this review is going to be fucking incoherent but i bought this book before its release date completely coincidentally, serendipitously, and unknowing. On top of all of that, the way religion played into this story was one of the rare exceptions to my rule of not loving religious themes.

this is a gorgeous, hilarious and intimate character study of two kindred spirits holding each other’s hands through the warfare of substance abuse, being disowned by family and their fear of who exactly they each are beneath the carapaces they’ve built between themselves and vulnerability. As an often clueless and sometimes provincial American, I feel I may have missed some of the British humor and allusions in this novel by Truss.

Do not expect anything new or groundbreaking about making art but it did flesh out nicely Ely (and a bit) Wyatt as characters. The is a stark contrast to the little grey cells he would appear to have, and use compared to the existing CID team. They don't talk about anything except their sobriety, photography, and how much they want to be together but CAN'T until the last quarter of the book. It was hard to read at times, with all the reality of two characters who have been rejected by the families that they grew up in and subsequently dealt with intense substance abuse. Soldier through the start as she sets up her characters and puts the story in motion, because once she is on a tear there is no stopping her, and then she’s funny as hell.

The pacing was something that bugged me by the end, and then the "main-ish" thing that was holding them back from being together. There, Twitten strikes up a conversation with a theater critic, Crystal, who regales him with the story of an unsolved bank robbery he witnessed years before. Doesn’t he mean a small-minded and overpromoted club manager who led the national team into a football cul-de-sac?Steine (pronounced STEEN by the way, he'd like yo

Ely’s capstone project exploring Jewish spiritual expression leaves her vulnerable as she engages with the abandoned rituals of her youth; meanwhile, an opportunity for Wyatt to reconnect with estranged family leaves him in need of an understanding confidant. It’s a rollicking, humorous and fun read, full of larger than life characters and a satisfyingly twisty plot. amidst themes of religion, dynamic familial bonds weighted in turns with disappointments and hopes - and dogged by pasts they can’t outrun, ely and wyatt tangle up in more than just their bedsheets. I have been asking for a m/f romance with a trans man that feels respectful but accurate, where he is sexy and hot but takes into account his life experience.A SHOT IN THE DARK: A CREATIVE DIY GUIDE TO DIGITAL VIDEO LIGHTING ON (ALMOST) NO BUDGET shows that good lighting doesn't always require expensive or extensive Hollywood hardware. It's been a trend for me this year to get super into romance novels that are so much more than romance novels, that have full, complex and messy characters who have so much more going on in their life than just romance.