My Busboy

I made it to page 34 after several breaks. But the writing style isn't for me. It's written in first person and combined with a main character who isn't likable it was doomed. The entire 34 pages was one simile after another that it was obnoxious. And there was too much detail for mundane things. The main character needs counseling. He is depressed at turning the young age of 30, leads on a friend and dislikes many of his readers. I don't think I've ever taken anything personally, but this is written in first person, a.k.a. The author. I'm a chubby middle aged female and I checked... No, my hand doesn't look like a roast. Only some of this author's similes were good.

This is the first John Inman book I read, and while I really liked the pacing and sarcasm, I didn’t love this book. In fact, I almost didn’t get past the beginning and had to put it down a few times. The inner dialogue of the main character, Robert, was very off-putting until about page 50. At that point, the novel turned - in a great way, and ended up being a good read from there on out.

The mystery throughout the story, was a great way to bring the main characters together and also help fill-out their characters. Neither character was very deep, but they did have distinct personalities and together, they worked very well. While their heat for each other was apparent throughout, and there was sex… it wasn’t well written in some areas. For example, at one point Robert’s internal dialogue had him “drinking his [Dario’s] juices,” which made me think I landed in a vampire book.

But beyond that, this was a quick read (past page 50!), with a nice love story and a pretty interesting mystery too - and I loved the way the book ends (even if the epilogue is only three days later).

Review Copy provided by Dreamspinner Press in exchange for an honest review. Reviewed by Mel from Alpha Book Club.

Reviewed by Morningstar for Diverse Reader

This is my first John Inman book and he truly is a gifted writer! This is one of those books that is such an odd combination of things that you wouldn’t think they would fit but truly they do quite perfectly. It’s sweet and amusing with a dash of dry humor thrown in and a sprinkle of cute but with a great mix of mystery. And it’s the mystery that the fantastic way this author writes that kept me hooked!


Robert Johnny is a well-known author who is currently in crisis. He has what all authors dread...writer's block! Robert has one friend, Chaz who is in love with him, a cat, Clutch, who hates him, a stalker he is just trying to ignore, a nonexistent writing career, and a supreme love of chimichangas. One thing he doesn’t have is love. Guess he never thought his love of chimichangas could bring him more than some extra weight someday, but instead they bring him, Dario.


Dario Martinez is a pre-med student by day and a busboy at Sombreros by night. His life is just about as peachy as Robert’s; with having no money for school, or shoes, and a crappy boyfriend to boot. Who knew a platter of chimichangas could bring him face to face with the good looking Robert Johnny, the author of one of his favorite books!


Who knew something so simple could change the course of two people’s lives? Who knew all it would take is the love of Dario to bring Robert out of his slump? Robert sure didn’t because even though he knows how he feels about Dario he still can’t grasp the idea that young, smart, gorgeous Dario could feel the same for him. Even with all the good changes this relationship has brought strange things keep happening to Robert and his stalker is just getting started.


The mystery of his stalker was fabulous! I mean the figuring of who it could be seemed so simple at one point until the author brought up another stalker possibility but even then I was totally leaning towards my first choice! But this author is good because when you figure it out you are completely surprised. Which is seriously not an easy thing to accomplish because most times I can guess so I am loving that I was shocked by the who done it!


The love between Dario and Robert was super sweet and they had great snarky banter between them which I freaking love in books! What I also found interesting was because of who these characters were the age difference isn’t truly felt accept in financial circumstances. Dario reminds me of an old soul wise and grown up beyond his years. Robert is still young at heart, even if he feel ancient compared to Dario, so he kind of links up with Dario in that sense. There were some parts of the book that I thought that could have been longer and shown more of what was happening but overall the story was well paced and characters were well developed. Like I said earlier John Inman is a truly gifted writer and has unique style all his own which makes it a unique read all on its own.


Maybe this will help you want to read it! This is one of my favorite parts was one that showed the snarky dynamic between Dario and Robert:


“Come on,” he said around another smile. “Show me your mountain. And don’t worry about your boner. I’ll act like I don’t see it.” “Sweet Jesus,” I mumbled. “Is nothing sacred to you?” Dario howled with laughter and dragged me toward the cabin door.

Book – My Busboy
Author – John Inman
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
No. of Pages – 210

Cover – Evocative
POV – 1st person, past tense, 1 character POV
Would I read it again – Maybe

Genre – LGBT, Contemporary, May/December, Crime


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



This was a hard one for me to review. On one hand, I've only ever read one other John Inman story and it didn't sit well with me. On the other, I always go into each book trying not to take a previous experience of the author's work into account (unless they've become an instant-buy, by which I expect great things from each book after that).

