Book Review: Zero at the Bone

Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville

If left to my own devices, I probably wouldn't have read this book. As a mystery/action novel, it isn't my usual genre, and “gay for you” is not my favorite type story. As it happens, this was the July novel for my one book group and after debating briefly with myself, I bought the book, because the purpose of me joining this group was to try new things.

What I liked:

Plot: Strong, well thought out, complex. There were multiple characters doing work in the background, even the a large portion of the book involved the two men being stuck together in hiding. Everything was also wrapped up nicely so we weren't left wondering about anything.

Sex: A good balance. Not too much, both in quantity and in description. Was well fit into the story and didn't disrupt the flow. Never felt like a scene was forcing sex just to have sex in it.

Characters: Everyone had good depth. There were good relationships (outside of the pairing) and interactions. People grew, changed, and learned.

What I didn't like:

Ending: I didn't feel like the novel had an ending so much as a teetered off telling of their lives. The main action happens, then a chunk of time follows and then the falling action happens. I understand the need for this and was content to have this delay before everything finished up. However, after the ending there was still 2 chapters after what I consider to be the end (one chapter and one epilogue). They were interesting, but bogged down the ending from a nice clean cut to a meandering (which is explained by the fact that she was short stories involving these characters, which is what the last two chapters feel like.

Relationship: Sudden. I'm not against their relationship, and I'm glad they get together, but the actual event felt sudden. I could see things forming a little on at least one side, but the abruptness still felt forced. Like, “I'm getting too far into the book, need some action to happen now.” But once it was started, things paced well.

Overall:

Enjoyable. I'd recommend this to people in the genre (M/M) and even those outside of it, assuming they don't mind gay sex (although I'd probably recommend skipping the last two parts, unless they want more gay sex).