For me, books are an investment. I rarely buy one without flipping through the first several pages to see how readable I find the book to be, in terms of subject matter and writing style of the author. So in the world of digital editions, I love the first 20 pages “sample” that you can get for most Kindle edition books. I know a book is a good buy when I get to the end of Page 20, and am immediately disappointed enough that I’m compelled to jump straight on Amazon and buy the whole thing so I can keep reading.
The first time I read Roll, it took me less than a minute from hitting the end of Page 20 to buy, download, and pick back up on Page 21 to keep reading. I did not want to put it down. That was several months ago when it was first released. I picked it up for the second time a week or so ago, to remind myself so I could write this review, and happily it holds up just as well on second read.
Roll is, admittedly, a book in a genre that I would not typically pick up and read. I’m fully supportive of loving, consenting adult relationships of any variety, but I’m more inclined to read what I relate to, and I don’t have a lot of basis for relating to an M/M romance novel. But I know the author, and the book was recommended to me, so I gave it a shot.
I was pleasantly surprised at just how relatable the story is. Beau, Vin, and the other characters are very real characters, real college students with real problems and relationships and all the other trials and tribulations of being a young adult trying to figure out what you want out of life. The fact that many of the characters are LGBT is part of the plot, but not core to understanding who they are as people. Lynn does an amazing job of creating not just characters, but people, people that you could imagine hanging out with, running into in the dining hall, crossing paths with on the quad. These are people I would have liked to know in college.
As for the ‘romance’ part of the genre, even that is very relatable. In fact, if you look past the fact that there’s an increased number of penises in the room, it could be any type of couple (M/M, M/F, F/F) trying to get to know each other and figure out how to grow their relationship, both in and out of the bedroom. Beau and Vin are very sweet to each other, in that naive way that comes with young love, before the cynicism of experience makes people start overthinking. They’re the kind of couple you watch from across the room and think “they are so cute it makes me sick” but really, you wish you had what they have.
If I have to say anything negative about this book, it would be that it ends very abruptly. Don’t panic when you get to the end of the last page; there aren’t any pages missing from your copy, it really does end there. But that will only be a negative until the rest of the series comes out, and I can keep reading. Looking forward to it!