kate_warnock's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Book was poorly edited. There were typos and errors that weren’t caught before printingÂ
frothy's review
1.0
Did not like the sense of humour. Did not like the writing style. Did not like the characters. Very misogynist.
meghanreadsmm's review
4.0
What a delightful book this was! Well, you know, the death is very sad, but it brought up all kinds of interesting issues of how different people meet their needs, with or without realizing it. Of course the issues and the people are mostly about the lives of gay men, but they are all so diverse. The narration is humorous without being way over the top. And most of all, I liked the pacing of the story & development. The only thing I found unrealistic is the little amount of sex our hero rent-boy has with his clients. But I did like that the book was not ALL about sex. Go figure.
Spoiler
Ok, I like Freddy. He's the sounding board and provides the interesting thoughts our MC is overlooking, fills in the blanks. But he is definitely not a field operative. Lol I worry poor Kevvy won't have enough backup. So far Freddy has come through. Let's hope that keeps up.expendablemudge's review
3.0
Rating: 3.5* of five
I received, unpacked, cataloged, and finished 'First You Fall' by Scott Sherman in one afternoon. Flawed, a first novel for sure, but very funny in many places, poignant in others, and a worthwhile read. Gay rent-boy sleuth has never resolved his feelings for closet-case first love; they meet again when rent-boy's good friend allegedly commits suicide, and first love is one of the cops investigating; hijinks ensue.
For a book featuring a rent-boy, there is surprisingly little...ummm, well, a fast consultation shows NONE...no graphic sex in the book. The author talks about sex a lot, but that's sorta what you expect in a book with this main character. That SHOULD win over a mainstream audience. There was only marginally less sex in the 'Brandstetter' mysteries by Joseph Hansen, and they were hugely popular.
The mystery aspects of the book weren't its strongest selling points. I was sure I knew who the murderer was, and I was right; I had the murderer's motive all wrong, though, and that made a nice surprise. The satisfying resolution to the red herrings strongly appealed to my orderly side. The romantic complications were believable, and while I have never been a rent-boy (never pretty enough), I have been down the road that Kevin, our main character, traveled, though without the happy ending. Life so needs a better script, don't y'all agree?
Recommended for mystery fans, straight or gay, who like to root for the underdog to win; also to fans of the reluctant sleuth genre. The truly homophobic should not even try this book. The mildly, "ewww ick" homophobic might see something worthwhile here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
I received, unpacked, cataloged, and finished 'First You Fall' by Scott Sherman in one afternoon. Flawed, a first novel for sure, but very funny in many places, poignant in others, and a worthwhile read. Gay rent-boy sleuth has never resolved his feelings for closet-case first love; they meet again when rent-boy's good friend allegedly commits suicide, and first love is one of the cops investigating; hijinks ensue.
For a book featuring a rent-boy, there is surprisingly little...ummm, well, a fast consultation shows NONE...no graphic sex in the book. The author talks about sex a lot, but that's sorta what you expect in a book with this main character. That SHOULD win over a mainstream audience. There was only marginally less sex in the 'Brandstetter' mysteries by Joseph Hansen, and they were hugely popular.
The mystery aspects of the book weren't its strongest selling points. I was sure I knew who the murderer was, and I was right; I had the murderer's motive all wrong, though, and that made a nice surprise. The satisfying resolution to the red herrings strongly appealed to my orderly side. The romantic complications were believable, and while I have never been a rent-boy (never pretty enough), I have been down the road that Kevin, our main character, traveled, though without the happy ending. Life so needs a better script, don't y'all agree?
Recommended for mystery fans, straight or gay, who like to root for the underdog to win; also to fans of the reluctant sleuth genre. The truly homophobic should not even try this book. The mildly, "ewww ick" homophobic might see something worthwhile here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
evila_elf's review
4.0
9/2013
I reread this in preparation to read the other two books in the series. I was surprised by how little I remembered of this book - but that is a good thing! I was able to enjoy it all over a second time!
8/2008
Very entertaining novel, the author's first (there will be another!! yay!). Had lots of comedy, as well as an angstfest at the end that I loved.
