Today's recommended reading comes to us from Valerie Z. Lewis, the same author who wrote our last recommended reading. This one is called The Epic Love Story of Doug and Stephen and if you think it's a gay love story featuring men named Doug and Stephen, you are correct.
Doug is a Midwestern-mechanic-turned-NYC-model. He gets a job at a gay interest magazine called "The Flame" as a regular model/fashion columnist. He's an idiot. I don't mean this to insult him; I actually love Doug. He's just not very bright. The reason there's a button on the cover of the book? He swallowed one. At kind of a key moment. It was even red. Anyway, Doug may be an idiot, but he's a total sweetheart. He's just a good guy, and for some reason, he falls in love with Stephen, who is a self-centered, pretentious jerk. Stephen isn't a bad guy, though; he's just a drama queen who doesn't have enough conflict in his life, so he makes it up. Doug can, apparently, see this. He decides that he's in love with Stephen, even though Stephen "terrifies" him, and proceeds to woo him. "Woo" in this case is more like "stalk," which sounds creepy but is actually quite endearing. Doug just sort of gently bullies Stephen into a relationship by being a complete idiot and not getting any of Stephen's "hints" to back off (read: death threats, threats of violence, threats of bodily harm). Stephen, like the reader, isn't immune to Doug's charms, and eventually gives in. Well, sort of. Stephen is apparently the King of Denial, and even after I would consider them a couple, he insists that he and Doug are only dating "casually." Yeah, buddy. Whatever.
The relationship gives Stephen the confidence to pursue the second main conflict of the novel, which is nice.
The whole book is really well-written and really well-crafted, and I just love it. I will confess that I don't care as much about Stephen's writing or the exposé, but that has nothing to do with Ms. Lewis' writing and everything to do with the fact that I am completely enamored with Doug and Stephen's relationship and with the humor (which is absolutely, perfectly spot-on in every instance).
If you're looking for a fun love story for your Kindle, this is it. At $0.99, it's a steal, so snap it up!
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