Title: Life, Over Easy
Author: K.A. Mitchell
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Contemporary M/M, Paranormal
Length: Novel (179 PDF pages)
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
Summary Review: Can two different men whose reasons for living have been taken away, ever find that one person who will make them whole again? John and Mason need each other or they may not survive.
THE BLURB
Watch that first step. It could turn your life upside down.
Fragments, Book 1
Until a fall ended his Olympic diving career, John Andrews lived for the seconds he spent in the air. Now he’s adrift on a college campus, grounded by paralyzing vertigo and double vision. Worse, he sees shimmering colors over everyone’s heads.
The last is hardest to ignore, and impossible when it comes to Mason. While sex with the hot, moody computer major gives John a rush as heady as diving, Mason’s the only person John’s ever seen surrounded by two distinct colors.
Mason feels like a stranger in his own life. His lover is dead, and he drowns his guilt in bourbon and sex—until John’s innocence reawakens the man he used to be. After Mason gives the young virgin a proper introduction to sex, he plans to send him on his way. But John sees too much to make things that easy.
For John, their connection is more than just sizzling sex, it’s something worth fighting for. The more he learns about the colors, though, the more he realizes the free-spirited Mason isn’t free at all. John doesn’t take second place to anyone—even the dead.
THE REVIEW
This book is, without a doubt, K.A’s hottest since Collision Course with Joey and Aaron, reviewed here and Diving in Deep, which I read over 2 years ago and will review later this month. I think it’s the author’s most complicated and imaginative love story because there are three people in the bed, except it’s not a menage because one of them is dead. Life, Over Easy is also the first book in a new series.
John Andrews is a 21 year old virgin, a former Olympic double gold medallist in diving, but now all he has is double vision. John’s life changed in a flash when he sustained a head injury while practising for the upcoming Olympics competitions, and his dreams of a repeat ended. Now, in addition to a brain injury and severe vertigo which sometimes requires him to use a cane, he has a new gift – the ability to read other people’s auras through the colours he sees above their heads. No longer is he able to watch a tennis match or drive, but he can tell if someone is lying because of the changing colours in their auras.
Mason is also damaged goods. He had been driving when his car skidded on ice almost a year ago and his passenger, his lover Alex, was killed. Now bourbon is his best friend. He is unable to move on with his life and wishes that he were dead instead of Alex because he feels guilty about his death, even though he was not to blame for the accident.
When they met at a student function John and Mason decided to get together because they each wanted the same thing – sex. Mason could not believe his luck when John told him that he was virgin territory except for an ex who used his mouth for oral sex but selfishly never reciprocated. John, who was still traumatized by his accident and treatment at the hands of his ex had decided to get on with his life, what was left of it anyway, and the first step was to lose his pesky virginity. He and Mason went to Mason’s house to do the deed but it seemed that alcohol and sex really don’t mix because Mason fell asleep in the middle of the fun part. The next morning John met Mason’s roommates and gained a few new friends, but Mason and John couldn’t work things out between them and John gave him up as a lost cause. A few men later, he and Mason hooked up and John succeeded in his quest to lose his virginity, but they kept rubbing each other the wrong way and broke up again. Then a strange incident took place which brought Mason back into his life with a vengeance, along with his dead boyfriend. Alex, Mason’s dead boyfriend who was stuck on earth, seemed very real and John realized very quickly that he was only a substitute in the game of love since Alex was Mr. Perfect who could do no wrong and his halo was firmly in place.
Life, Over Easy requires that you suspend disbelief because there is a ghost in this story and one of the protagonists has developed inhuman abilities as a result of an accident. If you can believe in the concept that when you lose an ability you gain another, then you will love this book. There are no weres or vamps or other paranormals here, just a human being with a sixth sense and extraordinary powers. I loved this book and the characters but the one problem I had was that John and Mason spent about 30% to 40% of their time apart as they tried to work out their own issues, so the relationship took a long time to jell.
