How could I not adore Nine? ( )

I wasn't sure the author would be able to pull off this plot, but she did. Nine's family annoyed me (I have firm boundaries and his are trampled), but they goad him forward. Cooper's attitude could've been bad but was instead complex. The way they affect each other changed more than they realize--until forced to face it. I got very emotional when I was supposed to, and the end is great. About the only thing I wish was different is the collection of letters the author chose as Nine's version of a grunt or scoff. In my head it's garbled and distracting. Other than that, highly recommended. ( )

Say You’ll Be Nine is the story of Nine, aka Isaac, a craftsman, and Cooper a wanna be actor. It’s told in first person from both Nine and Cooper’s povs.



I’m going to discuss a bit of the plot, characters and book cover, before I talk about the writing itself.

First the book cover. I always rate the cover as part of the review, because it counts as presentation. For this book, the cover model doesn’t match Nine. He doesn’t look anywhere near as built or rugged as Nine and he doesn’t have long hair like Nine. The cover model looks like a generic guy slapped on the cover. This cover is not the best for this book because it doesn’t represent Nine in any way.

The book blurb is a bit vague about the plot so I’ll explain a bit more. Nine is a craftsman/woodsman and works at a hardware store in a small town. He posts YouTube videos explaining home repair and building projects, as well as gardening videos. He’s contacted by a large supply company about producing his videos on a wider scale for this company and they will sponsor the videos. They want to draw in the LGBTQ crowd for their products, and they’d like it if he had someone help him, preferably a boyfriend. Nine doesn’t have a boyfriend, but says he’ll consider it. He doesn’t know anyone who is gay until his older brother suggests Cooper, and maybe they can pretend to be boyfriends. Cooper is his brother’s best friend and Nine has had a crush on him since his teens. But he also considers Cooper a snob and high maintenance. Cooper has moved to Los Angeles to find fame as an actor, only it’s not working out. When his friend calls him about Nine needing someone to help make the videos and pretend to be Nine’s boyfriend, Cooper accepts because he needs the money to help his twin brother. He remembers Nine as sulky and not much of a talker. And that’s how Nine and Cooper end up together.

The author did a good job of creating distinct personalities for Cooper and Nine. Nine is the nineth child. They all have nicknames based on their special quality, but everyone just called Isaac, Nine, because they didn’t think anything was special about him other than he was very helpful and dependable. Nine is used to helping, hiding in the shadows while his siblings fought for attention, and he prefers being forgotten. Nine is also re-evaluating who he’s attracted to and dislikes labeling himself, but at the same time he is trying to find a label for himself that makes sense to him. Cooper is a non-stop talker, and hyper, and had no knowledge of repair or building anything. He ends up doing most of the video shoots and setting up the media. Nine just wants to do his work like he usually would and not have to talk on camera or get attention. When Cooper meets Nine, he is stunned by the hunky man Nine has turned into. He immediately wants to jump him, but Nine isn’t happy to see him, so they start out on rocky footing. But they try the pretend boyfriend act and it eventually leads to closer contact until they are actually in a relationship. Sadly, the series they are recording has a deadline and Cooper will have to return to LA. The conflict is how Nine can’t ask for help or what he wants from Cooper. He’s always guessing what Cooper wants and putting Cooper’s desires ahead of his own so that Cooper can be happy while Nine is not. Cooper isn’t quite ready to give up on his dream of fame. They end up going separate ways for a while. What I did like was that Cooper often called Nine, Isaac. Making him distinct as a person instead of just a number in a sea of siblings. Both men showed good character growth which I liked. I could believe in Nine and Cooper as a couple.

I liked the plot of this book, however saying that, there are times when it dragged. For instance, the beginning chapter opens with Nine talking. His monologue is long and repetitive and starts with him at the hardware store. He talks about his family, who’s in it, their birth order and their qualities. He talks about his homelife and his work and the customers at work. It’s a long and tedious chapter and I was quite bored, almost to the point of putting the book down. I wondered if the whole story was going to be like that. There is no meet-cute between Cooper and Nine in the first chapter. I think they don’t meet until the middle of chapter three which is a long time to wait before the couple get together. It shouldn’t take that long even though mention of knowing Cooper when Nine was younger, is used as a memory. That doesn’t count. The pace of the story moved along well after the two met at the cabin to be renovated, but took a sudden slow down when Cooper got a phone call about returning to LA for a movie test. The plot then fragmented as scenes shifted between Nine renovating, and Cooper in LA. I started to lose interest in the story and put it aside a few times because of this. I wasn’t fond of the grand gesture scene at the end. I’ve read quite a few of these types of scenes in stories and this one didn’t work as well as it could’ve. Yes, it was dramatic, but I don’t feel it was Nine’s place to be willing to sacrifice his whole life, and who he was to live in a city where he knew he wouldn’t be happy. He was always giving so much to everyone else, why did he have to give up his way of life for Cooper? I think it was Cooper who should’ve made the grand gesture. Yes, he did buy a plane ticket back to Nine and Cooper came to the realization of what he really wanted to do. But I wasn’t satisfied with the grand gesture moment it felt contrived. The ending HEA moment however, was cute and worked well.

Overall, Nine and Cooper had distinct personalities and I could believe in them as a couple. The pace of the story was erratic and the opening chapters had too much monologue so that I found the story boring until Nine and Cooper met. Because the story’s pace fluctuates a lot, but still has interesting characters, I’m giving Say You’ll Be Nine, 4 Stars.

( )

I enjoyed this fun, light, gay-for-you romance. This is much less angsty than I expected considering the seriously ill brother, conservative family, and incompatible career goals tropes. 3.5 stars rounded up. ( )

This is adorable.
You should buy it.
I'll post a proper review later.

ETA
This was absolutely adorable. Perfectly romantic, fun, heartwarming, and heartbreaking too.
I loved Nine, a lumberjack of a man who does everything to make other people happy, even at the expense of his own happiness. His easy acceptance of his attraction to Cooper was lovely; there was no angst about loving a man just Nine giving himself over to the experience, aligning it with what he'd already considered about himself.
Highly recommended. And I'm off to add the audio to my wishlist. I'll be revisiting this one for sure. ( )