The Friend (Its Just Us Here #1)

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An asexual man meets a male model and slowly falls in love Mark, the model, has not been challenged in his life and is emotionally withdrawn He returns to Chicago in the hopes of reconnecting with his college friends, but everyone has moved on without him, starting families and growing up Chris, the writer, is socially awkward and introverted He actively tries to be as invisible as possible The two men meet one day in Chris favorite park and strike up a friendship Since this is written as a romance, you probably have a pretty good idea where the story goes from there You d be wrong Well and kinda right I m Chris and this is my story It s not a traditional romance This is my version of a Happily Ever After, which means Mark and I became great friends and that s it Mark and I end this first installment of my self portrait in a Queer Platonic Relationship There was cuddling and emotional closeness, but nothing remotely sexual at least not to my mind Mark obviously wantedand he would eventually get it, but this book, Book One of It s Just Us Here, would have been my perfect, ideal romance If you need banging and crazy monkey sex to keep your interest in a story, then jump in at Book Four of this self portrait The Lover Otherwise, come along for the ride and meet the man who would sweep me off my feet, Mark Wolff, one of the top ten most self absorbed men in the whole worldNOTE This book is a 95,000 word romantic self portrait featuring the beginnings of a queer relationship It is the first book of a trilogy, which is itself part of a larger trilogy Low heat for now I don t think we need trigger warnings for this book, but future installments might warrant them Maybe that can serve as enough of a warning Warning this book if full of life Best Read Books The Friend (Its Just Us Here #1) By Christopher X. Sullivan – kino-fada.fr 4 Hearts I admit that the thought of starting this really long and really ambitious autobiography was intimidating I had hesitated over The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here which is the skeleton of a planned 10 volume omnibus, but I didn t just want the outline If I was going to attempt this behemoth, I wanted every word, every detail, and not just a chapter here or a snippet there Actual books were on the horizon, and I was going to wait and see So I waited and I wasn t disappointed.T 4 Hearts I admit that the thought of starting this really long and really ambitious autobiography was intimidating I had hesitated over The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here which is the skeleton of a planned 10 volume omnibus, but I didn t just want the outline If I was going to attempt this behemoth, I wanted every word, every detail, and not just a chapter here or a snippet there Actual books were on the horizon, and I was going to wait and see So I waited and I wasn t disappointed.To be honest, you might think this is a weird story an odd, self indulgent endeavor and maybe it is, but it s also so very quirky and funny and real.Chr...Now LIVE onI m going to get very serious with this review I already said in The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here, that Chris s life story is affecting me deeply like a mirror has been opened into my own soul, but I never said why So I m going to share something very personal to show you just how important this book is for asexuals I will share this once and then never talk Now LIVE onI m going to get very serious with this review I already said in The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here, that Chris s life story is affecting me deeply like a mirror has been opened into my own soul, but I never said why So I m going to share something very personal to show you just how important this book is for asexuals I will share this once and then never talk about it again I used to see my life like a piano symphony Everyday I woke up to play my song over and over again, until the tune was flawless Every hurdle, every fear, every limitation was a broken note in my symphony I didn t like my song to be out of tune, and just like a piano player rehearsed those broken passages to perfection, I too came back again and again to my fears, and hurdles, and limitations until I pulverized them But I never knew what to do about my sexuality I never understood why I never looked at a man or a woman, or any human being for that matter and could never see them as a sexual partner I never understood why I nev...Full disclosure the following review will be mostly about me and my reaction to this book,than about the actual book The rating is ALL about me and my reaction to this book That sounded a lot less self absorbed in my head If you are looking for a rational assessment of this book, I wish you good luck in finding it, but you re in the wrong place You can scroll to the end for some links to good reviews, though.Short version this book gave me a book hangover WHILE I was reading it Did Full disclosure the following review will be mostly about me and my reaction to this book,than about the actual book The rating is ALL about me and my reaction to this book That sounded a lot less self absorbed in my head If you are looking for a rational assessment of this book, I wish you good luck in finding it, but you re in the wrong place You can scroll to the end for some links to good reviews, though.Short version this book gave me a book hangover WHILE I was reading it Did that ever happened to you I m alm...5 StarsI ll start off by linking my review forThe Book of Beginningswhich is where I started on my journey with Mark and Chris and became hooked Fangirling is probablyaccurate unapologetic shrug Warning This linked review goes well beyond spoilersish in nature when considering what this book focuses on The Friend but I feel that my review was mucheloquent well, as much as I can actually be when squeeing than what will take place in this review for the single installment 5 StarsI ll start off by linking my review forThe Book of Beginningswhich is where I started on my journey with Mark and Chris and became hooked Fangirling is probablyaccurate unapologetic shrug Warning This linked review goes well beyond spoilersish in nature when considering what this book focuses on The Friend but I feel that my review was mucheloquent well, as much as I can actually be when squeeing than what will take place in this review for the single installment of The Friend I m not going to walk through this book because the blurb does a great job of explaining exactly what to expect with this romantic self portrait My initial thoughts after reading this book were, did I really just read a little over 300 pages...The ultimate slow burn romance And I say that as highest possible praise Only it s a true love story with lots of humour, banter, genuine feelings and real people It glows, this story, the kind of inner glow two