Book Review: Make em Laugh by Vikkie Moule

Make 'em Laugh
by Vikkie Moule
M/M Contemporary
5 Stars

Love is the cosmic joke of which we are all the butt.

Gregory firmly believed this and in his fifteen years of professional stand-up comedy he had seen nothing to the contrary. Then Jacob came along. Jacob, with his dimples, his abs and his dreams of becoming a social justice lawyer, was more than Gregory Vannozzo had ever bargained for.

Jacob Mackay was young, qualified, and ready to shoot for the stars, ready to do his family proud, ready to make the world a better place. The only problem was, he wasn’t ready for Gregory.

Love, life, sarcasm and chocolate fondue all take their place in a story that starts when a stand-up comic walks into a bar.

Review:

This was a wonderful, sweet slice of life book which tackles, love, life, laughter, chocolate and more, and not necessarily in that order.

Gregory is estranged from most of his family since he came out as bisexual as a teenager and has had so many terrible relationships in his past that they become part of his stand-up routine. He's not really looking for anything when he starts bantering with Jacob, the hot young barman at the club he's performing in.

Jacob has just finished law school and is preparing for his bar exam, and holding down two jobs to help with expenses and he is not looking for a relationship at the moment, his plate is full enough as it is. But Gregory's jokes amuse him and Jacob decides to go outside his comfort zone for once and gives Gregory his number.

The rest as they say, is history. Or not quite, for the course of true love never runs smooth, at least not in books. Gregory is prone to bouts of depression, and pushes everyone away, including Gregory when he gets into one of his moods.

Jacob is stressed about his upcoming exam, worried about disappointing his family, with a protective older foster-brother who is keen to know Gregory's "intentions".

The book was romantic without being sappy, funny without being cheesy and I just adored Gregory and Jacob. They seem very well suited. I think Gregory has the same sense of humour as my husband: one scene had Jacob and Gregory at a post art gallery, where Gregory was making sarcastic comments about all of the works on display and they got thrown out, I could well imagine that happening with my husband. So too with the way Gregory answers the phone. It's never something as simple as "Hello" for Gregory, but something funny.

Not to say everything was sweetness and light, there was a bit of angst in parts, but that just made the sweeter parts all the sweeter for what the characters had been through before. I'd say the heat level was low to medium, there was one explicit scene, but most were fade to black. I would have preferred a bit less fade to black, but maybe that's just me ;)

All in all a very enjoyable read.