Sottopassaggio

50 Reasons #2

by Nick Alexander

Following the loss of his partner, Mark, the obstinately optimistic hero of 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye, tries to pick up the pieces and build a new life for himself in the seaside town of Brighton. Mark struggles to put the past behind him, exploring Brighton's high and low-life, falling in love with charming, but unavailable Tom, and hooking up with old friend Jenny. But Jenny has her own problems, and as all around are inexorably sucked into the violence of her life, destiny intervenes, weaving the past to the present, and the present to the future in ways no one could have imagined.

Genres: Gay, Fiction, LGBT

207 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2005

About the author

My novels:

A Little Bit of Sunshine (2026)

Where Do We Go From Here (2025)

The Imperfection of Us (2023)

Perfectly Ordinary People (2022)

From Something Old (2021)

The Road to Zoe (2020)

You Then, Me Now (2019)

Things We Never Said (2017)

The Bottle of Tears (2016) (also published as Let the Light Shine).

The Other Son (2015)

The Photographer's Wife (2014)

Two novels featuring Hannah:
- The Half-Life of Hannah.
- Other Halves (Dec 2013)

Two novels featuring CC:
- The Case Of The Missing Boyfriend
- The French House (May 2013)

The Fifty Reasons Series, following the life of lovelorn Mark
- 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye
- Sottopassaggio
- Good Thing, Bad Thing
- Better Than Easy
- Sleight Of Hand

And the standalone novel
- 13:55 Eastern Standard Time

The Case Of The Missing Boyfriend, The French House, and The Half-Life of Hannah have all been huge kindle hits, reaching number #1 in Amazon's kindle chart.

I live in the southern French Alps with three mogs (Mangui, Pastel & Pedro) and a very special ferret.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sottopassaggio was good, but not as good as Fifty Reasons to Say Goodbye. What I really found interesting wasn't Mark's story, but the stories of his friends Tom and Jenny. Tom's dysfunctional relationship with Antonio was fascinating and Jenny's abusive marriage was nerve-wracking. Throughout the time I was reading Sottopassaggio, I kept wondering what the deal was with Mark's job. Did he still have one? Was he just on a medical leave of absence? I also wondered about Jenny's drinking. Mark didn't seem to have a problem drinking with her given her condition even after Tom raised objections to it and I found that odd. Maybe it's a European thing. I'm planning to read the third book of the series, Good Thing, Bad Thing, but I'm not ready to commit to the entire series yet.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book in the series picks up with Mark moving to his brother's old house in Brighton while still mentally recovering from his accident. Here he meets new friends (continuing his run of unusual encounters), reconnects with his old friend Jenny (who seems to be a stranger at first but her own unhappy circumstances bring them closer together) and finds himself falling for Tom (who is unavailable, already being in a relationship). This book is a little more serious and reflective than the first, but in a good way.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book in the series, this one was less of a collections of short stories of Mark's dates and more of an actual cohesive story about Mark reacting to the end of the previous book. Unfortunately, it did involve an amount of moping around and nothing will ever be right again, which is moderately annoying. Luckily, he gets over it eventually and starts being the Mark that I grew to really like in the previous book.

Sure, he's still getting around trying to meet a guy to spend the rest of his life with, etc., but the people he meets aren't quite as ridiculous as in the first book, which is too bad in the sense that it loses some of the hilarity of Mark considering how terrible his luck with dating is, but kinda good in that Mark actually starts to lead what seems to be more like a real life.

I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the first one in the series, however, the writing is still pretty great and I still love Mark once he gets over himself. Additionally, there is actual progression in the plot of this book and starts to set up the rest of the series, I'm guessing.

As I said in the review of the first book, I will probably read the next book in the series sometime, but it's not the kind of thing that I must read now like some other series.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the climatic end of the first 50 Reasons series I was excited to learn that the story continued. I downloaded this book in less than five minutes at the compilation of the first. The story of Mark continued to be wonderful. The new characters that Alexander adds in this book are just as interesting as the ones in the first book.

[char · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get through bondage in one chapter and the use of a particular word in another. .
However it's not as good as the first one in the series. Oh well I will read on to the 3rd book at some stage, and see if it picks up again! :).

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked this book a lot - great story and I warmed more to the narrator than in first book. Good secondary characters too.

[rjwitton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the first in the series... More flow, more of a story line.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm enjoying following Mark's life. He meets somebody new in this one, and becomes closer friends with Jenny.

[Trefor Bark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous sequel, couldn't put down. Really felt for the characters

[Christopher Winterburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

picked up nicely from the first book. I love reading about Mark's life. Very cleverly written! A shame Reilly the cat died. That's all I'm going to say other than I can't wait to start book 3.

[Kevin Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Nick Alexander. This is the second book in the 50 Reasons series and I will definitely be reading the next. Great stuff!