Calls itself a funny, sexy, romantic mystery--that pretty much sums it up.
It was hard for me to decide who I wanted Kevin to end up with...he surrounded himself well with nice characters and I really liked them all. Curious to see how his thing with Tony will work out in the next one!
253 pages
I reread this in preparation to read the other two books in the series. I was surprised by how little I remembered of this book - but that is a good thing! I was able to enjoy it all over a second time!
8/2008
Very entertaining novel, the author's first (there will be another!! yay!). Had lots of comedy, as well as an angstfest at the end that I loved.
Calls itself a funny, sexy, romantic mystery--that pretty much sums it up.
It was hard for me to decide who I wanted Kevin to end up with...he surrounded himself well with nice characters and I really liked them all. Curious to see how his thing with Tony will work out in the next one!
253 pages
mxmreads's review
2.0
Well, CRAP...
Bear with me. Let me tell you, why this book should have been a solid 4 or 5 star read for me.
1. I love mysteries. I love the mysteries with a romance sub-plot. I like romance with a suspense sub-plot. I like the investigation, I like whodunnit, I like thrillers, I like cops, I like amateurs, I like PIs. Just put me in the suspense/crime section and leave me there for the rest of my life. I'll die a happy little camper. And this book fell smack in the middle of it all. Amateur rent-boy with a broken heart tries to solve the murder of an old friend, who officially commited suicide. It was amusing and interesting to see his murder candidates fall one by one, but all come back together in the end.
2. Love me some amateur sleuthing. There is a special kind of writing required to pull the sleuthing off in the first place, and I'm a sucker for it. Make it at least a tiny little bit believable, and I'll gobble it up. Extra cookies if I can imagine parts of the story happening like it, but that's really just a bonus. If you're going for that kind of trope, you're not interested in the accurancy or realism of the facts. If you do, you'll be very disappointed every time. And let me tell you, this story will never get an award for it's probability. But like I said, you don't pick up the story of a rent-boy playing detective when you're hung up on realism. You just don't.
3. Throw in a little steam, a little romantic entanglement and feelings, and I won't put this down until I'm done. Again, this story didn't disappoint. The romance is not on the fore-front, but when it's on page, it's nicely done and pulled me in. Except for maybe the second "triangle" between the parents and the neighbor. But I'll come back to that. But the "main" romance between out amateur/rentboy and closeted detective was good.
And now let me tell you why in the end, I started to despise the book.
1. Some of it got to the point of being more cartoonish than actually readable. The mother. The MOTHER! Oh my lord, what was that even? The whole storyline with the parents made me shake my head and irritated the crap out of me.
2. The end.
3. The fat shaming. I read an interesting article about the likability of characters in correlation to the likablility of books. The truth is, I don't have to like a character to enjoy a book. And the MC also doesn't have to be politically correct all the time in order for me to enjoy him and his actions in a book. But. It has to be done in a certain way. That was not the case here. The first time, a hateful comment on the weight of a side character came up, I didn't think much about it. It was mean, yes. But it was also about the alleged affair of the Mcs father, made by the "scorned" woman. So I thought "What the hell." and moved on. But it happened again. And again. And again. In a miserably, hateful way, completely out of contect and with no credible reason behind it. And to be honest, in the end it just felt very cheap. It wasn't funny, it wasn't put into perspective, it was just plain bad taste. And soooo cheap. I couldn't get over the cheapness of it all! If you want to slam overweight people because of their weight, educate yourself first. Think first! Write and judge later, or not at all, especially not if it's only done for cheap laughs or no reason at all. Every main character was slim, gorgeous and attractive, which is something I'm used to in this genre, or in books in general. Doesn't mean you have to hate everyone who isn't, does it? That is NOT the core of this genre, and I refuse to leave it uncommented, because yes, it was that bad; and it was wrong, plain and simple.
So all in all, this should have been a 4 star read easily, maybe even more. But it wasn't. I'll give it two, because the core of the story was good, and I enjoyed it. The rest of it? Not so much. In the end, everyone has to decide if he is bothered by this kind of thing.
