Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – Midlife Crisis
Author – Rob Rosen
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 182

Cover – Good
POV – 1st person, one character
Would I read it again – Maybe

Genre – LGBT, Romance, Crime/Mystery, Midlife Crisis


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine


Midlife Crisis is that mix of all the things you're looking for in a pick-me-up book: Mystery, romance, sexy stuff and a good giggle. It certainly picked me up on a God-awful day.

I love a good who-dun-it, so the mystery aspect of this one really worked for me. Sure, parts of it were a little incredulous, but that was the whole fun of it. The book didn't take itself too seriously, so I as a reader didn't either. This was more your Miss Marple – someone stumbling into something they, on paper, shouldn't be stumbling into – rather than your Poirot, where a profession gets sucked into another case.

Jack was a hottie, with money, but a love-loser life. He had everything and nothing – great parents, who were a hoot, a great best friend, a good job/money and a nice home, but he didn't have love, luck or even the closure of a past love to keep him going. So began his adventure. And, boy, it was a doozie!

I don't want to give the plot away, but I will say that I loved all the main characters – Jack, his mother!, Monroe, Dave and even Bing. But it was really in the last 10-15% that you really saw their true colours shine through so bright. And that was brilliant too.

Down side? Well, this is an unedited and unformatted ARC, so I had some trouble reading it. There were a few editing issues – nothing that needed to really be taken into account for my rating, because I'm sure they'll be fixed before publication. The formatting was also negligible, since I knew going in that it was unformatted. I only mention it, because it was tiring trying to follow the story while there were a few spaces missing, so words blended together. BUT, this is nothing anyone needs to worry about; it's all the unedited/unformatted part and nothing that will appear in the published version.

So, why is it a 4 and not a 5? I can't honestly pin-point it. I had a good giggle and I was surprised by some of the mystery/crime resolutions – which rarely ever happens to me! – but I guess there was just something indefinable missing for me. Possibly that something that would make me read it again? I'm not sure. It feels like the kind of book you'd read and it stays with you, so re-reading isn't really necessary, if you know what I mean?

Overall, though, it was a well plotted, well written piece of slap-stick comedy, with enough romance, mystery/crime and slap-and-tickle (sorry, I couldn't help myself. It felt so appropriate!) to satisfy any reader of the genre.

~

Favourite Quote

“He wants us to go on a diet together. I promised to love, honor and cherish. There was no mention of a diet. I would've remembered such a thing.”

“Dave might've been quick, but no one was quicker than Ma. Ma knew when I was up to no good even before I was awake. Ma had my punishment figured out a week in advance.”