Sam Clover

You may notice that I rated this book kinda on the low end of ‘good’. At least that’s how I interpret three star ratings. But since most of my complaints are boring technical shit, I’m going to focus on what I liked about the book because I feel like this book is worth a read regardless.

A Hundred Thousand words is a solid romance about a young man, Tobias, in his early twenties getting involved with his best friend’s brother. A brother who has been tormenting and overshadowing his best friend their whole lives, so you can imagine this scenario leads to complications. It certainly follows through on that promise. What follows is a buttload of relationship drama, resurfacing past traumas, lots of discussions about feelings and dancing around difficult truths.

The characters in this are amazingly well done. They’re likable, flawed, and their dialogue and actions continue to be relatable and fairly natural throughout the story. I really enjoyed the complicated relationship dynamics and how they created something deep and intricate out of a fairly simple plot.

We don’t see a whole lot of Chris — the best friend — for most of the story, for obvious reasons. And though that lowkey feels like a wasted opportunity to show another side of Toby, it made sense for the story, and for that particular time in Toby’s life, being off at school, and all those messy complicated feelings for Chris’s brother, and Toby’s penchant for pushing people away.

It’s an easy read. And though some aspects of the story left me wanting, I enjoyed my time with Toby and Levi. They’re good together. And if you are into m/m romances with heaps of angst, I’d recommend this story in a heartbeat.

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