Best Friends Perfect: Book One

Title:  Best Friends Perfect: Book One

Author:  Liam Livings

Publisher:  Wilde City Press

Length:  198 pages

Rating:  B List

Quad Shot of Love

 

 

Blurb:  Kieran, 18, comes out to himself then his family by going to a youth group. There he meets Kev, a cross dressing gay man with awful taste in boyfriends and Jo, a grade A drama student, at college and in his real life. Kieran navigates his way through the maze that is being a gay man in the late nineties, with help from his two new best friends, and his two old best friends; Hannah, just coming out too and trying to work out if Steps are Abba for the nineties; Grace a one woman charity shop bargain hunter with encyclopedic pop knowledge

 

Review: Best Friends Perfect: A year in the life of a growing teen, in the late nineties. This is a fun filled adventure about finding oneself, taking the knocks, making friends and easing into adulthood.  This story is told through Kieran’s eyes, and we get to know him intimately. Kieran – loves music, movies, shopping for clothes, his friends, and his car, a Citroen CV2, named ‘Priscilla!

Kieran –“It’s amazing what you can get over: death, betrayal, loneliness – no matter what life throws at you to change your plans, to stop you as you try to make your perfect life, somehow you pick yourself up and continue – I survived all those things, because I’m here, happy in my life now. Only it isn’t what I thought my life would be; when I was eighteen, taking my first steps into the whole new world of being gay, my idea of perfect wasn’t anything like what I have now”.

Team Kieran is made up of a group of Kieran’s best friends.

Jo(Jonathan) takes being gay in his stride, easy going. Kieran feels comfortable with Jo and he loves him, not boyfriends – more like girlfriends or brothers, they’re not fussed. Jo is extroverted, bubbly, friendly, confident, a complete flirt, naughty and doesn’t handle his drink too well. But Kieran is always on hand to take care of him.

Kev and Kieran went to the same Primary school. They’ve not seen each other since school, when Kieran joins a youth group for LGBT teens, Kev is there and a new friendship begins. Kev is a goth and drag queen, he cross dresses with confidence, his outlook is daring and fun.

“I’m still gay, I was born gay, I’ll die gay, I’m having a gay wedding” – Kev

”So that was Kev, take him or leave him. And I took him, I embraced him with both arms” – Kieran.

Then there is Grace, they meet at a house party and gel. Grace is always on the other end of a phone ready for Kieran to air his woes. Grace is supportive and honest, she does the best she can to keep Kieran’s feet on the ground, they have a lot of fun together. 

Hannah and Kieran work together at the local hospital. They keep each other sane during their shifts at work and chill out together often hitting the town when work is over, they soon become inseparable.

Kieran can be a little ditzy at times, he can also be a bit touchy and tends to rabbit on, but he is fun, caring and bright. Kieran is not yet ‘Out’ to his family, and often changes his stories, covering up where he is going and where he has been. Kieran takes people for who they are, he accepts them and cares about them, especially his friends. Kieran is a people person and it shows. In spite of Kieran’s cover up stories, he has a great relationship with his parents. His mum is a bit fuddy duddy, old fashioned in some ways, but a scream you’ll love her…I love her. His dad is quiet and usually has his head stuck in a technology magazine.

An enjoyable read of great friendships, fun filled with all the whirlwind ups and downs of teenagers coming of age. Couldn’t wait to get my hands on Book Two.

Reviewed by Teddy