False Start by Janey Chapel

Long Live The Cute!!

I am absolutely loving all of these cute and sexy stories I've been reading! This little tale by Janey Chapel is no different.

At the beginning of his senior year in a small town college, Tucker Locke met Whit Jamison. Tucker was the small time track star and Whit was the slightly gawky freshman with the deep voice. What commences is a secret relationship between Whit and Tucker. They get hot and heavy on back roads, in abandoned barns and in dark corners of their little town. While Whit is out and proud Jamison is just...not. In a scene that had my chest aching with sadness, Whit and Tucker's relationship comes to an end at the end of the school year and they part on bad terms. Tucker runs far and fast from his tiny hometown.

Ten years later, Tucker, who's still deep in the closet, gets an invitation to his ten year reunion and decides that it's time to go home and see about changing his life.

Oh, Tucker and Whit, you two men are a very sexy and endearing couple. Whit is, well, witty. He's confident in himself and had me chuckling with his self-deprecation and his general take on things. I totally related to his high school memories of how he crushed on Tucker and memorized Tucker's class schedule. I can remember being so wrapped in crushing on someone from afar. It was so cute the way he day dreamed about his life turning out like a John Hughes movie. 80's and the Brat Pack FTW!!

Tucker was emo but understandably so. Also, his emo-ness made him more real and I just wanted to hug him and tell him that he should believe in himself. He could be the man that he wanted to be. He took huge steps and I was invested enough in the story that I was cheering him on.

Janey Chapel pulls off something in this story that can be very hard to do. False Start is told in dual first person narration and, man, it works so well. Tucker and Whit's voices were very different from each other and I was very satisfied that I got both sides of the story.

I have to say that I didn't want this story to end. I enjoyed it so very much and it was just plain ol' CUTE!! I hope we get more of these men. I will definitely be reading more of this author.