Title: Little Boy Lost, Book One: Enlightened
Author: J.P. Barnaby
Publisher: CreateSpace
Genre: YA, Coming of age, M/M
Length: Novel (216 pages); also ebook
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
THE BLURB
Little Boy Lost is the story of Brian McAllister, the boy next door.
Brian goes to school, does his homework, and helps his foster parents around the house. Brian also has a secret. He is in love with his best friend. In Crayford, Alabama being in love with another boy is the worst kind of sin.
In this first book, Enlightened, Brian and Jamie discover just how deep their emotional bond runs, and at what cost. From fumbling through their first sexual experiences to shrouding every aspect of their relationship from everyone in their lives, Brian and Jamie battle for the one thing that is truly theirs—love.
What will they do if their secret is discovered?
THE REVIEW
I discovered this self-published book through a link at Goodreads. Because young adult, coming-of-age stories are my guilty pleasure, I bought the book immediately after reading a sample. I’m glad I did because it’s very good.
The story opens with Brian in church with his best friend Jamie. Brian isn’t religious but Jamie’s family is; if Brian spends the night at Jamie’s house on Saturday, he goes to church with the family on Sunday. On this particular day, the pastor is giving an “All homosexuals will burn in hell!” sermon and Brian is terrified because he has come to the realization that he is gay and he is deeply in love with Jamie. However, the only person who knows these two facts is Brian—for the moment.
Told from Brian’s first person POV, the story covers a six month period during which Brian and Jamie come to understand and accept their feelings for each other and ultimately consummate their relationship. This process isn’t easy because they live in a very small, very conservative town where homophobic feelings are the norm. Jamie must deal with his religious upbringing and beliefs while Brian is a foster child who worries that one misstep on his part will result in a phone call to the state and a new family placement for him. Even so, they provide support for each other through their love.
The biggest strength of this book is the developing sexual relationship between the two boys, which is told very lovingly and tenderly. Their initial explorations, fumbling touches, then a first kiss:
It was everything a boy’s first kiss should be. Only…it wasn’t with a girl.
Just lovely.
The sex scenes are quite explicit—no fade to black here. At first I wondered if this was really a YA book then I remembered when I was fifteen, I was desperate to read anything about sex and usually all I got was a kiss. For a closeted, questioning young man living in a small town in the US (or anywhere, really) this book might just be what he needs to validate his feelings and tell him that it’s okay to fall in love with your best friend.
At first I thought that the depiction of Brian and Jamie’s fear about being found out—to the point of being slightly paranoid—was a little overdone. But then, I read about the high school in Alabama where the school board cancelled the prom rather than let two girls attend as a couple and I realized that maybe I have been living in my liberal northeast bubble a little too long. I am glad I don’t live in a town like Crayford, but I have to be honest and say that I probably don’t fully appreciate the struggles that LGBTQ youth go through growing up in an environment such as the one depicted in this story. This book was a bit of a reality check for me, in that regard.
I know that self-published books have a stigma of being poorly written and unedited. This book did not suffer from that problem and was very well done, in all respects. I have only one memory of a misused word (envelope instead of envelop) and the ebook formatting on my Kindle looked great.
This is advertised as a “serial novel” and it does have a great big, wide-open cliffhanger ending that might annoy some readers. I wasn’t expecting it but in the context of the story, it is a very realistic and believable and left me anxiously anticipating the next book. The author doesn’t provide any info on her website as to when that will be although at the end of Enlightened she does include a snippet of the forthcoming Abandoned. I hope it will be out soon. I am also curious about how many books are planned in the series.
All in all, highly recommended and worth seeking out. Because it is self-published it is not as widely available as many of the books reviewed here. However, you can buy a print version and a Kindle (ebook) version at Amazon. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle app for PC, Blackberry, iTouch/iPhone or Mac (just released yesterday!) and read the ebook on any of those devices. A little bit of a hassle, but worth it, in this case.
One final note: Brian and Jamie are 16 and 17 in the book (Brian has his seventeenth birthday late in the story). Some people would consider that underage and choose not to read this for that reason. Personally, I know that teenagers have sex and to try to deny that is foolish, but I offer this information in the interest of full disclosure.
Great review Leslie. Thanks for bringing this title to our attention. I might just give this one a try 🙂
Thanks, Will. It’s a very good book. I read it in one fell swoop, always a sign that I am really enjoying a story.
L
It sounds like a good one. Familiar concept, but i like that so no worries there. Going to put it on teh lista! 😉
Thanks for the review!
This sounds really good. It’s kind of a shame the author didn’t get published by PRIZM or one of those GBLT YA lines because that would have gotten the book perhaps more recognition. But if the sex is explicit that would make YA imprints leery even though, as you said, most teenagers are having a heck of lot more sex than I am. Anyway, there aren’t nearly enough good books for gay teens; we need to spread the word and support them. Excellent review, and the book goes in my TBR pile. Thanks.
Leslie, a great review, very insightful, thank you! 🙂
I’m always looking for good YA stories, especially with M/M context (and if it’s also quite angsty, it’s my book ;)), so this goes into my TBB immediately.
This one is angsty, Lilli. Based on that criteria, I think you will enjoy it.
