Kayla the Bibliophile’s Review of Sex in the Title by Zack
Love
So I had just
finished editing Raw for Belle Aurora. Emotional rollercoaster on steroids. I
needed something funny and light-hearted, as little angst as I could possibly
find…anything to get me over my book-hangover. And like a gift from above, I
came across Zack Love’s Goodreads Profile. Not even his book, but the author’s
little bio itself:
Zack Love graduated
from Harvard College, where he tried to create a bachelor’s degree in Women.
With the bachelor portion of that degree in hand, he settled in New York City
but – to afford renting his bed-sized studio – found himself flirting mostly
with a computer screen and stacks of documents. Determined not to die a
corporate drone, Zack decided to sacrifice sleep for screenwriting, an active
social life, and Internet startups offering temporary billion-dollar fantasies.
To feed his steady diet of NYC nightlife, he regularly crashed VIP parties in the early 2000s and twice bumped into his burgeoning crush, a Hollywood starlet. But – much to Zack’s surprise – neither of those awkward conversations led to marriage with the A-list actress. Zack eventually consoled himself by imagining fiascoes far worse than those involving his celebrity crush. In the process, he dreamed up a motley gang of five men inspired by some of his college friends and quirky work colleagues. And thus was born Sex in the Title. But the novel is not autobiographical: Zack never had his third leg attacked by any mammal (nor by any plant, for that matter). In fact, keeping his member safe has been one of Zack’s lifelong goals – and one of the few that he’s managed to accomplish.
To feed his steady diet of NYC nightlife, he regularly crashed VIP parties in the early 2000s and twice bumped into his burgeoning crush, a Hollywood starlet. But – much to Zack’s surprise – neither of those awkward conversations led to marriage with the A-list actress. Zack eventually consoled himself by imagining fiascoes far worse than those involving his celebrity crush. In the process, he dreamed up a motley gang of five men inspired by some of his college friends and quirky work colleagues. And thus was born Sex in the Title. But the novel is not autobiographical: Zack never had his third leg attacked by any mammal (nor by any plant, for that matter). In fact, keeping his member safe has been one of Zack’s lifelong goals – and one of the few that he’s managed to accomplish.
I laughed so hard. I
LAUGHED as I wiped away the snot and tears leftover from my Raw induced ugly-cry, and thought, If I’m laughing this hard over the two
paragraphs of this dude’s author bio, I wonder what the book is like.
Description:
New York City, May
2000. The Internet bubble has burst, and Evan's boss fires him with an email.
The next day, his girlfriend dumps him, also via email. Afraid to check any
more emails, Evan desperately seeks a rebound romance but the catastrophes that
ensue go from bad to hilariously worse. Fortunately, Evan meets someone whose
legendary disasters with females eclipse even his own.
To reverse their fortunes, they recruit their friends into a group of five guys who take on Manhattan in pursuit of dates, sex, and adventure. With musings about life, relationships, and human psychology, this quintessential New York story about the search for happiness follows five men on their comical paths to trouble, self-discovery, and love.
To reverse their fortunes, they recruit their friends into a group of five guys who take on Manhattan in pursuit of dates, sex, and adventure. With musings about life, relationships, and human psychology, this quintessential New York story about the search for happiness follows five men on their comical paths to trouble, self-discovery, and love.
Ok, so APPARENTLY the
“main character” is Evan, poor guy is effed from page 1. But that’s not who I
want to talk about. Yes, everything he goes through is absolutely tragically
hilarious, but my favorite out of all the characters is Heeb (AKA Sammy)! Although the
entire book is sidesplitting, I found myself fighting to keep from skipping
ahead to all of Heeb’s parts. Not your stereotypical book boyfriend, the man’s
personality is just plain awesome. He was dealt a shitty hand ~ when you think
of a Jewish dude, you automatically think of their luxurious locks of thick
curly hair, right? RIGHT?! Well, I do… Anywho, poor Heeb has been balding since
he was a teen, he’s not in the best shape…cough…and he has a job most would
find ridiculously boring, but he genuinely loves. And even though he isn’t
balding (Zack and I fought about this on messenger) I think Jonah Hill would be
THE PERFECT Heeb.
The book starts out
with a couple of the guys knowing each other, and while reading I was looking
forward to figuring out how they would all come together. And in typical Zack
Love style, only the most embarrassing events could bring this bromance
together.
If you are a fan of
my page, you know that I am a total Smut Muffin. My review request form even
asks at what percentage the characters get it on. This isn’t my typical smutty
HEA love story that I normally read. This felt more like a movie or a Premium
Channel TV show. And it would have me coming back week after week!
So great job, Zack…you’re pretty
awesome…for having a penis.
When it comes to this story, the characters struck me to be like a male version of Sex and the City. That is in no way a bad thing since I really loved that quirky bunch of girls. Zack provided us with unique characters that all had their lovable quirks that started off almost like three separate novellas but eventually came together. Each story line was a new situation with a new perspective on life. I have to say that I would not mind finding myself a Lucky Chucky of my very own :)
I find it refreshing to read stories written from a male POV as it takes everything we think about love, sex and romance and shows us that there are men that feel the same way we do about those things. Zack gave us comedy and lovable characters that can be found everywhere in real life. Evan, who the book started off being about, just can't seem to catch a break while Carlos has no trouble getting everything in life he wants and needs. Since I'm a life long Jersey girl and have taken numerous trips to The City, I can almost see what Zack is describing in his book. I'm also old enough to remember NYC before 9/11 so it was nice to be reminded of a time before the city was forever changed.
Let me be clear about this: I am not a fan of cliffhangers. I'm even less happy if I go into a book not knowing that it will be a cliffy. I got to the 98% mark of this book when I realized with a deep sigh that the story lines were not going to wrap up in one book. I know other people feel the same way so I wanted to make sure no one was blindsided by this. My greater concern was the fact that he has no plan in place, at this time, to write a book two. His website says that while he understands there are unresolved issues, he has not decided if he wants to continue the series and wants the fans to be the catalyst that determines if another book will be written. Also, for those of our fan base that feel more connected to the deeply erotic stories we normally review, this book is decidedly less graphic than one might expect from the name of the book. Don't worry, you get to find out as the story goes along why this is indeed the perfect title for the book. I'm hoping that he does decide to continue with this series since there are so many directions he could take these characters if he took the plunge.
So Zack, let me be clear...
Here's my vote to get book two started!!
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