Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Bisexual, Gay, Gender Fluid, Lesbian
Reviewer: Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild
Get It On Amazon
About The Book
John, 41, settles in Leicester after his divorce, with hopes of becoming the best version of himself as he builds a new life. He makes friends, starts doing yoga, and joins an RPG campaign. Only one day, he realises he might just have fallen in love with his best friend.
Oops.
After kissing Stu at a wedding, John runs away, convinced he’s ruined things. Only when he finds out that all their friends had suspected he and Stu might have been attracted to each other, he wonders if there’s actually a chance for him to fix things… Will they manage to properly communicate and sort themselves out?
In this slow paced tale of falling in love over time, follow these characters on their journey to self discovery and acceptance, and found family. This is a story about love in all its forms: friendship, romantic, the family we are born with, and the one we end up choosing.
The Review
This is a tender, gentle novel about new beginnings and being surprised by love. The MLM (men loving men) designation given by the author was a new one on me—having been introduced to the M/M and gay romance world over a decade ago. In this case, the designation comes from the fact that John, the central protagonist, has lived a straight life up to the age of 40, and then stumbles onto a friendship with another man which—somewhat to his surprise—becomes true love. This is not a spoiler: it’s the point of the whole book. In the MLM world it’s about any kind of man loving other men. I’m not quite sure why this specific label is necessary, since Merlina Garance’s lovely story is pretty self-explanatory.
John, a graphic designer on the edge of 40, has never imagined himself to be other than straight. There are reasons that this is true, not the least of which is a recently-ended fifteen-year- marriage to Lisa.
As the story begins, John is relocating from London to Leicester, looking for a different (and more affordable, more accessible) community in a new place. If there’s any theme in this book more important than finding love, it’s finding a community of friends who accept you and enjoy you for exactly who you are. Therein lies one of the sweetest parts of this tale, when John meets Stu and in him finds the kind of friend he’s never had before—someone who is interested in him, not as part of a married couple, but as a fellow music enthusiast and gamer.
Stu (whose name matters, but for reasons we don’t find out until later) is a gay man who has his own baggage—and all baggage has to do with family, ultimately (true for me, true for my husband of 48 years). Stu is painfully shy, but also a talented bassist in a modestly popular local band, “Caught in Silence.” A secret pleasure was in seeing right away that John was going to fall for Stu, but wasn’t yet able to see past his socially-imposed emotional limits. Right from the start this doesn’t feel like “just” a friendship. Something important happens and the author makes sure we know that from the get-go.
John and Stu are both appealing characters. The author hides John’s appeal under a man-bun and a beard (attributes I like, but which apparently, in the UK as well as in the USA, signal jerks). He sees himself as having a prickly demeanor that I suspect comes not from within, but from the traumas of his family experience. Stu is the result of much harsher and more difficult trauma, and we watch as John—who is way more sensitive than he thinks he is—works his way into Stu’s trust.
John and Stu are not the only crucial figures in this book; we learn a lot about John through his interaction with his neighbor Andy (a policewoman) and her girlfriend Thalia. John’s tentative approach to his new life comes from a place of sadness and pain, but it’s clear he’s a good guy from the start, and only sees himself as a bad guy for reasons we begin to understand as his life in Leicester takes shape.
One distinctive characteristic of a man discovering his bisexuality seems to be a return to the emotional awkwardness of adolescence, and there’s a lot of that here (which is either adorable or frustrating, depending on your mood). What I appreciated most is John’s openness to the world. He is non-judgmental and curious, yearning for human connection without imposing barriers. He knows friends will make him happy, and he asks nothing of them but friendship and a mutual openness to him and his foibles.
Emotionally very satisfying, “Just Stu” is a worthy read.
Four stars.
The Reviewer
The Paranormal Romance Guild was established in 2009 by 8 Indie Authors and one Reviewer to be a constant help for authors. You can be a free author member, submitting your work for review OR become a Premium Author Member for a small yearly fee and enjoy many extra services including Free Beta Reads, Author Giveaways and many others. Your reviews are posted on our 3 FB Sites, Amazon, Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram. WE REVIEW ALL GENRES LGBTQ+ welcome.
Check out our website: https://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/
FB: https://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/
