Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Crush
SERIES: Lost Boys
AUTHOR: Kelly Fox
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 331 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 22, 2023
BLURB:
Augustus Walker, Jr. is a problem.
Every queer person I know has had a tragic crush on a straight person at some point in their lives, and for the last year, Walker has been mine.
Not that my crush on him is serious—I’m just appreciating a sweet, sexy guy who happens to be a big fat goose egg on the Kinsey scale.
Le sigh and all that.
The Lost Boys—my queer friends from high school—insist, however, that he gets flustered every time we’re in the same room together. Last night, he blushed when I teased him about his perfect abs.
I’m afraid to push because I respect his sexuality, and I see how his family feels about him having a bunch of gay friends.
Still, I gotta wonder… am I the only one with a crush?
REVIEW:
Walker has it pretty rough. His sister was killed in a car crash that also messed up his knee and lost him his baseball scholarship. He always wanted to be a teacher, but after the accident, well that was not going to happen. Despite wanting to be a teacher for as long as he could remember, he didn’t think it could happen without that scholarship. It was Mr. Paige that convinced him to start taking courses online and just do it while working at his parents tire repair business. Now he’s a math teacher at the local HS and he’s also taken over the late Mr. Paige’s woodworking class. Math went well, Wookshop not so much.
Ozzie has moved back to Seguin and gone into business with his friend Joel. They are both part of Mr. Paige’s Lost Boys – the queer kids he took under his wing at the local HS. They are doing well and expanding to open a Jamaican restaurant. But Ozzie can’t get his hot straight friend Walker out of his head. Seems like he’s got a crush on the straight guy of their friend group. But when everyone else notices how Walker blushes around Ozzie and keeps staring at his a$$, well perhaps Walker isn’t as straight as Ozzie once thought.
Walker’s parents are conservative and more than overbearing. They assume he’s at their beck and call despite having a full time job already. Whenever they are short, they just call him and tell him to be somewhere. They treat him poorly, have no respect for his teaching job or his life and privacy. When things change between Walker and Ozzie, well that doesn’t go down well with them. They pull out all the stops to try to ruin his life, his career, his budding relationship – you name it. What they don’t count on is all the support Walker has. Big mistake. Huge.
Well I could tell from the first page that Walker was a short-straw drawer in the family lottery. Man, his parents were real pieces of work! People go crazy with grief, but they were next level! Horrible horrible people. I really wanted them to suffer a lot more TBH. Maybe we will see that in future stories 😉 Ozzie was the opposite – he really won the parent lottery! Despite his dad’s family being unhappy about his choice of spouse, he went off and did his own thing and had a great family and life. Ozzie’s parents were just lovely – and I adored how Ozzie paid tribute to his Jamaican mother 😉 Talk about compare and contrast! But Walker is such a good guy. He really wants to make a difference in the world. He always feels like he’s not doing enough but in the end, he’s making a huge impact 😀 Despite the obstacles that get put in his way, Walker finally realizes he might not be as straight as he thought and that Ozzie is more than a friend. All of the Lost Boys appear in this one and do their part of help Ozzie and Walker get together. Then there is Leo – one of the kids from the County Home. He believes in Walker. He’s got his own issues – getting ready to age out of the system and wondering where he will end up. The Lost Boys of course step up for him as well. Even the school gets involved. And of course the dearly beloved late Mr. Paige proves that he was right all along. Walker really learns the true meaning of family as he accepts himself, his love for Ozzie and his true place with the Lost Boys. This is a really enjoyable addition to this series and I’m loving these guys. Can’t wait for Hen and Sawyer’s story! Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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