The Manny Diaries
Sorry, I've been remiss in writing this one - finished it a bit ago and have been short on time, temper and warm socks. Anyway...readers are most familiar with Kilt's work in the short form. I've thoroughly enjoyed his inventive and often hilarious short stories and was curious how he would do in the long form. Some books, I think, should be approached in the spirit intended. This is a fun read - I smiled, I snickered, I guffawed out loud and had to clap a hand over my mouth because my family gave me odd looks. Are all the plot points perfect and does everything make sense? Well, no. In real life, I would hope someone would call social services. Courtney is a terrible mother who seems not at all concerned that her child was wandering around a museum in the company of a strange man and so on. But this is a romantic comedy - the genre allows for more oddities and suspensions of disbelief.
The little bits of disbelief moments didn't seriously interfere with my enjoyment of the story. Evan is just adorable - quirky, slightly flighty, often self-deprecating - and his flights of fancy are part of the charm. Many of the secondary characters were scene-stealers, not in a bad way, with Trini and Monette vying for favorite status. I do wish Liam had been a little better fleshed out. While I don't have an issue with a single POV first person narrative, I think in this case, the story loses a bit without Liam's internal dialogue. We never really understand why he's drawn to Evan, or why he would want more than just a fling with him.
It's not goofy, zany slapstick, though (thank goodness.) There are serious moments, some steamy hot scenes, a lovely look at a piece of Mayan mythology, and a truly dark black moment towards the end where I did worry about Evan. Comedy or no, his character is so engaging, it was hard not to worry.
I wasn't disappointed and I look forward to the next Kilt novel - I want to see where he takes us next.
