(EDIT 06/2012 This is gay fiction, not m/m. Characters who are mean, intolerant, and abusive are bad. Characters who treat each other well are good. I never realised, until I read this book, that one of the things I enjoy the most about the m/m genre is its acceptance. Sounds harsh, right? And unexpected in m/m, to say the least. The fourth ingredient is vile hate-speech. So for the cute mystery, I give this a 3.5: nearly a four. All the characters are the same, but I'm going, 'What the.?' However at least the mystery got solved (and I picked it, yay!), and we got some resolution on the romance front. It felt like the end of the Rocky Horror Picture Show when the spaceship appears, and everyone changes from fetish wear into fetish space-wear. It was a bit like I'd stumbled into a different book. The denouement was bizarre to say the least. The book fell apart for me at the very end. There is no issue here, and I was wrong.)

I'm pretty sure my attitude was coloured by my annoyances with a different aspect of the book, and I shouldn't have picked on this. (EDIT 06/2012: another reviewer makes a really valid point that this is character voice, and it is unreasonable of me-to say the least-to criticise this as being rude and dismissive. This lack of distinction seemed kind of rude and dismissive to transpeople. I'm not sure which.' In fact, the character is pretty clearly written as a transwoman, not a cross dresser or a drag queen (all three are different). I was also disappointed with Sherman's description of one secondary character as '. The relationships between the different characters are written well, although Kevin's mother is disappointing as a character, being a one-dimensional sterotype. The tales of each of Kevin's clients are amusing, and function extremely well as a narrative device to keep the pace rolling along swiftly when not much is happening on the mystery front. There's sexual shennanigans between Tony and Kevin, despite the fact Tony 'decided' not to be gay and broke young Kevin's heart.Īll of this is handled quite deftly. There's a death, which Kevin is sure is murder, and Tony is sure is suicide. Our MC Kevin is a mildly witty and ironic high-end rent boy with a heart of gold, who has never gotten over his first love, neighbour boy Tony the Italian Stallion - now a cop. If you put Dani Alexander and Josh Lanyon into a blender, and added half a jigger of Mary Calmes and a dash of a fourth ingredient (which I'll come to in a minute) you'd have First You Fall.

First You Fall by Scott Sherman