Patrick Weasley, aka Weasel, is a fun-loving college student with a wealthy homophobic jerk stepfather and a best friend, Jake Winston, who’s just as gay as Weasel. When Jake’s aunt dies, many from the publishing world—including Jasper, Weasel’s weasel of a stepfather—gather at Winston Manor for the reading of the will, and Weasel is obligated to tag along.
Turns out all he has to do is three things: 1) swap the wills so Jake’s uncle inherits the house instead of the gardener, who's also an old enemy of Weasel's; 2) secure a publishing contract from author Cecily Talbot; and 3) hook Jake up with his deceased aunt’s male nurse. But what he ends up doing is 1) falling for Tony, one of the food servers; 2) accidentally affiancing himself to Cecily; and 3) fighting with Jake, who thinks he was making a play for the nurse.
To make matters worse, every time Weasel and Tony start to get intimate, Jasper is right around the corner. So when burglars come to steal a valuable piece of art, Weasel must 1) use all his ingenuity to keep the painting safe; 2) dis-engage himself from Cecily; 3) unite Jake with the nurse; and most importantly, 4) pursue Tony to an elusive happy ending.
I’ve read some fun books before, most tend to have some element of angst to counter the laughs, but this book is one long chuckle fest.
Weasel is just one of those guys that attracts trouble like moths flock to the light. He is wonderfully witty and endearingly loyal.
The list of characters all play their parts to perfection, it would be impossible to single anyone out. Although Kendrick probably gave me the biggest laugh, while Jeffrey caused me a shudder or two.
I’m happy to say there was no long drawn out sex padding out this story, Tony and Weasel do hook up but the fun is watching them trying to catch a break lol.
This was a pure comedy read. Totally recommended to any who like to read about a cute gay guy with lots of funny quips and some entertaining action. I wish this could be tuned into a film, it has that wonderful slapstick comedy feel that would translate so well to a movie.
In case its not clear I LOVED THIS BOOK,
ETA
The above review stands I LOVE THIS BOOK lol. I'm almost afraid to read the second one, it has a lot to live up to lol.
There are your bad kissers. Case in point: Tyler Kendrick. My mouth thought it was being attacked by a squid. Big, freaky tongue forcing its way into my mouth like the villain in a Western movie coming through the saloon doors with a swagger. Too much saliva, and in all the wrong places.
Stephen Osborne (along with John Goode) is one of the DSP authors I like due to his humorous voice. This latest novel from him is not a romance, although there is a love interest. I prefer to think of it like a written version of comedy movie where everything goes wrong and a hero (Weasel) that is a magnet for trouble without even trying. Sort of reminded me of the movie Clue (a lot of references to the game here, by the way) -- where all characters are put into one big mansion and well, things go awry. Although this story doesn't have dead bodies -- except the Great Aunt who already died when everybody arrived in the mansion ... and some mention of ghosts.
If the blurb sounds unclear, well, let me just say that the blurb is EXACTLY what you will get from the story. Patrick Carrington Weasley a.k.a. Weasel goes with his best friend, Jake Winston a.k.a. Caps, to Winston Manor for a reading of a will. Aside from moral support for Caps, Weasel needs to do all of these things -- helps Caps to get his dream man, helps his own homophobic father to land a deal with an eccentric author, and swaps the will so Caps' Uncle gets the money instead of the gardener, whom Caps' Aunt had had an affair with.
Of course, like a comedy movie, things don't go as planned. Mr. Osborne throws curves and twists in every corner, so Weasel is trapped in frustratingly crazy situations, and I wonder how he can get out from all of those. It includes being engaged with the female eccentric author, being mistaken for a girl (and makes his nemesis fall in love with Weasel's "version" of the girl), not to mention fighting with Jake that results in tumble along the stairs. It's pretty crazy there, in Winston Manor. I totally don't know what other scenario Mr. Osborne is preparing for young Weasel!!
Like I said above, there IS a love interest -- namely Tony, one of the food servers. However, I can't count the blooming romance as significant. I do enjoy the whole mayhem. For me, it's a fun read, despite the lack of 'usual' romance plot!
2.75 stars. Ok m/m story about a college student who manages to get himself into scads of over-the-top trouble pretty much all the time. While I do enjoy some madcap m/m romances, such as those by L.B. Gregg, this just felt as if the author was trying too hard.
Hmmm...what can I say about this book? It started out with promise but unfortunately somewhere around the 30% mark it lost my interest and I don’t really know why. I was hoping for a book that would have me laughing until the end instead it gave me a few chuckles and a couple of smirks. I think I’ll just have to say, sadly this book just didn’t do it for me.