The sex was steamy and hot and at times John and Mason rocked the house in more ways than one. The dialogue was very funny, even the dead guy who won’t stay dead was at times hilarious. John was probably the craziest character, with his weird ideas about sex. He was so naive he believed that gay guys only wore jocks because that’s all they wore in Internet porn, so when he went cock hunting that’s what he wore. 🙂 The prose was also vintage K.A – excellent.
The book has a large cast of characters including Mason’s roommates Lizzy, Kai and Carrie and I thought that the most unusual was Lizzy who was fabulous and not at all a fag hag. The other characters were all three dimensional especially Tyler, the man-whore who thought about sex first and last thing every day as well as every hour in between. I hope his story is next because, despite his lack of morals, he was quite sweet.
If you love angst, you will be in heaven because there’s so much of it in Life, Over Easy — anger, grief and hurt feelings, as John tried to deal with a life altering injury and being a substitute in someone’s life once again – first his dad, then his closeted ex, and now Mason who seemed unable to move on from the accident and Alex partly because of his guilt. Many forces had to align before the romance worked out for them.
K.A. Mitchell has a knack for creating great characters, bringing them to vibrant life, and making readers love them. Life, Over Easy is another ‘opposites attract’ theme but with a very different sub plot. I loved the book and I think you will too, although at times I wondered if Mason and John would ever resolve their differences, but did they ever, in grand style! Highly recommended.
I really like KA’s writing and this sounds so good Wave. I’m okay with ghosts and paranormal, and would definitely enjoy this. As you say, KA writes the best characters. Great review.
Hi TJ
She’s an excellent writer and I really enjoyed this story. As I said in the review, I wish there was more of John and Mason together, which would have made Life, Over Easy perfect! It’s still a wonderful story and I hope you read it.
This is on my TBB list……I do enjoy her stories and her humorous characters.
Am curious, though, what were the niggles for you that you didn’t rate it a 5 or 5+?
Hi Sherry
>>Am curious, though, what were the niggles for you that you didn’t rate it a 5 or 5+?<< I thought I mentioned it. It was the fact that they spent so much time apart in the book. The story itself was great -- I would just have loved to see them interact more together. However the big finish almost made up for that. 🙂 BTW, they really rocked the house!
…..you did mention, now that I’m more awake. Thanks!
I’ve got this one on my buy list and I’m looking forward to reading it. Love her writing. Great review, Wave! 🙂
Lily
I have read almost all of her books and I love them. She’s a terrific writer who has the ability to make you love her ‘damaged’ heroes.
K.A. Mitchell is one of my all-time favorite authors. I’ve enjoyed all the books by her I’ve read, but Collision Course is the best. That one is probably my favorite book ever.
This isn’t like her usual stuff at all, but it sounds so great! I really want to get this book now that I’ve read this excellent review.
I should probably go over to Samhain and buy it right away, because else I’ll just keep thinking about it. *lol*
T.T. Kove
I should tell you that there is a lot of sex in this book. I remember you said on another post that too much sex in M/M was a problem for you. Just saying. 🙂
I hope you do get the book because it’s quite different and I became quite fond of John.
Yes, I know. Standard K.A. that. 😀 I usually skip the sex scenes, or just browse quickly through them, as I mostly tend to do in every book I read. *lol*
I have to get it. This review has me really excited about the book. 😀
I just bought this book yesterday and I’m very curious to read it! Especially because all of the books by this author are good!
Good to see it got a good review too 😉 Good job on the review!
Hi Larissa
I fell in love with both characters – they were so damaged. John was my favourite because he was innocent in many ways due to the fact that he had lived his entire life as a recluse. I hope you like Life, Over Easy which I think is special.
It’s next on the list as soon as I finish a Caroll Lynne book!
