Hmm, hard to peg this one. First of all, I loved learning about Australian Football and a bit about the culture (fun fact: I picked this up on Amazon's creepily astute recommendation after reading Lisa Henry's The Island). As for the bad? Not much to nitpick. This one felt like it dragged a little in the middle, but really not that bad. I felt like I missed some critical details on occasion, too; Lisa being Asian and two different Festivals, for one - the passage of time was a little muddy and at least once there was a flashback that I wasn't aware I was reading until it was over. That's probably just me missing the cues. Relatively few errors - a handful of missing prepositions, mostly. Though I'm not sure I can forgive Radiation Man (come on, any Simpsons aficionado worth his/her salt knows it's Radioactive Man!). I enjoyed the humor and the pop culture/cult culture references, aside from that. I think it's just that I had a hard time connecting with Simon. Not how you're thinking - if I'm truly being honest, it's probably because he hits too close to home in his characterization and I might have to admit we share a lot of character traits, socially crippling flaws and all. And really, really deep down I'm a tiny bit jealous he has his HEA/HFN with an awesomesauce (if skittish) stud. It's impossible to be resentful when they work so well together, however, and you can't help but root for them. Despite the high drama and eye roll-worthy miscommunications, the characterizations of both the main players and the supporting cast felt authentic (though the villains were a little cardboardy). I mean, I didn't even mind the glaring lack of smut, you know? So despite my prevarications I've gone and purchased the sequel AND both the side stories, which speaks for how much I got hooked on this little universe. The romance takes places in Australia and while there were several Australian words I couldn't find definitions for even using Google, fortunately there were very few Aussisms. There's not much of a story here. The love story involves a big, strong pro-athlete and small, unfit, artsy-guy who fall in lust, like and then love. Most of emphasis is on the the problem that coming out for the athlete would jeopardize his his highly lucrative career playing footy (also known as soccer in the US.) He would lose fame and fortune. The fortune is considerable since he's paid a million dollars a year by the team and his commercial endorsements are even greater than his salary. The artsy guy's job running a film festival has a very modest salary. The inequity in finances is mentioned but doesn't become an issue. The main plot involves conflicts because the boyfriends have several misunderstandings since they don't communicate well. Parents and siblings of this couple readily accept their gayness and togetherness. This is nice but since both fathers are sports-crazed macho he-men it seems a bit too easy.While the problem of hiding their romance gets much attention it becomes a non-issue when they get outed as a couple. The athlete's teammates and team's owners accept his gayness with no problem. Generally public opinion is on their side. With that problem solved another misunderstanding pops up once again due to lack of communication. That continues to be the main plot until the final pages it is resolved and other happy extras are quickly given as bonuses to readers who like neat happy-for-now endings. The book ends with a sports analogy to relationships stating that all will be well in life with good teams as back up. This is odd because despite the help of friends the final big misunderstanding wasn't able to be resolved by their team of friends. Rather it was resolved by the men finally talking about their feelings. It's a 376 page book which was at least 100 pages too long because the only plot was miscommunication and unwillingness to talk about easily resolved problems. The story lagged in spots because of the repetitive miscommunications and the failure of the pair to discuss their feelings got tiring after a couple of hundred pages. Additionally there was an unrealistic acceptance of a gay player in Australian pro-football and nonchalant acceptance by the families. This is a popular youth and young adult book because while affection was shown by kissing and hugging there is no sex whatsoever. Whenever the couple got near a bed they fell asleep and wake up in the morning. I'm not sure the author was too familiar with how it works since at one point it is said that they spooned because one of them wanted to look in the other guy's face.
