Book Review: Better Than Good by Lane Hayes

Reviewed by Danielle

TITLE: Better Than Good
AUTHOR: Lane Hayes
LENGTH: 200 pages
PUBLISHER: DreamspinnerPress
BLURB: Matt Sullivan understands labels: law student, athlete, heterosexual. He has goals: graduate and begin his career in law. One fateful night, Matt tags along with his gay roommate to a dance club and everything changes. Matt finds himself attracted to the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. All labels go flying out the window.

Aaron Mendez doesn’t believe in labels, and he’s leery of straight curious men. He makes it clear that he’ll hide his fabulous light for no one. While Aaron can’t deny the attraction between him and Matt, he is reluctant to start anything with someone who is still dealing with what this new label means—especially when that someone has a girlfriend.

REVIEW:

What a surprise this book was to me. I didn’t expect to be so entertained and fascinated with this story but it is an amazingly well written. It’s captivating and makes it easy to connect with both of the main characters..

Both Aaron and Matt speak to your imagination and you can easily feel for how different their lives are and I loved the differences in the characters. Matt is the so-called straight student, perfectly dressed and following his plan for his future. Aaron is the flamboyant gay man who dances his way into Matt’s heart, changing everything that he thought about himself.

The writer emphasized this in the story at one point using the way they dress and I laughed when I read that description. It matched perfectly. The opposites attract angle is so well played out in this story and it is fascinating to see how the author uses it to pull you in and keep you hooked throughout!

You are guided through the story following Matt in his struggle to accept himself as being bisexual and catch glimpses of both their lives and meeting their friends. The fantastic friendship between best friends Aaron and Jay will make you smile and Jay’s partner Peter ends up playing a significant part in Matt and Aaron’s happily ever after.

If I have one critical note, I would say at the end I think the repeatedly tearing up Aaron goes through becomes a bit too much. I love his vulnerability, lets make that clear, but the emphasis on it during the climax makes him seem a bit of weak and to me Aaron is anything but that.

He is out and proud strong and confident.

What I definitely would like to know and to be able to read are the stories of the side characters. They are so fascinating to read and what stuck with me is the desire to know the story of Jay and Peter and how they got together. I also want to know if Curt will meet his dream guy!

A little last note. Whenever I hear the Elton John song “Your song “ from now on, I will remember this loving, amazing story.

“It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside….”

A 4.5 star rating and a hope to see more of all the characters appearing in this story!

Danielle’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Dreamspinner Press  ::  Book Store

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Danielle is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

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