The fact that I read this book in more or less one sitting shows how much liked it. I liked Weasel's voice very much and all that happened to him had me laughing out loud several times. As with the other book that I read by this author 'Wrestling with Jesus' here it happened again that at some point the humor got too much for me. For example the whole scene in the tower chamber was too over the top. And I also had a bit of a problem with the development of the relationship between Tony and Weasel - insta-love like. Nevertheless, overall I really enjoyed it.
Repost, slightly edited. This book was a disappointment when I read it in 2012, but I've just now found out there's a sequel, and perhaps I expected too much of it before, so I may give it another shot, hence, I'm re uploading this review without the rating.
Original Review: When this book floated across my GR feed and I saw "weasel" in the title, naturally I had to look closer.
Now it will probably help to understand that I love P.G. Wodehouse, and have done ever since I first encountered him by way of the television adaptation of his Jeeves stories Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie over twenty years ago. And ever since that first encounter I've been wishing for a gay P.G. Wodehouse novel.
The description of Pop Goes The Weasel, complete with manor house, matchmaking, unintentional engagement, and relations forcing the the characters to participate in schemes of dubious legality, pretty much screams P.G. Wodehouse. So hopeful, yet skeptical, after attempting to get friends to screen it for me, I opened the sample...
And what do you know, the opening scene is exactly the sort of thing one can imagine a gay Bertie Wooster finding himself in, and while the style is not P.G Wodehouse, it seemed very suited to an American version of Bertie and after all, I felt, attempting to actually imitate Wodehouse's prose would only invite negative comparison when the author inevitably failed to live up to the master. So with reckless abandon I bought it and started to read.
For the first few chapters all was well. There were some particularly funny lines. Describing me as giddy would not have been inappropriate. The characters had potential and the setup was good, but after about the 9% mark I began to be somewhat bored. Why? The situations were perfect, the plot was what I'd expected, indeed in Wodehouse's hands I would have been laughing non-stop at these same scenarios. Yet I felt nothing. And I think a large part of the problem is that the characters really didn't seem to feel anything either. Oh they expressed verbal dissatisfaction, but I never felt as if any of them were at all emotionally invested in the outcome of events, and consequently, neither was I. It was so flat I found myself occasionally chuckling at things that really weren't very funny. As if I wanted to laugh and so I would at the few measurable bumps in the monotony. And it wasn't as if the characters were unlikable, the narrative voice simply delivered the story devoid of any real emotion.
I really wanted to like this book. This book wanted to be the book I've been hoping for for twenty years, but it failed. There was a twinge of humour in the incredibly unsexy sex scene, and I felt a touch of the success of the beginning again at the climax when all was explained and set right. Of course the book kept going after that, filling out another chapter with a pointless, uninteresting epilogue.
So in the end I'm giving this [x] stars. I may try something else by the author, I'm not sure. I'm still hoping for that gay Wodehouse one of these days.
4.5 stars rounded up, because who wants to be gypped? This was a fun story. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel Rat Bastard. Weasel is one of those people who things just happen to. Good things, strange things, and funny things... I cracked up several times and was hoping my coworkers wouldn't want to know why I found it funny when Weasel got mistaken for his nonexistent female cousin.
Weasel is dragged to a country house by not only his best friend Cap, but also his step-father (who for forever more shall be referred to as stepmonster) to do favors for them. While at the house he is drawn (manipulated) into more shenanigans by Cap’s uncle. But Weasel meets Tony, a servant, who he is interested in getting to know better, but, with Weasel’s luck, a category of errors and misunderstandings occur which lead to fight’s, jealousy, a mistaken engagement and interrupting a burglary. Will Weasel be able to set all to rights and get his happy ending?
This is a very amusing story that will touch your funny bone several times as we spend a long weekend with Weasel. Weasel and Cap are both required to stay at Cap’s great-aunts estate for the reading of her will, but Weasel is drawn into doing favours for others, in the course of doing the favors though, Weasel’s luck just isn’t going his way and it leads to several humorous events. Throughout all that Weasel is trying to do, he meets Tony, the sexy servant, but nothing is going quite his way and his attempts to woo Tony are repeatedly interrupted.
So what can I really say about the characters in this book? Weasel is a bit of a frivolous but lovable character, he seems to spend most of his time drinking and sleeping and attracting trouble, Cap is harder to define but he seems very highly strung (or maybe Weasel makes him that way), Tony seems to be a very sweet character and Weasel is a whirlwind that will sweep him away. All the other characters add a great deal to this book with all of their quirks and make for a very interesting amusing story.
