Serpentine Walls

Title:  Serpentine Walls

Author:  CJane Elliot

Publisher:  Dreamspinner Press

Length:  290 pages

Rating:  B List

Quad Shot of Love

Blurb:  Reeling from the news that his parents are divorcing, Pete Morgan starts his junior year at college cynical about love and commitment. Although his new openness to one-night stands does wonders for his sex life, fighting his romantic nature proves harder than he’d anticipated. He soon finds himself pining for a glamorous senior, Aidan, who doesn’t mind taking Pete to bed but shows no interest in commitment—at least not with Pete. And Pete’s attempt at a “friends-with-benefits” relationship with sophomore Jed leaves Pete feeling empty.

One bright spot in Pete’s year is Matthew, an easygoing graduate student who assists Pete in making his first film. Matthew has some baggage too, and has sworn off relationships and sex altogether, so Pete feels safe to enjoy their friendship. But he falls for Matthew anyway, not able to fight his growing conviction that Matthew is the perfect guy for him. Even if Pete can accept that he made a mistake when he turned his back on relationships, that doesn’t mean Matthew will feel the same. With a few life lessons under his belt, Pete’s ready to take a chance on love. As he finds the courage to bare his heart to Matthew, he can only hope that Matthew will take a chance with him.

Review:  This book is not your typical college boy book. It has more depth and character than most horny young boy meets another horny young boy and they live happy ever after.

In fact through most of the book there is a somber mood and quite a lot of dysfunction.

Pete’s life is feeling more chaotic than he would like. His family is in disarray, his schooling is involved and difficult and the last thing he wants is to fall in love. At least that is what he thinks. Pete is perfectly able to separate love and sex though..maybe. And he pursues the sex to ward off any feelings that get to be too much.

Matthew is perfect. A bit too perfect for me to fall for the mess that is Pete, but someone gets the perfect guy I guess. Matthew is the life of this theater crowd. He is the life of the party, the glue that holds all the friends together, is kind, gentle and overall a wonderful person. He has put distance though between himself and everyone else to heal and the unfortunate consequence is no one invests in him or spends any time getting to know this incredible person.

Their school friends love each other and hold each other up. I like most of the secondary characters and feel they give this story the depth it achieves. This story does a great job of showing how both old and new friends can add to your lives. From the family conflict and old playground friends speaking truth into Pete’s life, to the new people he allows to have influence on his decision making, was wonderfully done.

It is not a fast read, and it does have some frustrating sections. I didn’t like the abuse from one of the professors and the lack of action from those he abused. If you are looking for something more intelligent than your average college trope this is the book for you.

Reviewed By Beans