It’s funny how love nails you when you least expect it.Dilly Jones has pretty much given up on romance ever finding him. Boz Jenkins, his neighbor, is recently out of a bad relationship but has definitely noticed the cutie across the street. When Dilly drops a bag of donuts on the sidewalk, it sets a chain of events into motion. And suddenly both men’s hearts are lost.But Boz’s ex is still … ex is still hanging around, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get Boz back.With a brand-new romance gearing up to knock their socks off, the last thing Dilly and Boz expect is to get tangled up in a stranger’s murder. Or to find themselves fighting for their lives.
Just as they finally find happiness, their love for each other becomes the thing that threatens them the most.
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John Inman wrote a little jewel …again.
Dilly and Boz are adorable, sweet, kind with big hearts. They’re also broken in their own way and suffer of social anxiety among other things…both of them. How they can be together, when they almost have the inability to talk to stranger…. read the book and you’ll find out how Dilly and Boz seduced each other, how they became one.
I adored this book, It was so sweet and tender but also dark and heartbreaking.
John Inman gives us, not only Dilly and Boz point of view, but also the ones from the secondary characters. It was interesting, funny and heartbreaking. It did it brillantly with talent. The plot is about Dilly and Boz’s journey, how they became friends and lovers, but with Boz’s crazy ex-boyfriend in the background trying to have Boz back. It was a funny read sometimes, most of the times it was sweet with a little touch of poetry, but it was also an emotional read and I cried, I admit!
Like I said earlier, John Inman gave us a little jewel..again
Dilly and Boz are both a cute and yet dark at times story. The romance part between Dilly and Boz is sugary sweet. The part with Bobby Boz’s ex is dark. Where Dilly and Boz are meeting and falling in love, both are cute and clutzy and pet lovers, Bobby is a dope addict and getting meaner and more violent by the second which leads to Angel, the man Bobby is using to take out his frustrations on. Angel loves Bobby and takes what is given especially since he is an illegal. So we have one sweet romance going on and one dark one.
If you don’t like violence this story is not for you.
Puffer, Dilly’s boss is an old man that runs a 50’s record shop and smokes lots of weed. He is absolutely hilarious.
There are lots of fun characters here. The story has cute animals, sweet romance and angst. My only issue and the reason it didn’t get 5 stars is that Dilly and Boz were a bit too sweet and immature for there ages. To me, they came across as teenagers and not adults in their mid-twenties. Having said that I loved them.
3.5 stars-
This author writes unique, quirky characters so well, managing to provide depth and perspective that allows readers to connect with these unconventional personalities in a way I don’t often see elsewhere in this genre. Typically, the humor he writes into these books has me laughing out loud and smiling enough to make my cheeks hurt, so that’s precisely what I expected when I picked up Dilly and Boz. While I did get awkward but likable characters, the humor and characters’ eccentricities didn’t quite resonate with me this time.
I loved the idea of two fumbling men finding love and happiness together. I also really liked the plot setup of Dilly and Boz. The writing was smooth and the story intriguing and different, but I couldn’t help but feel something was missing. The heroes get together rather early on and their relationship is very low angst and full of sweetness. That in and of itself isn’t bad considering there was plenty of suspense and conflict thanks to the jealous ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, despite that element holding my attention, I never really fell for this couple, felt their chemistry, or found the humor in Dilly and Boz, so this ended up being a bit of a one note book for me. That said, I think those looking for an original storyline and characters that don’t fit the typical contemporary romance mold may very well enjoy Dilly and Boz.
*Trigger warning: This book does include depictions of violence, physical abuse to partners, rough and nonconsensual sex*
**Reviewed for Alpha Book Club*