Review: Fierce and Fabulous (Sassy Boyz Book 1) by Elizabeth Varlet
The first in a scorching new male/male romance where the Sassy Boyz’s seductive smiles and sinful dance moves leave everyone breathless.
Fitch Donovan never thought a lap dance could change his life, but from the moment the gorgeous dancer’s lips touch his, his world comes screeching to a halt. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t shake the desire that rocks him to his core. He’s longed for this passion all his life—he just never dreamed he’d find it with another man.
Sharing a soul-shaking kiss with a straight boy is the kind of drama Ansel Becke just doesn’t need. Spotlights aren’t made for two and Ansel prefers to keep things on a one-night-only basis. So when Fitch shows up asking for an encore, Ansel knows he should send his gorgeous ass packing.
Though Ansel tries to pretend that what’s between him and Fitch is far from fabulous, there’s something about the big, burly contractor that makes Ansel’s world sparkle in a way no amount of glitter ever could. And Fitch will do whatever it takes to convince Ansel that when the thing you need most in the world falls right into your lap, you’d be a fool to let it go.
Review:
Dear Elizabeth Varlet,
Your book was chosen for the discussion in the m/m reading group I belong to. I did *not* choose this book for discussion, but as I may have mentioned previously I enjoy our group a lot and I like to participate in the discussion so I do try to finish the books which usually may not have been my cup of tea. This book certainly can be filed under *not my cup of tea*. See, I know that the book was published in 2016 when Gay For You was quite popular amongst m/m readers, but personally as a rule I quite disliked this trope when it started.
See, Ansel and Fitch meet in the gay bar where Fitch came because his younger sister, who came out as a lesbian few years ago, wanted to celebrate her 21st birthday with her girlfriend and she invited Fitch to come along. Fitch is SO straight you see. SO straight that when a member of an extremely hot boyband (expression mine – Ansel and the other three men are very much of age) who danced dressed as a women starts working the audience and gives Fitch a lap dance and a kiss, Fitch realizes that he is in love with Ansel a day or two after that event.
I am not exaggerating, or at least not much. A few days pass after a 29 year old man who never before, has ever been with a man, or thought of a man, decides that he cannot live without “his dancer”.
But by itself this would have been tolerable for me. I rarely buy Insta Love in a story where outside conflict does not force the men to be together (in other words they share mystery/ adventure etc. and are forced to get to know each other much faster than usual), but I can *swallow* and move past it if the rest of the romance is well done and to me the writing was okay and the feelings between the two main characters were done well enough.
However, Fitch insisting that he was *not* gay, that he was attracted to only one *special* man, was annoying to me. I mean, if Fitch would have said that he was Bi now, that he still liked women, but was attracted to Ansel that would have been fine too for this reader. But that’s not how it was written either. I mean, I get that this was supposed to show an everlasting love or something – only attracted to one person and no other person or gender, but I just do not care for this variation of the GFU trope at all.
There was several lengthy sex scenes in the story and the scenes were hot, but it felt … I do not know, overly described I guess?
Ansel and Fitch were good together, but I just did not buy their initial connection and it all went south for me because of that.
In the next three books of the series it looked like Ansel’s band mates are getting their love stories, but I am passing on it.
Grade: C-
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What did the rest of your reading group think of this one?
I remember this book! Because I DNF’d it for the v. same reasons you did, Sirirus, hahah.
IIRC, I picked it up abt a year after it’d been published too. The GFY trope deffo reigned supreme back them (though I also think it was almost out of fashion by 2017?)
Your review got me wondering IF there’s any GFY romance that isn’t problematic, biphobic or generally (bad) cringy…Hmm.