This was an okay story. I wasn't really torn one way or the other about whether or not the characters would end up together or not.

I wanted to love this book, due to the unique time and place setting. I love being transported to another city and getting a glimpse of what life was like at another time. I thought the plot was a good idea, and I wanted to root for the Midwestern outcasts who found a new life in San Francisco surrounded by a community that finally understood them.

Unfortunately, I just didn't connect with this story, the characters, or the writing. The story was rather slow-paced, and told in three parts. Perhaps it may have more value to someone who has been down the road of AA and recovery in the past.

The writing is well done, but this was just not my book. Such a hard topic, I expected a romance, soooo ;)

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such an emotional book. I want to give a quick shout out to the author for attempting to tackle such emotional issues. We don't see aids in a lot of stories, and I know that is such a sensitive topic. Thank you for handling this beautifully.

With that being said, I felt the book was a smidgen repetitive. I struggled to connect with the characters, but even that didn't stop me from being emotionally affected by the story. I love that this was not your usually LGBTQIA type book.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and netgalley for allowing me to review this novel.

I, perhaps strangely, loved this book. As others have suggested, it is dark and grim at times, but it seems to be a very real, gritty and honest look at gay life, both for men and women, in San Francisco as the AIDS crisis first hits. It's not a romance, so I was unsure, but I was quickly caught up in this story. Recommended

It's hard to give positive feedback about a book when the characters are so unlikable. It started off good, you have Max, a love 'em and leave 'em lesbian and her best friend Chris, a gay man, who leave the midwest in the 80's for San Francisco together. The descriptions of the bar scenes and SF are done very well. The heartbreak of the AIDS crisis was also sadly, poignantly well written. As someone who lost way too many friends during that time, I commend the author for that part. Max is a selfish, self absorbed, narcissistic alcoholic drug addict and frankly, I kept wishing she'd get hit by a street car. The writing is well done, it really is, but the preachy part of AA and their 12 steps, it's just not something I want to read about in a novel.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. One is that the topic of AIDS in the 1980's is one that is full of emotion and heartache. The other is that I was expecting a whole bunch of emotions from the lead, but really, the way it was written felt detached. All the stuff that happened in the book, whether the self-destructive behavior or the actual AIDS epidemic felt far away, which is strange given the point of view is from the first person. I couldn't really sympathize with the lead, mostly because she doesn't seem to even sympathize with herself.

That being said, AIDS in the 80's (or in general) is a really hard subject to tackle. It is such an emotionally heavy topic, and watching a character deal with the fallout of the disease going after her friends and her community is so important to remember.

This was a very heavy read. It deals with alcoholism, drug abuse and sex/sexual transmitted diseases.

It follows Maxine (Max) and her gay best friend Chris as they move from Ohio to the big city of San Francisco where they hope to find love and a community where they can finally be themselves. They both party constantly, drink and have a ton of sex. Chris ends up contracting AIDS while he and Max are estranged, and she has to live with the fact that that’s how their relationship ended.

I didn’t like Max because she was so self destructive and was constantly doing things that annoyed me and never treated anyone well, not even her best friend. I found myself rooting for her to fail at times or get in trouble so she would learn from her actions for once, but she never did.

She eventually gets a little more tolerable, but I still couldn’t connect with her. We probably weren’t supposed to love her and everything she did, but I at least wanted to like her. There were other characters I liked more, like Chris, Laurie and Anthony. They were all written well as was the book. Although this was about a lot of hard-hitting topics I did enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a lot of reserved feelings about this book. Though it touches real life issues such as alcoholism, death and AIDS, at one point it became very repetitive. I wasn't able to fully connect with the characters.

Over all it's not a bad book. I do warn you there are many triggers if you are sensitive to certain things read with caution.

Rating 2.5

This has not been an easy or pleasant reading. The issues that are addressed are serious and are exposed in a very raw and realistic way. So you will not find a light reading, not even a bit of romance that sweetens the content. There's nothing soft here.

The protagonist is Max, who relates in first person and very crudely her experience since arriving in San Francisco at the beginning of the 80's to about 6 or 8 years ahead. She does not save anything when explaining why her decisions, almost all bad. It is distressing to see how she is slowly falling into a spiral that pushes her more and more down.

The way in which the book is composed helps to rationalize a bit and perhaps understand what that environment was, with a generation quite naive in its conception of sexual freedom, that once could begin to get rid of so many years of repression was beaten down with a disproportionate and merciless force.

This book is not easy to read and it will not be everyone's taste. If you choose to read it, be aware that its content is hard. And for people of that generation or close in age, as I am, it may bring not quite pleasant memories.

This was a heavy read it deals with alcoholism, substance abuse just self destructive behavior.

The main characters are Maxine and Chris who move from the Ohio to San Francisco so they could finally be themselves.

It's mainly from Maxine pov I didn't really like her character because she was so self destructive the way she treated everyone how she became estranged from her best friend Chris who contacting aids and when he died she didn't even go to his funeral.

I mean it's amazing to finally be yourself but then to realize your life is not how you wanted it to be Maxine realize this after her life became downward spiral and having her best friend dying and feeling like a jerk by pushes him away and she decided to turn her life around by getting help.

This isn't a romance story but it's about being yourself and realize your life is going down hill and trying to get your life back on track.



I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Told in first-person and entirely from Maxine/Max's point-of-view.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I have mixed feelings about it. The story flows well and deserves a high rating based on that fact alone.

However, when it came to my reading enjoyment, I’d rate this as three stars. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, but I did like it.

The heroine is one of the most self-destructive characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction, and probably real life, and that’s saying a lot coming from a person who knows the devastating effects of alcoholism.

With that said, therein lays my issue with the story. It’s heavy with a capital H on substance abuse, and the last third reads like a 12-step manual, and that became tiresome.

I kept reading hoping to find some redeeming qualities in the heroine, but my estimation of her went down hill fast from the point where Chris died.

To quote Maxine – All of a sudden he died and I couldn’t even make it to his funeral. I was an asshole.

As an eighties child, I love revisiting the era. It was a different time for sure, and the author did a good job capturing a time when everyone feared the ‘gay flu’ (AIDS)

Needless to say, this is not a love story, but it’s thought provoking, and Maxine does have some hook-ups along her way.