Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: You Spin Me Round
AUTHOR: Felice Stevens
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 190 pages
RELEASE DATE: Januari 2, 2024
BLURB:
Benji Roth couldn’t be happier. His bakery in the small town of Serenity, Pennsylvania is thriving, and he doesn’t even mind being the only Jewish person in town. Except when his cousin, Issac, comes to visit, of course. Everyone is friendly—well, almost everyone. Gorgeous
Gil Navarro, the owner of the spice shop across the street, comes in every morning for a muffin but barely looks at him and never says a word.
Benji’s parents worry about him being alone, so Benji reassures them—he’s serious with his boyfriend, and they’re in love. One little problem: the boyfriend doesn’t exist. But it’s no big deal; a little white lie never hurt anyone. Besides, it makes them happy and takes the pressure off him. They’ll never know.
Then a Thanksgiving storm finds him and Gil stranded together and having dinner with strangers. Even stranger is the kiss they share later that night. And the next morning. Gil is funny and charming and in the weeks following, Benji is falling head over heels with a real, potential love. Now his parents are pressuring him to come home for Hanukkah, but he’s hoping to spend the holidays with Gil.
Cue the parents showing up unexpectedly at his front door. And wanting very much to meet the boyfriend he’s been with for almost a year. Whose name is not Gil.
Uh-oh.
REVIEW:
Despite the blurb regarding the the made-up boyfriend (Ari) that Benji developed to get his mom off his back about dating, the book really doesn’t focus on that so much as it does Gil and his hot/cold reactions to Benji.
Benji is a baker who moved away from his Jewish mama who just wanted him to “…come home, buy a condo near them in Delray Beach, find a nice Jewish guy, and get married.” Benji is all about finding the nice Jewish guy and getting married but moving back to Florida is not happening. He’s happy where he is, and happy operating his bakery, Zis, in Serenity. He has family there in the form of his cousin, Isaac, and friends. He’s still working on meeting the nice Jewish guy, but all in all, happy. Everyone is so friendly in Serenity, all except the owner of the spice store across the street. Gil comes into the bakery for muffins but never speaks and rarely even looks up.
Gil had been very happily married to Rob until six year before, when some drunken teens lost control of their car and killed his husband. He made it to the hospital with enough time to say I love you, and then Rob was gone. Gil left his home and relocated to Serenity because of memories and his families well-intentioned encouragement to start living again.
While Gil has major baggage due to tragedy, Benji has some in his own right due to humiliation. He has a career in finance, and a long-term boyfriend who “…publicly dumped him at the office holiday party by bringing another man he’d introduced as his fiancé.” You know, without letting Benji know they were actually no longer a couple.
Gil feels guilty that he is even looking at another man, and Benji is a little insecure. But Benji continues trying to be friendly and kind to Gil and honestly, sometimes I wondered how long you can keep that up with someone who can be rude and nearly always runs away. “If Gil wanted to be left along, that was what he was going to get.” Except really Benji isn’t made that way and so continues to be nice.
Slowly the two make progress on getting to know each other. There is a scene when Benji really surprised me and I thought he was absolutely in the wrong, especially since the two had only been even talking to each other for a few weeks. It was the one time I thought he was on the wrong track. The issue of the fake boyfriend with his parents has a coincidence that made me roll my eyes, but his parents are lovely.
This is a sweet, fairly angst-free holiday story. There are some great descriptions of Jewish holiday foods that will make your mouth water.
RATING: 
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