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katikatMark A. Roeder is well-known for his gay romances for teenagers. And "Do You Know That I Love You?" is no exception. It's a book about two boys, Ralph and Jordan, finding their way to each other but in their case, they have it even more difficult than your average high-school boys because Jordan is a rock star.
Ralph, a farm boy from Indiana, is completely smitten with Jordan, one of the three members - Ross and Kieran are the other two - of the boy group Phantom. And when this group gives a concert not far away from Ralph's hometown, he just has to see the group perform. And who would have thought that he would meet Jordan after the concert by chance? Or that Jordan would come looking for him when all of the jitter around the group becomes too much to handle? The boys share an unlikely romance and they don't have to fear just the reaction of Ralph's parents but that of Jordan's fans too...
This book is written from the 1st person POV, Ralph and Jordan take turns telling the story from their POV, each one chapter at a time. The book has a rather slow start and it takes some time before the boys even meet. The author often repeats phrases like "dream boy" and other word connections, sometimes even more than once in a paragraph which becomes rather obvious after a time. There were also some typos but not too many but it still feels rather like a self-publication, maybe that's why it costs so much (all Roeder's books are approximately 15 bucks for one 300 pages book).
There was also another thing that quite bothered me - and no, it wasn't the unlikeliness of the plot happening in the RL, really :D. It was the fact that even though the author tried to describe how the characters feel, it remained just that: a description. I just didn't feel these emotions, they seemed rather flat. It's really hard to describe. Only one emotional scene made my eyes tear and that was when a friend of Jordan's dad told him how Jordan's father committed suicide because the people around couldn't accept him being gay and that his boyfriend followed him shortly. That was really the only scene that made me truly sad. The rest feels rather two-dimensional.
But don't get me wrong, this IS a good book. I ordered the sequel "This Time Around" almost immediately, because I wanted to know how the story of Ralph and Jordan would continue. I just expected a bit more from this one. I would give it 3,5 stars out of five. According to the reviews, the sequel should be Roeder's best work, so we will see :)
Ralph, a farm boy from Indiana, is completely smitten with Jordan, one of the three members - Ross and Kieran are the other two - of the boy group Phantom. And when this group gives a concert not far away from Ralph's hometown, he just has to see the group perform. And who would have thought that he would meet Jordan after the concert by chance? Or that Jordan would come looking for him when all of the jitter around the group becomes too much to handle? The boys share an unlikely romance and they don't have to fear just the reaction of Ralph's parents but that of Jordan's fans too...
This book is written from the 1st person POV, Ralph and Jordan take turns telling the story from their POV, each one chapter at a time. The book has a rather slow start and it takes some time before the boys even meet. The author often repeats phrases like "dream boy" and other word connections, sometimes even more than once in a paragraph which becomes rather obvious after a time. There were also some typos but not too many but it still feels rather like a self-publication, maybe that's why it costs so much (all Roeder's books are approximately 15 bucks for one 300 pages book).
There was also another thing that quite bothered me - and no, it wasn't the unlikeliness of the plot happening in the RL, really :D. It was the fact that even though the author tried to describe how the characters feel, it remained just that: a description. I just didn't feel these emotions, they seemed rather flat. It's really hard to describe. Only one emotional scene made my eyes tear and that was when a friend of Jordan's dad told him how Jordan's father committed suicide because the people around couldn't accept him being gay and that his boyfriend followed him shortly. That was really the only scene that made me truly sad. The rest feels rather two-dimensional.
But don't get me wrong, this IS a good book. I ordered the sequel "This Time Around" almost immediately, because I wanted to know how the story of Ralph and Jordan would continue. I just expected a bit more from this one. I would give it 3,5 stars out of five. According to the reviews, the sequel should be Roeder's best work, so we will see :)
