Strictly Business

Oh, where to begin?  Let’s do the easy bits first; this is a great story, following the beginning of an office romance between Sam and Brian, from the first moments of hesitant and awkward attraction, through to a thoroughly deserved ending.

Sam gets a bit more attention than Brian, but both are nicely rounded characters who are easy to like and their relationship has it’s ups and downs, which are always engaging to follow.  As you can probably tell, I like this story.  There’s no unnecessary drama, no reliance on highly unlikely and unfortunate events, and no big plot holes or major reveals out of nowhere.  Just some really cool story telling.

Whilst I’m thinking about nice characters - I still don’t like Jared.  I’m sure he’s always going to be bad news, but then, I’m also in a very small minority here (possibly of 1), so you might want to ignore my views on this completely.  However, I see it as a sign of how engaged I was with Sam and Brian that my reaction to Jared was (and still is) so strong as he threatened something I cared about.

My only problem is that it’s relatively short, and I think it could easily be a bit ‘fuller’, but then, this also means that you have even less reasons not to go and read it right now, it won’t take you months to get through.  Go on, you know you want to.

A very promising debut from a writer whose first language is apparently not English, not that this is apparent given the literary skills displayed by @ObicanDecko.

The characters are mostly likeable, even Jared, but not so Richard; and the storyline believable. The story progresses at a leisurely pace, for which this reader was eternally grateful. There is some drama, but nothing so melodramatic that it detracts from the story or becomes the focus of the story, rather than the characters themselves.

I have to make special mention of the delightful Bo. I am always drawn to stories where a non-human character, in this case a dog, has a "starring" role rather than a "guest starring" role. His presence added immeasurably to the story and for this reader at least, made the characters of Sam and Brian and their relationship, that much more attractive. 

A terrific read.

Wonderful story