Title: Shut Your Face, Anthony Pace!
Author: Claire Davis & Al Stewart
Genre: New Adult, M/M Romance
Length: 118 pages (~30k words)
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Publication Date: May 26, 2016
First love – coming of age – family – acceptance
When Charlie was eight years old, his mum bought him a microscope for his birthday. Since then, he’s known how he wants to spend his life. There have been trials, and challenges, but now – finally – the day is here for him to start college with his lifelong friend Anthony Pace.
Anthony is a red-haired force of nature. He writes poetry about their enemies and eagerly participates in all Charlie’s science experiments without understanding a word. Every morning, he waits at the end of their street so they can get the bus together.
But things are changing.
Families are important, and complex. Charlie’s mum hasn’t been well, and his relationship with Anthony begins to shine like a different star in the sky.
Can everything come together in this explosion of physics and chemicals that Charlie calls life? Will Anthony Pace ever share his poems with the world, and can the Chihuahua, Princess Arabella, ever learn to stop licking
***
WARNING: includes moderately explicit scenes of intimacy between consenting young adult males.
This book was so good I’m almost at a loss where to start. Everything about it hit on exactly what I love in a book: likable characters it’s easy to get attached to, well-written prose, a full range of emotions, and social issues from the inside. It’s absolutely pitch-perfect from the opening line to the last.
I have a strong preference for stories told in a single point of view, and I loved Charlie as a narrator. We only get as much as he wants to show us, yet piece by piece he lets us into his world. There isn’t much I can say on that front without spoiling a lot of details. This is one case where it’s vital to allow Charlie’s story to unfold at his speed because it’s what helps us understand him as a person.
Because of people in my own life, I recognized some things right away, both about Charlie and his situation. What drew me in was this feeling as though he was building trust with me as a reader. He’s so absolutely wonderful in every way. I was delighted watching everything fall into place for him in his changing relationship with Anthony. Although they’re both eighteen, they often come across as a bit younger, but there are a number of very good reasons for this. I think we’ve gotten the impression from other books in the genre that all eighteen-year-old young men are paragons of maturity, and I honestly felt these two were a much, much more realistic view of that age. The two of them together are so sweet it almost hurts.
This is a really fast read, easy to finish just about in a single sitting. But that by no means makes it lacking in depth and intelligence. It’s simply a well-told story with many layers. The ending left me in tears, even though it’s not exactly sad. I’ll be unpacking my thoughts and feelings for a while; it’s one book sure to stick with me.
For magnificent storytelling, easy-to-love characters, and buckets of charm, this gets 10/10 fountain pens (and a HUGE thank you to the authors for allowing me the privilege of reviewing).
Heat Rating: 3/5 ink wells (some explicit sensuality)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shut-Your-Face-Anthony-Pace-ebook/dp/B01FPMY5RQ/
Claire Davis: Claire lives in the beautiful UK. She works full time and reads whenever she gets a spare five minutes.
Al Stewart: I am originally from an enormous housing estate in the south of England. Early influences include male ballet dancers or anyone in tights, Robin Hood, and all my sister’s boyfriends. I’ve written poetry from a young age but fairly recently moved on to books about ordinary people. I’m crippling awful at talking about myself but I can draw a horse.
