Title: Stuff
Series: Bristol Collections #2
Author: Josephine Myles
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (374 pages)
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd (May 27th 2014)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Reviewer: Aerin
Blurb: When Mr. Glad Rags meets Mr. Riches, the result is flaming fun.
Tobias “Mas” Maslin doesn’t need much. A place of his own, weekends of clubbing, a rich boyfriend for love and support. Too bad his latest sugar daddy candidate turns out to be married with kids. Mas wants to be special, not someone’s dirty little secret.
When he loses his job and his flat on the same day, his worlds starts unraveling…until he stumbles across a vintage clothing shop. Now to convince the reclusive, eccentric owner he’s in dire need of a salesman.
Perry Cavendish-Fiennes set up Cabbages and Kinks solely to annoy his controlling father. Truth be told, he’d rather spend every spare moment on his true passion, art. When Mas comes flaming into his life talking nineteen to the dozen, he finds himself offering him a job and a place to live.
He should have listened to his instincts. The shop is already financially on the brink, and Mas’s flirting makes him feel things he’s never felt for a man. Yet Mas seems convinced they can make a go of it—in the shop, and together.
Warning: Contains an eccentric, bumbling Englishman, a gobby drama queen, fantastic retro clothing, scary fairies, exes springing out of the woodwork, and a well-aimed glass of bubbly. Written in brilliantly British English.
ISBN: 9781619220492
Product Link: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/5025/stuff
Review: This book was all kinds of fun!!! Stuff is books two in the Bristol Collections series; Jasper and Lewis from book one are present in this book as well, but it can be read as a stand-alone. That being said, I loved seeing Lewis and Jasper as an established couple.
This book is all about Mas…you remember Mas, right? Well if you don’t remember him, or haven’t read book one, Mas is Jasper’s ex casual lover. I loved him in the first book and I knew his book was going to be right up my alley. Mas is a little bit of a wild thing, and can come across as an equal opportunity slut, but he’s a very kind-hearted young man who dreams about finding someone to love him and want him just the way he is. After losing his job and getting in trouble with the security, he storms his way into Perry’s store, and Perry’s life, as he knew it comes to an abrupt end.
Perry is a hermit, a posh one at that, but a hermit nonetheless. Their upbringing couldn’t have been more different, yet Perry and Mas click. I liked the way they fit together and Mas was exactly what Perry needed to start living and quit moping. Mas outshined Perry in this book by a lot.
I think Perry was rather bland and a bit boring. Mas however was eccentric, loud, a bit of a dramatic queen, but I couldn’t not love him to pieces. His ramblings and constant verbal diarrhea had me smiling, giggling, and laughing the entire time…
“You seem like the kind of bloke who’d have been top in the class in pretty much everything. Not like muggins here. All I learnt at school was how to give head, and that was— Oops!”
“Not on your nelly. I love weird shit. I won’t even raise an eyebrow. Cross my heart and hope to lose my looks.”
“I thought it was ‘hope to die’.”
“There are some fates worse than death. I mean, seriously, can you see me as a bear?
I wouldn’t last five minutes with that lot.”
“So you’re a raconteur?”
“Something like that. More of a gobshite, probably, but hey, it sounds better in
French. Everything sounds better in French, doesn’t it? Ménage a trois, la petite mort,
French kissing. Oh, mon amour! Mon cheri!”
There was of course the dreaded communication issue; sometimes it drives me completely bat-shit crazy, like in this book. We’re not talking about something that creates intense emotions or even some good, tear-your-heart-out angst; this was just some silly I’m-not-good-enough-for-you shit that went on and on and on and….you get the idea.
Plus, Perry was seriously emotionally disabled. You can’t teach someone what a certain feeling or emotion means, normal people come wired to correctly and unconsciously interpret them. He seriously needs some time on Lewis’s couch….for some therapy of course.
I loved this book, it was light and maybe a little too fluffy, but it kept me smiling the whole time. I loved that it had genuinely British dialog, without being watered down to make it easier to grasp. I loved the expressions “Oh, for the love of cock!”, I loved the writing, the dialog was funny as hell; some angst would have made this book perfect for me, but we don’t get everything we wish for, so I’m happy with it the way it is.
I recommend this book especially if you love British humor; this book is the real deal!
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *