Self-Published
Novel: 281pgs
2.5 Pants Off
Blurb:
Marcel Ritter is an excellent pupil at a German school, has two loyal, best friends, and caring parents.
Still, his life is far from being perfect.
He is the bullying victim of Tim ‘Dumb’ Eschner, soccer hunk and the school’s official dimwit.
When the vice principal witnesses one of Tim’s assaults, Marcel’s problems seem to be solved at last. But his good nature and his fast tongue get him into more trouble than he would prefer.
Forced to work together, they both discover that there is more to the other one than meets the eye.
A feel-good story about change, forgiveness, and love.
Review:
I really tried to like this story a lot more, and for the first 30% I was really enjoying it. Until it became too predictable and felt like a book, I have read before and not necessarily the good kind. As you guys might already know, I hate predictability *with a passion* and my eyes tend to hurt with when I have to be doing eye roll numerous. Perception had the potential but in the end, the story and characters fell very flat for me.
Marcel finds himself hiding from Tim aka Dumb a lot. He is being bullied for reasons he does not know and he wants it to stop. When Tim confronts Marcel for another round of punching bag, he is caught by the vice principal. Suddenly Marcel finds himself offering to tutor Tim, and even more surprising Tim is accepting. How will the boys move on from their violent past? Believe when I say they do, oh man do they.
I for one really can’t call Tim a bully, even though he liked to throw his fist around. Many misunderstandings were passing around, a lot of lies, and Marcel and Tim just got caught up. You do not need to only physically harm someone to be a bully, words can damage too. In this case, I would classify almost all the teenage characters as ‘bullies’ if we’re throwing the word around.
I did enjoy the slow progression of Tim and Marcel’s relationship; it was the most enjoyable part of the book. It’s when the actual relationship starts that it all just fizzled for me. I am a huge a fan of the enemies to lovers’ trope, but most of it was all very clichéd. One thing that really irked me is the character contrast. The intelligence of Marcel represented as very high if a little obnoxious, and Tim is just Tim. Though he does advance in leap and bounds, and he gets all-sensitive. I still felt like a lot was not done for his character, and it really irks me.
Overall, I started to like it but by the end, I was disappointed and dissatisfied with the story. It does have cute romantic elements, and in a perfect world, we would want all the young people coming out to have such an easy time. I guess it’s all that easy which made the story fall and fail to be realistic. There is explicit sex, but both characters are of age so it shouldn’t leave readers uncomfortable. If you want a very happy story? Then this might be the read for you, just wasn’t my cuppa after all.
SideNote- The slime ball villain is such a douche bag. Dude get over it!!
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| 2.5 Pants Off |
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