You sold me on the auras, ha, ha! I find that aura thing fascinating. 🙂
Val
That synaesthesia was weird but eerie as well. I really did love this book and I hope that you do too. K.A. never ceases to surprise me, in a good way.
Believe it or not, this will be the first by her that I’ve read. I really am the slowest reader on the face of the planet. 😉
I’ll definitely be getting this one. Need to get shopping one of these days. I don’t mind ghosts as long as the ghost is not the love interest. That doesn’t usually work for me.
Tam
K.A. did a great job on the characters and I think you’ll fall in love with John especially. Mason is not bad either. 🙂
WANT!!!!
Want. Want. Want. Want. Want.
Er. Yeah. Will probably need to go and pick this up soonish O_O
Ally
I think you will need to BUY it. LOL
Where were you on Friday? All the young’uns were waiting for you. 🙂
EDJ, where else? Blech. And I’ve been kind of wiped out with pneumonia, which sucks big hairy donkey balls <_< Been pretty much going home, getting some writing done and conking out on codeine cough syrup. LOL. It's better now, but it was majorly awful for a while there. Was hacking up a lung the whole time I was at RWA, it was embarrassing!
Oh Ally
I’m so sorry to hear that. If you’re not feeling better soon I’ll send you a bottle of rum which will fix what ails you (or it will make you so out of it you won’t even know that you’re sick) 🙂
*Hugs*
Yay, rum! Thanks, hon, you’re the best 😀
**hugs**
Hm, KA Mitchell is a new-to-me author (yeah, shame on me 🙁 being a slow reader lots of already established authors are new-to-mes) and this sounds really good. I’ll put it on my TBB.
When I read your review I almost stopped when this aura thing appeared. Not that I don’t like that kind of stuff but I expected a contemp (didn’t pay attention to the genre information, heh). But you managed to convince me otherwise – the characters sound really interesting. So, mission accomplished, Wave. 😉
Lilli
K.A. has written a number of terrific books and you should also read Collision Course which I think is one of her best books. Be warned – there’s lots of sex in both books. 🙂
There is actually a medical condition called synaesthesia which is sometimes genetic and at other times it could be caused by brain trauma with a few of the symptoms that John has — not the 6th sense ones though. 🙂
Yes, “Collision Course”! Thanks for mentioning once again, I would have forgotten otherwise! I shall put that on my TBB, too. And I don’t mind the sex so much if the plot and characters live up to the amount of it, so to speak. 😉 But thanks for the warning anyway.
I actually don’t mind one protag being able to see other peoples’ auras cause I think I could accept the assumption that it’s possible without being “paranormal”. What initially bugged me when reading the review was the impression of the protag becoming paranormal thanks to the accident. Whatever. I think I’m rambling and don’t make any sense. *lol*
Lilli
The ‘paranormal’ tag was because of the the ghostly activity. 🙂
Wave wrote: “A few men later he had succeeded in his quest to get laid, except he can’t forget Mason”
You make it sound like his virginity went to a random, Wave. He did give it up to Mason, though, of course, not the night Mason fell asleep on him. I know that will make a difference to some people. 😉
I enjoyed this one very much. The synthesia was intriguing and very well described and nurtured here. It could have been disastrous–the author could have forgotten to describe the color of sounds half way through or done it inconsistently. I give Ms Mitchell high marks on that one.
Hi Budajsguy
Guess I should reword slightly.
I like the synaesthesia idea. As you said, it could have been disastrous if it wasn’t handled properly but K.A. pulled it off.
Glad you liked the book.
this book is aaamazing. went to her livejournal to read the first chapter and a piece of the second. niiiiice.
-kkm
a’ight, wave …
i read it – yay! and i think the story of self discovery and love is stronger for their time apart. the protags needed to truly grow on their own first before coming together. this is a 5 starer for me for sure…
:0)
-kkm
Hi kkm
I’m so glad you liked the story. Next to Collision Course it’s probably my favourite (tied with Diving in Deep) because I love the characters.