Handle With Care by Josephine Myles

Handle With Care by Josephine Myles
Stars: 3.5/5

Length: 191 pages
Blurb
The best things in life aren’t free…they’re freely given.

Ben Lethbridge doesn’t have many vices left. After raising his little sister to adulthood, he wasted no time making up for the youth he lost to responsible parenting. Two years of partying it up—and ignoring his diabetes—has left him tethered to a home dialysis regimen.

He can do his job from his flat, fortunately, but most of his favourite things are forbidden. Except for DVD porn…and fantasizing over Ollie, the gorgeous, purple-haired skateboarder who delivers it.

Their banter is the highlight of Ben’s lonely day, but his illness-ravaged body is the cruel reality that prevents him from believing they’ll do anything more than flirt. Not to mention the age gap. Still, Ben figures there’s no harm in sprucing himself up a bit.

Then one day, a package accidentally splits open, revealing Ben’s dirty little secret…and an unexpected connection that leaves him wondering if he’s been reading Ollie wrong all this time. There’s only one way to find out: risk showing Ollie every last scar. And hope “far from perfect” is good enough for a chance at love.

Overall
Sweet and enjoyable, and definitely well researched, but I had trouble really sinking into this one. The blurb mainly focuses on the first 20% of the story, which left me surprised at everything else that happens. The characters were easy to empathize with, and I liked where Myles took them and the different issues she explored. Worth picking up, especially for readers who want a slightly different taste of a relationship.

Review
Going into this story, I had high hopes, as I'd heard nothing but good things, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't blown away. All the positive things other reviewers pointed out are what I enjoyed, but something was missing to really make this story pop. Both characters were likable, but neither felt particularly inspired--although admittedly it could be that I've just read a rash of similar types recently. Despite my overall blasé review, I did enjoy the story, I just went in with higher expectations than was delivered.

One of my favorite elements of the story was that it touched upon a lot of topics that aren't brought up in romance--or rarely are. The biggest obviously is Ben's diabetes and kidney failure and all the resulting medical drama. I liked the focus on what he could and couldn't eat and how he would be on meds for the rest of his life if he did get the organs he needed. Ben's struggle with his attractiveness--not because he's unattractive, but because he feels unattractive due to his illness and the medicine helping him to live--and how Ollie and Ben's sister confront that.

Ollie is brilliant. He's young and a little stupid, but he's also brilliant. He's a bit over-emotional, but it's more a matter of not knowing how to react in a new situation rather than being a drama queen. I love that he has a rough history that affects him but doesn't stop him. I worried at times that he had a bit of a medical fetish, what with his tube fondling, but that seemed to be more an acceptance thing than a fetish thing (which relieved me!).

I want to stop by Ollie's cafe and grab a drink and I love how it's so much more mature than it appears at first, which is totally Ollie. Along those lines, I love the double play of names for Ollie and the cafe and what that means for both of them.

Fun, cute and sweet, worth giving a chance and the read but not amazing.

I Was an Alien Cat Toy by Ann Somerville

I Was an Alien Cat Toy by Ann Somerville
Stars: 4.5/5

Overall:
Wow. Just wow. Although it has a pretty corny/awful title, this book is 99% excellent. The characters are deep, well developed and touching. The plot is just as well developed, thoroughly explored, and amazing. It takes a while to progress from A to B, but the journey was worth every word. The writing was well done, moving me to tears at two separate occasions.

What I liked
Characters and Plot. I'm grouping these together because I could probably rave on and on. The characters weren't perfect, they made mistakes, but they changes and grew and were overall good people (...err..cats?). Aside from the Big Bad, most of the characters had good qualities and bad ones, or good qualities that worked poorly for another person. AKA, they were realistic. They were living, breathing and caring. They didn't leap off the page, they molded the pages into a world that they wandered freely. The plot was just as masterfully constructed, following a natural flow of events and never making characters act outside their appropriate behaviors.

Language. Somerville realized that these two beings would not speak the same language, not have a similar alphabet or any similar grounds. Yet she took the time to have them learn one another's language, developing each element carefully. It was thorough without being boring. I, of course, adored this, but it may be a bit overwhelming for others.

Culture. The world the author created was well developed and alive. Aside from one or two moments where I think the content may have contradicted itself, everything was amazingly detailed and consistent. I give her props for creating a world that is so different from what we've experienced, and then making it feel real.

What didn't work
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***SPOILER ALERT***
The ending. I wasn't particularly happy with it. The way she set things up makes the ending fit and work, but the one loose bolt is that we never really feel connected to Jeng. While we know he is our hero's lover/boyfriend, and he is mentioned periodically throughout the book, the reader never connects with Jeng, never forms a strong emotional bond with him as we have with Gredar. So when Temin chooses to return home with Jeng, we feel betrayed. Of course it is the better choice; he's returning not just to his lover but to his family and a world where he fits in. It still depresses me.

I personally was hoping it was Jeng that had attempted to kill Temin and kept returning to make sure the job was finished. I wanted Temin and Gredar to stay together after finally making it over so many hurdles.