Review: Brian D. Kennedy's debut novel is a heartwarming, funny, near-perfect m/m love story that begins when a 17-year-old gay country singer in Illinois, Emmett Maguire, takes the first steps to his music career when he lands a summer job at Wanda World, a theme park honoring (and owned by) country-western singing legend Wanda Jean Stubbs (think Dollywood/Dolly Parton, respectively). Traveling to Jackson Hole, Tennessee, Emmett learns right off that show biz isn't all glamour and autographs - never more so then when, dressed as a donkey's ass, he literally runs into tall, blond, well-built drink of water Luke Barnes, who appears the epitome of country-western singing hunk.
The irony is that Luke Barnes can't stand country music. He's the grandson of Verna Rose, a former country singer and and best friend to none other than Wanda Jean Stubbs herself, who left the business and the public eye many years before in the face of a huge scandal, finally passing away in obscurity. Luke has a big chip on his shoulder for the industry over his grandmother, whom he dearly loved, and when his mother's medical bills force him to find work in a restaurant at Wanda World (Luke's first step to his own dream of becoming a chef), that and Luke's deeply-closeted homosexuality make for an unhappy, stressed and sullen young man.
When Emmett and Luke cross paths again, Luke can't deny a spark. Emmett, for his part, is already so infatuated he's written a love song about Luke. But can a closeted, goodhearted hunk in denim ad flannel, forced to grow up fast (and deal with the stress that entails) and who can't stand country music, and a young, talented singer-songwriter who wants to be country music's first gay superstar, even build a friendship - let alone something more? And might Wanda Jean - Emmett's lifelong idol - really show up, unannounced, at one of the Wanda World shows he performs in, as she's sometimes wont to do?
A Little Bit Country quickly made it to my list of top ten favorite reads of 2022 - and may well be the best, most "fuzzy" romance I've ever read, period. Emmett, Luke, even the supporting characters come off a hundred percent authentic - even Wanda Jean Stubbs, when we do meet her, could have been easily over-done into caricature, but Kennedy makes her as warm and human as the others people populating this charming world. Everything here works; the romance grows organically from the characters and who they are, both humor and pathos perfectly balanced, and I particularly loved how the romance was part of the book but not 100% its focus; Emmett, Luke and company have lives and desires and issues outside the romance, and all are intertwined ... just as in real life (yet another reason the book is so terrific). You'll laugh out loud - you'll shed a tear or two at the end - you'll learn to appreciate big hair - this one has it all. A beautiful, beautifully-written and insanely sweet story ... and if this is his debut, all I can say is that Brian D. Kennedy has one heck of a career ahead of him. 5/5 stars
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