Friday, October 30, 2015

Review: Love Spell

Info: 
Title: Love Spell
Author: Mia Kerick
Publisher: CoolDudes Publishing
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
Source: I received a complimentary ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
Strutting his stuff on the catwalk in black patent leather pumps and a snug orange tuxedo as this year’s Miss (ter) Harvest Moon feels so very right to Chance César, and yet he knows it should feel so very wrong.

As far back as he can remember, Chance has been “caught between genders.” (It’s quite a touchy subject; so don’t ask him about it.) However, he does not question his sexual orientation. Chance has no doubt about his gayness—he is very much out of the closet at his rural New Hampshire high school, where the other students avoid the kid they refer to as “girl-boy.”

But at the local Harvest Moon Festival, when Chance, the Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper Donahue, the Pumpkin Carving King, sparks fly. So Chance sets out, with the help of his BFF, Emily, to make “Jazz” Donahue his man.

An article in an online women’s magazine, Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love with You (with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure), becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart. 
Quirky, comical, definitely flamboyant, and with an inner core of poignancy, Love Spell celebrates the diversity of a gender-fluid teen.

Review:
A cute, heartwarming tale about finding love and finding yourself. Chance doesn't quite know where he fits in life. His larger-than-life personality doesn't mesh well with the town he lives in (it seems like a small town mentality, but it's large enough to have a frozen yogurt shop, so not that small by my standards). He has an almost non-existent relationship with his parents. Not to mention the overwhelming confusion when it comes to his gender identity.

I enjoyed the mix of more modern themes like gender identity with classical themes like the importance of being yourself. It allowed the author to explore Chance's sexuality, while still embracing the other themes of the human condition (because LGBTQ+ people are people and therefore deal with issues that effect everyone, not only gender/sexuality specific issues).

Chance was a bit over-the-top for me. He was a total drama queen and annoyed me a bit at times. He can lay it on a bit thick sometimes and I felt like he was a bit oblivious about Jasper's feelings, which were pretty obvious to the reader. 

I really wish that Chance's parents had played a larger role in his life. It didn't seem realistic to me how little they were involved in his life.

Overall, I enjoyed Love Spell, although it lacked that special something to elevate it to favourite status. But it was a lot of fun and a good addition of some reading diversity.



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