My Busboy had really good bones. I loved the romance, the crime element and even the characters. What I didn't love was the writing style. Which is probably the oddest thing I will say in this review.

For me, the writing had far too many similes and flowery description to settle well with me. It was over the top, flamboyant and too exaggerated. Practically the entire first 10% was one simile after another. I mean, jam packed into each sentence, so much so that I seriously considered not reading any further and letting someone else review it. I mean, heck, the author comes up with some awesome similes, but I just came to a point that it felt like there was no description BUT similes and they were being crammed down my throat until I choked on them.

Now, I'm also admit that I'm not usually a fan of 1st person POV. It has to be a really good story to stop me from being uncomfortable inside 1st person. For a start, I'm not a man, I'm not gay (though I am a writer) and I don't have a stalker, I didn't make a packet with a massive bestseller...I could go on and on about the many ways that I am nothing like the MC. This is always the part that puts me off 1st person. However, Inman did a great job of not making it feel too foreign. It didn't take 3 chapters to learn “my” name, but just a few lines. It didn't take half the book to learn “my” background history, because it was info blocked at the beginning of the story – a bad point, but one that improved the 1st person considerably. So, this time, 1st person worked, because it limited all interactions to only things that “we” as Robert, could see.

Yes, the info dump was huge. It was a mass life story at the beginning of the novel, telling us everything we might ever need or want to know about Robert, bare the one or two important tidbits that slithered in later in the story, for the purpose of plot progression. So, yeah, I marked down for that. I hate info dumps.

However, I do love the way Inman used personal experience as a writer to make Robert's character so believable. The length of his unwashed state, though, after just a few days was a vast exaggeration and I didn't appreciate the way that his turning 30 was treated like he was suddenly 60 years old. I'm about to turn thirty and I certainly don't go around feeling like my life is over, I'm over the hill or anyone who is 20 is suddenly a child. That bugged me.

The shining moments in the plot, for me, were confined to three specific events – Robert's first interaction with Bucky, Robert taking care of Dario at the restaurant and during the night, and Robert and Dario's time at the cabin. Those three parts were my absolute favourite, though mostly wherever Dario made an appearance, the story really settled.

Personally, I felt that the story floundered at the beginning and only really took off – losing the flowery, over descriptive, info dump mistakes – when Dario entered the picture, during that first meeting. From then on, things settled down and all the really annoying parts of the writing drifted off, to become more sedate and regular. The exaggeration, over- everything and the urgent need to settle the reader into the story waned enough to let me enjoy the flow much better. I didn't feel rushed after they met, but did see a few points where we didn't have to see every moment of the time together. Still, even those parts were better than the rush of the first 5-10%.

I had a bit of a glitch, when Robert and others started talking about “tricked” or “tricks”. To me, that's always been used in previous books that have mentioned it to mean an escort's customer, but the way it's used here it sounds more like a casual sex partner, which was a little confusing. I didn't really know in which term Inman meant it, until about halfway through, when it couldn't really mean anything else. So that was a bit of a stumbling block. It's tricky (no pun intended) when words have two meanings and it's not really clear which one is being used, because in most cases this could have meant either.

I liked the build up of the stalker aspect of the story. How it began small, little things at a time and things that wouldn't actually be taken seriously by the police. However, I didn't like that the cops wouldn't do anything at all about a stolen computer, since they wouldn't just dismiss it because the crime was over. At the same time, I don't feel satisfied with the conclusion as to why the stalker did everything they did. I get that most of it is blamed on one aspect of that persons life (I can't tell you what) but that doesn't sit well with me. It feels dismissive and incomplete.

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Overall, the romance saved this one for me. Dario was fantastic at always saving the story when it began to flag, mostly because Robert was a bit too insecure and needy as a main character. He was a bit of a wimp, for thirty, and bordered on depressed most of the time. Dario injected life back into the story, every time he appeared.

The crime/stalker aspect worked to a certain extent, but it got a bit exaggerated at the end, too incredulous and wasn't rounded off well enough for my taste. I like my crimes a little more well explored to just accept the solution that we were presented.

However, this is only my second John Inman story and with a total indifference to the first and an iffy start, with a better ending to the second, I have to think that his writing style and my preferences don't really mix. I'll try another one, since I'm willing to try again, but it may just be that we're not a good fit for each other. Which is a shame, but happens sometimes.

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Favourite Quote

“When you're a writer, that lie always works. Don't want to go to dinner? Blame the book. Don't want to go to church? Blame the book. Don't want to be bothered by anybody ever again? Blame the book. Works like a charm.”