Bear with me. Let me tell you, why this book should have been a solid 4 or 5 star read for me.
1. I love mysteries. I love the mysteries with a romance sub-plot. I like romance with a suspense sub-plot. I like the investigation, I like whodunnit, I like thrillers, I like cops, I like amateurs, I like PIs. Just put me in the suspense/crime section and leave me there for the rest of my life. I'll die a happy little camper. And this book fell smack in the middle of it all. Amateur rent-boy with a broken heart tries to solve the murder of an old friend, who officially commited suicide. It was amusing and interesting to see his murder candidates fall one by one, but all come back together in the end.
2. Love me some amateur sleuthing. There is a special kind of writing required to pull the sleuthing off in the first place, and I'm a sucker for it. Make it at least a tiny little bit believable, and I'll gobble it up. Extra cookies if I can imagine parts of the story happening like it, but that's really just a bonus. If you're going for that kind of trope, you're not interested in the accurancy or realism of the facts. If you do, you'll be very disappointed every time. And let me tell you, this story will never get an award for it's probability. But like I said, you don't pick up the story of a rent-boy playing detective when you're hung up on realism. You just don't.
3. Throw in a little steam, a little romantic entanglement and feelings, and I won't put this down until I'm done. Again, this story didn't disappoint. The romance is not on the fore-front, but when it's on page, it's nicely done and pulled me in. Except for maybe the second "triangle" between the parents and the neighbor. But I'll come back to that. But the "main" romance between out amateur/rentboy and closeted detective was good.
And now let me tell you why in the end, I started to despise the book.
1. Some of it got to the point of being more cartoonish than actually readable. The mother. The MOTHER! Oh my lord, what was that even? The whole storyline with the parents made me shake my head and irritated the crap out of me.
2. The end.
Spoiler
I have no problem with far-fetched solutions to far-fetched crimes during amateur investigations. Again, it's not about realism so much. And while I could get behind it in a weird and twisted way, it was still all kinds of crazy. Maybe a little too off the rocker for me.3. The fat shaming. I read an interesting article about the likability of characters in correlation to the likablility of books. The truth is, I don't have to like a character to enjoy a book. And the MC also doesn't have to be politically correct all the time in order for me to enjoy him and his actions in a book. But. It has to be done in a certain way. That was not the case here. The first time, a hateful comment on the weight of a side character came up, I didn't think much about it. It was mean, yes. But it was also about the alleged affair of the Mcs father, made by the "scorned" woman. So I thought "What the hell." and moved on. But it happened again. And again. And again. In a miserably, hateful way, completely out of contect and with no credible reason behind it. And to be honest, in the end it just felt very cheap. It wasn't funny, it wasn't put into perspective, it was just plain bad taste. And soooo cheap. I couldn't get over the cheapness of it all! If you want to slam overweight people because of their weight, educate yourself first. Think first! Write and judge later, or not at all, especially not if it's only done for cheap laughs or no reason at all. Every main character was slim, gorgeous and attractive, which is something I'm used to in this genre, or in books in general. Doesn't mean you have to hate everyone who isn't, does it? That is NOT the core of this genre, and I refuse to leave it uncommented, because yes, it was that bad; and it was wrong, plain and simple.
So all in all, this should have been a 4 star read easily, maybe even more. But it wasn't. I'll give it two, because the core of the story was good, and I enjoyed it. The rest of it? Not so much. In the end, everyone has to decide if he is bothered by this kind of thing.
kaispellmeier's review
3.0
3.5
A cute and quick read. I did not have any expectations before reading this. It was a little predictable and very repetitive. The ending was somehow exaggerated but still okay.
I enjoyed this and want to read the sequel, if I can find it somewhere, not sure the local library holds this.
A cute and quick read. I did not have any expectations before reading this. It was a little predictable and very repetitive. The ending was somehow exaggerated but still okay.
I enjoyed this and want to read the sequel, if I can find it somewhere, not sure the local library holds this.
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