It’s the Truth about Riley

The Truth About Riley by Henrietta Clarke was the most touching book I have read in a long time. You know this book had to be damned good if it broke the literary silence and brought me back to this blog. It’s been a long time coming, but this book was so moving for me that I had to share. It’s something completely different, and it’s not for everybody, but it’s a brave new world, and I am reading all about it…

It is a book in a genre many are not familiar with: M/M romance. And this is what drew me to it in the first place, that and I was intrigued to read how a story about two people conducting a romance over the phone would play out.

I was pleasantly surprised because I could not put the book down. I was completely in love with the characters, Riley and Cameron. I wanted to find out if and how they were ever going to get together.

Riley was scarred by an accident, and *spoiler alert* either I read the book too damned fast, or it was never really explained what caused the fire that caused his scarring, but in the end, the whys and the hows are irrelevant.

Riley is a sensitive soul and very much a man. Which is one of the refreshing things about well written M/M romance, it isn’t just some story where one of the characters could be swapped out for a female character, and the story would be the same. There is no “feminine” element here.

Cameron is the put-upon ad exec who answers the phone call when Riley thinks he’s dialing a phone sex line, and that is how the story begins. I loved it from start to finish. Even the supporting characters! I would love to see Riley’s neighbor and BFF finally get his man; that would be a helluva story, I bet!

Cameron and Riley are such believable characters, I practically wanted to live in the same neighborhood as them so I could see them come around the corner to have a cup of coffee at the local haunt.

The phone romance includes some pretty steamy phone sex, which is really top-notch and not at all cheesy. I was happy about that. Nothing ruins a perfectly good book faster than bad use of its plot device. So kudos to Clarke for keeping hope alive! I highly encourage anyone looking to break into something a little less hetero in their romance and wanting to test the waters to give this book a chance.

Even fans of the genre would not be remiss to pick this one up. I don’t want to say too much because I want you to read the book that badly!! I’d rather not give it all away on the first blog read.

She is apparently set to release a sequel sometime this year, more of Cameron and Riley… can’t wait to read it!