REVIEW: “Pumpkin Rolls and Porn Sounds” by Kris T. Bethke
ABOUT:
Will Grant only attends the PFLAG meeting because his mother guilts him into it. But the instant he hears the night’s speaker, Will is glad he showed up. Joshua Rhinehardt is dynamic and engaging. Although Joshua isn’t physically Will’s type, Will can’t get the man out of his head.
Joshua may be comfortable in his own skin, but it isn’t often men like Will are attracted to him, and he’s not comfortable changing for someone else. He wants to make a life with Will, but his own insecurities keep getting in the way.
Will’s unwavering acceptance helps Joshua see that when two people connect, physical appearance just might not matter at all.
REVIEW:
First of all, I needed to address something that made me happy of this story. The supportive parents. Yep. I read many contemporary MM romance and I think my heart has slowly turned to stone whenever I have to read parents being homophobic and throw out their LGBT children. While it is a real life issue we still often encounter, but it has been too much of occurrence in MM romance stories, I think I’ve become immune and have lost my sympathetic card.
In this story Will’s parents started and ran the local PFLAG chapter and then later on Joshua told everybody about his own father who “might not understand him but still loves his son no matter what”. It just warmed my heart. There are parents like these too, wonderful and loving parents who will stand behind their homosexual children and protect them from harm. Why don’t we put spotlight on them as well? Just to keep our hope that things will get better. So thank you for this, Kris T. Bethke!
Anyway, the story itself is pretty cute. Solely written from Will’s perspective I enjoyed reading how he started to fall for Joshua, whom Will described as “absolutely wasn’t the type of guy who normally turned my head”. Joshua is beefy with facial hairs and taller than Will – while Will admits that he likes men who looks more like him (those who embraces all stereotypes). Oh, and Joshua had this Third Date rule in which he won’t have sexual intercourse before they both have third date. Reading how it rattled Will was amusing. I definitely loved how his friends and family knew about how much Will was expecting to finally getting laid!
I did found Joshua’s lack of self-esteem in terms of his physique to be baffling though – since he had his own admirers (in parents and others). I guess it was because Bethke never really described why Joshua was uncomfortable in his own skin. Did Joshua have a history with previous lovers who mocked him about how he looked? I mean, I kept waiting for Joshua to explain about his past, of his uncompromising stance of the Third Date rule, but it never happened.
Overall, it was a delightful story with lack of drama. It might be a good read in between heavier and more emotional stories.
RATING: 3.5 STARS
BOOK INFO:
Title: Pumpkin Rolls and Porn Sounds
Author: Kris T. Bethke
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 52
Release Date: February 11, 2015
Purchase Links: Dreamspinner Press, ARe, Amazon
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