idk, maybe.
Not bad. The narative style is flat and formal, and structurally it reads very much like a play -- the author's own notes admit to it -- but it's likeable and does a good job of covering all bases. Each character gets a story arc of their own; none of them are especially compelling but they do all get resolved.
The uninspiring prose never quite delivers on the set-up: Ben's parents have died and he has to give up a high-flying career in New York to move back to his hometown and look after his younger brothers. I'm not crazy about unrestrained angst, but this needed just a few more touches to lift it out of robot territory. It sort of works in the first half, because I could buy that emotions were being buttoned down as a build-up to something, but that something never came and so it all blended into one long passage of descriptive narrative.
But like I said, it's likeable for all its blandness. Ben gets explored very thoroughly as a character, and the author does make a genuine attempt to give him some depth. He's an unreliable narrator during parts of the book, but it's balanced out by the earnest reality the rest of the story offers up so it works out.
The sex scenes are tepid as hell, and there's zero tension between the MCs, though (maddeningly) the storyline works really hard to try and establish some. I'm willing to chalk it up to early-book wobbles; I think the author's got potential, but needs to move away from directing the story quite so stringently and loosen up a little. Will be looking out for more from them.
Recommended, but I think this is a first book (or feels like it, at least) so the usual first-book exemptions apply.
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