No Tea, No Shade by Clancy Nacht

cn_noteanoshade_1Title:  No Tea, No Shade

Author:  Clancy Nacht

Genre: Contemporary

Length:  Novel (121 pages)

Publisher:  Loose Id LLC (September 23rd, 2013)

Heat Level:  Moderate

Heart Rating:  ♥♥♥2 – 2.5

Blurb:   When Hank’s father catches him in a not-so-innocent childhood embrace with the neighbor Hank’s older brothers refer to as “Ladyboy Lindsey,” he forbids Hank ever to see his best friend again and sends Lindsey home in tears. Later, despite landing on opposite ends of the social and sexual spectrum in high school, neither can forget the boy who gave him his first kiss. While Hank becomes a sports star and bully, Lindsey throws himself into an elaborate sexual game played from afar for Hank’s benefit. When Hank’s football scholarship takes him away to college, their tenuous bond seems severed for good.

After Lindsey finds his calling as drag diva Miss Anne Thrope, embracing both his male identity and the natural androgyny of his intersex body, he’s finally in control of his world…until the night his first love disrupts Miss Anne’s show after a decade of silence. Hank’s dysfunctional behavior, crazy father, and their bittersweet history together threaten to destroy their fragile new romance before it’s truly begun. Should they let go of the past, or is this unique love one worth saving?

Product Link:  http://www.loose-id.com/no-tea-no-shade.html

Reviewer:   Any

Review:  Could have been really cool with more expansion.

All the elements and backstory are there to make a terrific novel, unfortunately in places it reads more like a synopsis for a really cool story. I don’t feel absorbed ‘in’ the scenes, because the story rushes along without taking the time to deepen the conflicts, and things are resolved too easily to be satisfying. Hank barely had to apologize and then he and Lindsey were giving their relationship a go. The ‘father’ the villain, is hateful one moment, and then inviting them both to Christmas the next.

Despite the uneven feel of the story, I could sense something really intriguing in here. Hank and Lindsey’s backstory, whoa! If that had really been shown on page as if it were happening in the here and now, that would have been quite powerful.

This is a quick read . . . oh, and quite hot in places. 😉