This is a sweet little book. The story conveys the journey from confusion to decision, teenager to man and outsider to acceptance in this sequel to the life of the eponymous protagonist Adam.

To be honest I didn’t like Adam (the character) in this book, he struck me as a shallow irritating thing, without the depth of emotional sophistication that I thought this book could have explored. However cute and dumb men have complex relationships all the time, so I suppose it’s true to life in that way and Jane Austin wrote Emma just the same (and I didn’t like her either!).  The endless gay coincidences grated on me after a while, but they sure help the plot along and kept it folding back into itself; the heir to the neighbouring vineyards who just happens to be gay the same age and single, the ex-boyfriend–not-quite-monk who just happens to be a expert vine pruner, the gay etc etc, you get the point.

It is however a good story following the complex interactions of a few gay men as they change from young free adolescences to manhood, with all the differences that can bring.  McDonald is very good with the ebb and flow of romantic friendships and the book revolves around an eternal question of ‘where do I fit in’.  The story, following young spunky British  Adam as he inherits a vineyard and house in France, moves there and then copes with the slings and (blunted) arrows of fortune. He has to decide who he is & who he wants out of his fourgy of lovers.  It’s gay middle class loveliness and softcore ‘happy ever after’ at that. With some pleasant sexual interludes threaded through it, this is not an erotic novel though by any means, but, at heart, a ‘coming of age’ story.

The book is an easy read and would be a pleasant addition to a long train journey or an antidote to visiting the dull relatives over the festive season, the endless bon-mots of French scattered through this book are irksome but then the author probably thought that this would add a authentic bouquet to the novel, nes’t pas?

Out Now £10.99

www.turnaround-uk.com

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