features two men that vividly come to life under her pen (or keyboard). Murdo is a brilliant, snarky, adorkable Englishman who moved to the US where he now teaches Math (or Maths as he calls it) at Harvard, and Lukas is a lonely, closeted movie star. They both carry baggage and are prone to making assumptions that Elsborg enjoys unraveling for us. Murdo is sorely disappointed to discover that Lukas, his movie crush, is a human being with all the attendant flaws. Lukas pompously assumes Murdo is his chauffeur, and Murdo takes umbrage at the presumption yet doesn’t correct him, which is entirely fitting for this kind but proud man. Lukas is confused by Murdo’s offense and then embarrassed when he discovers his incorrect presumption.
Needless to say, Murdo and Lukas get off to a rocky start which is then compounded by Murdo’s inability to keep his opinions to himself. He unwittingly finds himself drafted into giving Lukas a forced proximity crash course in English dialects, and Lukas is initially an unwilling student. But Lukas reluctantly accepts the tutelage because he needs to absorb Murdo’s dialect coaching in three days’ time for his movie role. He ends up learning much more from Murdo than he expected.
Elsborg does a terrific job of charting the progression of the relationship between these men from antagonists to lovers, using snark and wit, humor, and undeniable chemistry to propel Murdo and Lukas to an authentic coupling that we fully embrace. Elsborg doesn’t shirk the side characters either, giving them texture and importance in the storyline.
In the first half of This is Real, Elsborg’s fingerprints are all over the story – the characters, the dialogue, and the relationship-building all work really really well. However, the forward motion then shifts to inertia, and a tedium develops that slowly but steadily breaks the hold Elsborg has on our (or at least my) attention.
The plot’s trajectory is relatively straightforward and presents a scenario that isn’t novel. The characters carry the story; there’s not much that happens here other than the personal journeys of Murdo and Lukas, with a definite emphasis on Lukas’ struggle against the bars of his gilded cage until he finds freedom with Murdo serving as the key that opens the lock. While the character journeys and the emotions revealed and experienced remain impactful across the story, the impact wanes. I feel the story needs something more than all of the talking and introspection within Murdo and Lukas’ isolated bubble to maintain the strong connection with the reader Elsborg established in the first half of the book. As it was, I pushed myself through the latter parts because the banter and conversation developed a sameness that made it hard to stay wholly absorbed.
That being said, This is Real tells a beautiful story with two fully realized, endearing characters worth knowing. If you are in the mood to settle in for a low-key, low-energy, character and dialogue-driven romance, you will enjoy This is Real.
RATING: 
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