L
Looks like I have to download Kindle app. *le sigh* Great review, Leslie, thanks!
Drat! “This title is not available for customers from your location in: Asia & Pacific”
Now, I really want to read the book! *sniff*
*reads Salina’s post* *sighs*
I bet it’s not available in the UK either, even if I downloaded the Kindle app. I’ve had this trouble before with books on Amazon.com only available to US addresses. Roll on the days of easy, convertible, worldwide downloads!!
Great review Leslie, I’ll go and search the author’s website for any other overseas options :).
The author’s email is at her website. I am going to send her a note, give her a link to this review and ask if she has any options for international readers. Thanks for letting me know about the problems.
L
Clare,
I downloaded the kindle app from amazondotcom and then the book. It read fine on my laptop and was easy to do.
tish
What a coincidence I was just wondering if there were any coming of age YA books for m/m. I really want to read this one despite the cliffhanger. Did you feel like this had okay HEA? I don’t want to be sobbing towards the end of the book or I’ll get eyeroll(s) from hubs.
Great review!!!!
I want to say this in a way as to not give away the ending….I believe that an HEA is in the cards for Brian and Jamie, but we haven’t gotten to that point at the end of this story. But hope is alive…
That said, you may be sobbing. Have tissues handy and hide your tears from your husband.
L
Looking forward to hear about this book being available for overseas readers Leslie. Maybe if it is self published we can buy directly from the writer with paypal?
It sounds like a very good read.
I hope there’s a positive response about availability overseas. I went looking for this yesterday on the author’s website, and was put off by the kindle only. I didn’t think to email him/her.
I have a Sony not a Kindle I wonder if this book will be availible in other ebook formats anytime soon?
Rachel, it appears that the website hasn’t been updated to reflect that the print version is out. Apparently the Kindle version came first.
Meanwhile for the international folks, I would suggest dropping the author a message and let her know of your interest and the limited availability. I know that would spur me into action!
L
It seems that the author’s website hasn’t been updated to reflect that the print version has been released. The Kindle version came out first. I found another link to buy the print version:
https://www.createspace.com/3424623
I don’t know if this will work for international customers or not.
I just saw a Twitter feed about this review on the author’s blog. Maybe she’ll drop in here and give us an update on how to obtain the book outside of the US. I haven’t received an answer to my email so far (but it hasn’t even been 24 hours).
L
First, thank you so much for taking a chance on the book, I’m really happy that you enjoyed it.
Enlightened is the first book in a six book series. The second book, Abandoned, will be out this summer.
I am working with other distribution sources to resolve your questions about other devices as well as international sales not available on Amazon.
Updates will be posted on my blog and Twitter as soon as I have a resolution.
http://blog.jpbarnaby.com
http://www.twitter.com/jpbarnaby
Again, thank you for reading –
J. P. Barnaby
Thanks for dropping in, J.P. Six books? Wow…something to look forward to. You can be sure I’ll be first in line to read Abandoned.
L
Amanda, I would suggest going to the author’s website and sending her a message, letting her know of your interest in other formats. I would imagine that is something she is thinking about.
L
Leslie,
Great review… I have a soft spot for YA books as well 🙂
I bought this on your reccomendation and found it a really good read.
Thanks and if you have anymore good YA books please pass them along.
tish
Tish
There are many YA recs on the Readers Favourite Gay Books on the site so if you are interested you can check those out.
Oh, my Tish, that was fast! Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I am reading another YA book right now and will probably have the review posted sometime this week. Keep an eye out…
L
Leslie
This sounds like a wonderful book. It seems to be quite explicit for a YA, but as you said, teenagers today need this type of information not fade to black.
Great review.
Thanks, Wave. It was a really good story. I enjoyed it a lot.
L
J.P. Barnaby got her start in fan fiction for a popular vampire series. I’ll leave you to guess which one. She has these books and another one called The Forbidden Room available on amazon.com and createspace.com. She has stated that the books should be available one each month for 6 months. That was a few months ago, so it may have changed.
I love this story. I’m a huge fan of coming of age and sexual identity stories.
Be sure to check out The Forbidden Room also. It’s about a college student who rents a room in a house and his landlord/roomate is a Dom. He becomes a sub for his roomie and they have a relationship with a female sub.
It’s very engaging and heartbreaking story. Even though there are some sad events and it ends on such sad note I know that the next story, A House of Cards, is an excellent read and has a happy resolution to the sad ending in The Forbidden Room.
TFR is the first of 3 books and is the only one available right now. A House of Cards should be out soon and then Community Service. Excellent series.
I have logged an issue with Amazon’s DTP support for the books not being available internationally. I received a response indicating that they should be, and that they hope to have the issue resolved within a few days.
For those that have asked for the books to be available for other readers, I have listed them on e-junkie. You will be able to pay for them using Paypal and download a .pdf (which will have an attached code).
I have tested e-junkie with a fan from New Zealand and so long as you have access to Paypal, you can download the .pdf.
Go to http://www.jpbarnaby.com/Little_Boy_Lost_Series.html for Enlightened.
Thank you so much for reading!
J.P. thanks for that update and thanks for the quick response to helping people have access to your book. Everyone…it really is worth reading. It’s a very sweet and tender love story, as I noted in my review.
L