Yellowbelly Hero

Book – Yellowbelly Hero (Heroes at Heart #1)
Author – Susan Laine
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 82
Cover – Simple, effective
POV – 1st person, past tense, 1 character POV
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Suicide, Contemporary, College
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine
To start with, I want to say just how much I loved this story. I mean, it tackled a really difficult topic – suicide – and did it with sensitivity and understanding that you don't often see in books.
I'll admit, I'm not fond of characters talking to readers, so I'm really not a fan of 1st person, but this one grew on me after a while. It was important to see things from Yancy's POV and I liked that it didn't stray from him, to show Curt's POV. Although this was his story, it wouldn't have been as effective had it been in his POV.
The entire story takes place over one night, but it didn't feel as if it was stretched out on purpose, just that these two people had a lot to say and a lot of issues to confront.
I really liked the pelvic exercise scene. It was so cute and funny, allowing for a more understanding view of Yancy's nervous bladder condition, as well as a moment of levity. It was nice how they both gave a little and took what they needed from the conversation, sharing parts of each other, while skirting around the bigger issue until they were ready to open up.
I also really liked how this wasn't your stereotypical Jock-Geek story. This time, the Jock is the vulnerable, unsure one and the Geek is the hero, showing up just in time to save the day.
Yay for Will, too. It's so nice to see that, among the talk of homophobic parents and accusations that Curt had to deal with, he has someone on his side. I also like how the author dealt with Curt's realisation of what he'd almost done and how Will would have felt, upon discovering that.
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So, why is it not a 5 star? Because, for some reason, “The End” has become obsolete in the MM genre, including here. When I reached 72% of the story, I expected another 20% at least of content. What I got was 47 pages of adverts. 28% of adverts! Now, I'm sorry, but I'm already a fan of this author and if I want to read more of their books, I can look them up on a dozen different websites. I don't need a list of every book they've ever published, along with the blurb and book cover of all the books. I gets even more annoying when I've already read half of them.
Why does this require docking a star? Because, although I assume this is the publisher's doing, I'll admit, I felt cheated out of the story. I had hoped for some glimpses of the next morning or something more, to fill those 47 pages with, but I never got it. The story ended with a HFN, but it felt like there was something missing and that it ended a little too abruptly.
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Favourite Quote
“A jock and a geek getting it on? Wasn't that at the top of the list of things that suggested hell had frozen over or the world was about to implode over its impossibility?”