Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Good Neighbor
SERIES: Queens Crescent
AUTHOR: Kristian Parker
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 221 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 24, 2024
BLURB:
Josh Winterton is broken after his husband walked out on him six weeks ago. He has lost sight of everything. His fashion design business. His friends. His life.
That is until a handsome stranger begs him for help.
Hugh is a drag queen who’s having a rocky time of it. After humiliation on national television, he’s come to lick his wounds whilst housesitting for a friend. Next door.
Sparks might fly from the outset, but can Josh overcome his past to grab a future for himself before it’s too late?
REVIEW:
Note: This is the eighth book in this series. As such, it does contain some spoilers for the previous books. That being said it’s not required to have read the previous books although I do recommend them all. They set the stage for a number of the common supporting characters in this story.
Josh is a designer (we’ve med him in past stories) who lives in Queens Crescent. His pain in the ass husband, Winston has just finished treatment for cancer. Josh tries to do something nice for him, and Winston accuses him of making it about HIM. Seriously when this guy left, I cheered! Josh however is devastated. Like won’t clean the house go to work devastated.
His neighbor, Madeline Morrison (movie star from the previous book) is not having it. She’s going to whip Josh back into shape and open his eyes to how much better he is without the narcissist soon to be ex-husband. He does get back to work eventually. And he meets Hugh, a drag queen from Australia who is staying next door housesitting for a neighbor. Hugh has his own issues with a performance gone wrong on the telly that has him scrambling to come up with a new act. He and his work partner Michael need inspiration.
When Hugh suggests what his idea for a new act is, Josh is not convinced it’s a good idea. But he agrees to help. Turns out it’s potentially a real winner and Josh’s initial fears were unwarranted. But then Winston provides his list of demands for the divorce settlement (can anyone spell pre-nup???) and things get intense again for Josh. There are lots of obstacles, miscommunications, stops and starts with both Josh and Hugh that make their HEA hard to get to!
I’ll admit, this isn’t my favorite story in the series. At times, Hugh behaved like a jealous teenager. Also I didn’t like it that the horrible ex did NOT get his comeuppance. I have to say I really had hoped to see him taken down in an unrecoverable way. I did adore the Mrs. Wimpole and the Professor storyline. And it was fun to see Madeline again and watch her and Mrs. Wimpole pull this group together. My chief complaint I guess was a bit of whiplash jumping from deserted by a truly horrid husband and rebounding with the guy next door. Even in Josh couldn’t see it, I would have thought that Hugh would be smarter about a guy who was clearly not himself after being dumped and then taking weeks to get it together and even return to work. All of that particularly dealing with a life-threatening illness with said douche-canoe ex left Josh in no position to be forming a new relationship. That being said, I enjoy this little enclave and all of the neighbors and businesses and the various friends etc. There is a strain of bigotry and particularly against drag queens that I thought strained credulity, but I did like Hugh in the main. His partner, not so much. I mean I get that this is a drama, but this episode read more like melodrama.
RATING: 
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