The storyline is funny and will keep you reading even if it is just to discover what disaster Weasel gets into next, watching his 1.) disastrous attempts to fix his friend up, 2.)romance the guy that he desires, 3.)switch the wills, 4.) avoid the gardener/cop, 5.) get chased with a mallet, 6.)stop some bungling burglars, and 7.)break the engagement with Cecily, is very amusing and I am sure I have left out other disasters that befall Weasel.
I will recommend this to those who want a great story that will leave you giggling, having characters that just seem to attract trouble, characters that do get the men they want and the beginning of something special between Weasel and Tony.
In a word, this book is facetious. That's not necessarily a bad thing; I think this book was meant to be glib and funny. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. But at the same time, I found it weirdly pretentious. It's a kind of comedy of errors, with a hapless hero getting up to all sorts of comedic mischief and it might have made for a very entertaining light read. My major problem with this book is that it's set in the 21st century, but written in the style of something decidedly more 1900s. What young American guy uses a phrase like "There's a good chap"? I just didn't buy it. Weasel, our protagonist, describes himself as wearing jeans, a t-shirt and pair of Nikes, but I kept picturing him in like, a waistcoat and brogues, completely against my will. I felt like I might have really enjoyed this book if it was set in the 20th century English countryside, it would have been far less affected.
Meh. This book was just... Yeah. It wasn't a bad book as such, I just thought that Weasel (Patrick) was quite annoying. And there was A LOT going on, which was too bad, since the details kind of bled together. Also when there are so many plots/subplots, I get confused, and the book reads as more unrealistic -IMO. At the same time I thought the story of Weasel and Tony could have had more pages, I like me some romance, and there simply wasn't room for that, with all the other thefts/mistaken identities/fights/match makings/evil stepfathers/engagements/spiders going on... I would read other books by Stephen Osborne since some of the humor was cool, and it wasn't badly written just too much for me.
I find this story rather idiotic. I can't laugh about elements of childish behaviour. And this book is full of childish, idiotic elements. I have to admit to not liking Patrick Weasley, aka Weasel. Okay he wasn't so bad, more of a force of bad karma, but his behaviour is stupid. And then his best friend Jake, what a character....weak and boring. This is not a story for a serious enjoyment, because it's weak and it doesn't change anything in Weasley life.
I am not sure where to start. This was the most over the top comedic book I have read in a long time. I have read laugh out loud funny before but not with this particular delivery, it’s almost slapstick, not to say that is a bad thing. It had me laughing quite a bit.
I enjoyed this amusing tale of if something could go wrong it did. Not to be taken too seriously, the tale owes a lot to British farces from the last century.
Three stars, from me, means "good writer; good book; I liked it."
Stephen Osborne's "Pop Goes the Weasel" is fun. Quick witted and well written; fast paced and cleverly observed...it is a nod to the "bright young things" genre of the 1920s (like Wodehouse, et al).
Patrick Weasley is a feckless, spoiled gay party boy. He and his equally feckless friends get caught up in a country-house weekend that smacks of Philadelphia Story, but gayer and less glamorous (because no one, not even the rich, really know how to live that way any more, do they?).
I enjoyed and look forward to reading the sequel, "Rat Bastard." What will Weasel do next? And, significantly, will Tony still be with him?
My problem with this charming lark of a novel is that I really never got to like Weasel. As unpleasant as his right-wing Christian stepfather is, his dislike of Weasel is not without some foundation. Weasel, as narrator, tries to elicit our sympathies by recounting being bullied, being sent to a Christian school by Stepmonster, by being generally put-upon as an evolving gay adolescent. It doesn't quite work, because he is not just self-absorbed but vain and selfish. However, by the end of the book, I was beginning to have hopes for Weasel--and I'll just have to see if the sequel takes me there.
Very entertaining. Weasel manages to get into all kinds of trouble and hijinks, and then tries to get himself out of trouble. There are some slapstick moments, but many guys enjoy slapstick, whether they're reading or watching a show. Weasel calls his stepfather the "stepmonster," and the man lives up (or down) to that nickname. However, Weasel plans his actions and then improvises when the plans meet his world's reality and go sideways.
the idea was good and I really liked the story, it was fun but there were times like "really? whats wrong with these people?" Everyone in the story has something against Weasel and sometimes I couldn't stand Caps actitude.
3.5 stars Funny and also kind of ridiculous. I would have preferred if there had been just a little more focus on the relationship (and maybe a somewhat longer time frame).