Synopsis:

Will is in Bristol for a brand-new start. He’s got his outrageous flatmate, Emma, his job at the bookshop and he’s totally infatuated with Gus. A French Bulldog. An actual relationship with an actual man seems about as real as the science fiction novels Will stacks on shelves all day long. And then into his life walks Ben.

Ben is all the things Will isn’t: confident, charming (bordering on cocky), popular, a Jiu Jitsu champion, and generally deflecting life’s problems as easily as dodging a clumsy throw on the mat. Whereas Will comes out in a rash at the thought of public speaking, he’s been too nervous to try dating apps and he’s let his social life go stale since he moved to this big beautiful city.

What starts as an unfriendly rivalry grows into friendship and then blossoms into something more…and soon Will and Ben are bonding over their shared love of comic books and loaded burritos. Will feels like he can open up to Ben in a way he never has before. Except…there’s one truth Will doesn’t know how to share. How will Ben react if he knows? It’s time for Will to come out with it, even if it changes everything…because the most important person he needs to be true to is himself.

Review:

I decided to check out More Me with You as I was in desperate need of a quick and easy read. At under 3 three hours this book seemed like the perfect choice. I did like it but I wasn’t blown away. It was more of a palette cleanser and something I knew I could read and review quickly at a really busy time.

There are some cute moments in More Me with You but these don’t outshine the undertone of sadness throughout the whole book. Will spends so much of the book wishing he could be out loud and proud as a trans man and this leads to some pretty sad moments. A lot of the time his ‘transness’ seems to be the butt of the joke, which was a choice the author made. Will wasn’t out to anyone other than his family and best friend so there aren’t any hate crimes, don’t worry. It was more that the author would make awkward things happen to him that were supposed to be funny but Will never laughed along, he just felt embarrassed and it was a little depressing.

Also, this isn’t a negative but I did read the synopsis before starting the book so I was a little surprised to find that this story has a trans main character. This isn’t some big revelation you find out part way through the book, it’s actually one of the first things Will says, so I’m curious why it isn’t mentioned in the synopsis. 

I did really enjoy the budding friendship between Will and Ben though. I liked that they had a little history through Jiu Jitsu competitions and then having them meet properly while working in the same bookshop was really cute. However, I didn’t get romance vibes from them. Probably because this book is so short so there wasn’t really enough time to build their relationship to a realistic level. I’m all for queer people getting their happy ending though so good for them.

One thing I really need books to stop doing is assuming someone is straight just because they have a romantic history with someone of the opposite sex. You’d think a book with a trans and queer main character wouldn’t do this, but this actually seems to happen a lot in queer books. Will handled this pretty badly like it was Ben’s fault that he thought he was straight, not a good look.

The narration performance was pretty solid, I’m still not really a fan of single narrators doing multiple accents though. It was easy to differentiate who was talking though, which is great.

More Me with You was very much a middle of the road read for me. I wasn’t particularly blown away but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever listened to. I’m always up for more books with LGBTQIA+ representation but the world needs more queer books that are uplifting and joyful.

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