people starting to fall in love has Even though the main character Chris isn t interested in sex with anyone, there is an ongoing build up of friendship sparkles Whatever to call it, the chemistry is there and it s magical It builds oh so slowly at first, and builds, and builds The ultimate slow burn romance And I say that as highest possible praise Only it s a true love story with lots of humour, banter, genuine feelings and real people It glows, this story, the kind of inner glow two people starting to fall in love has Even though the main character Chris isn t interested in sex with anyone, there is an ongoing build up of friendship sparkles Whatever to call it, the chemistry is there and it s magical It builds oh so slowly at first, and builds, and builds aaaand I m not going to spoil what, or how things happen But things happen T...Reread I must ve read this book 3 times now in it s interity, also in segments, but I still marvel at things Original review If you already read The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here you might have some inkling of what this book is about On a fateful day, Chris and Mark were destined to meet, the stars aligned and Haha No DWhat happened is that Mark, theCOCKY modelsaw a guy after his morning run, sitting in a park talking to himself and thoughtHmm, this guy Reread I must ve read this book 3 times now in it s interity, also in segments, but I still marvel at things Original review If you already read The Book of Beginnings It s Just Us Here you might have some inkling of what this book is about On a fateful day, Chris and Mark were destined to meet, the stars aligned and Haha No DWhat happened is that Mark, theCOCKY modelsaw a guy after his morning run, sitting in a park talking to himself and thoughtHmm, this guy seems weird, I should ask what he s doing, he might appreciate the companyNOT Chris, the writer was doing his scheduled voice typing after his run in the park He didn t want any interruption, certainly not from an annoying, sweaty guyBut something s not right, he seems lost Imagine an intelligent, funny, quick witted, surefooted guy, Chris, who s perfec...I wanted to read just a few pages to see how I would feel about it, because I don t usually read memoires, but I ended up finishing it the same day.I found the story very engaging and I loved the way it was written Since it is a true story I won t make any comments other than say that I reall...This is unique and utterly personal.Tbh, it does feel a little bit like prying, even is it is obvious that Chris is putting his biographical love story out there for a reason.I m totally smitten With Chris and Mark With the story and the genuine writing And after book 1 I can t help wonde...3.5 stars I m glad this book is finally out A few of my GR friends have been actively helping the author get this book out I m happy to see they re credited in the book feeling proud of them I m happy to read a story that doesn t focus on sex In fact, there isn t any sex in this instalment And I m really happy to read about love and romance from an asexual person s POV Yay for representation This book introduced Chris and Mark and how they met and how their friendship developed According 3.5 stars I m glad this book is finally out A few of my GR friends have been actively helping the author get this book out I m happy to see they re credited in the book feeling proud of them I m happy to read a story that doesn t focus on sex In fact, there isn t any sex in this instalment And I m really happy to read about love and romance from an asexual person s POV Yay for representation This book introduced Chris and Mark and how they met and how their friendship developed According to the author, it s a real account of his relationshi... I only saw myself as the friend The good friend The friend that would rely on Mark like how flowers relied on the sun I could only hope that he didn t burn me. I won t give this book a rating because rating a memoir feels like rating someone s life which makes me deeply uncomfortable I have to say though that if this wasn t Christopher X Sullivan s life story I would have given it at least 4.5.The Friend is the first of a 10 book memoir that tells the love story of Chris and Mark, with al I only saw myself as the friend The good friend The friend that would rely on Mark like how flowers relied on the sun I could only hope that he didn t burn me. I won t give this book a rating because rating a memoir feels like rating someone s life which makes me deeply uncomfortable I have to say though that if this wasn t Christopher X Sullivan s life story I would have given it at least 4.5.The Friend is the first of a 10 book memoir that tells the love story of Chris and Mark, with all the hiccups, the hurt and...And there are those who think a romance book must have sex in it to be considered good Bah Bunch of fools There isn t even one sexual thing in The Friend and it s one of the best FUCKING ROMANCE BOOKS I ve read this year so far The writing is great, the flow is great, the characters are great and all 300 pages of it are absolutely fantastic I couldn t put it down and it made me feel things good things.And it s different So refreshing I love different Here, the different aspects come mos And there are those who think a romance book must have sex in it to be considered good Bah Bunch of fools There isn t even one sexual thing in The Friend and it s one of the best FUCKING ROMANCE BOOKS I ve read this year so far The writing is great, the flow is great, the characters are great and all 300 pages of it are absolutely fantastic I couldn t put it down and it made me feel things good things.And it s different So refreshing I love different Here, the different aspects come mostly from the POV the author chose to use Yes, it s first person, and many don t like that me included , but here it worked Why Because Sullivan took an alternative route and used an interactive technique to keep us very close to the characters He calls the reader out directly to pay attention to certain aspects of Chris and Mark s journeys and emphatically pleads for patience in just the right spots And I know many professionals out there, e...Edit IT S OUT m too excited to write something coherent but rest assured I LOVED THIS BOOK Chris has such a fun voice and I will never not laugh at someone saying Yuck or Eww when it comes to sexual issues We definitely needdiversity, and in M M asexual characters are still a rarity I had the privilege to read this book as a beta and I can t thank Chris enough for trusting my non English native butt with this precious book 2019 can t come s Edit IT S OUT m too excited to write something coherent but rest assured I LOVED THIS BOOK Chris has such a fun voice and I will never not laugh at someone saying Yuck or Eww when it comes to sexual issues We definitely needdiversity, and in M M asexual characters are still a rarity I had the privilege to read this book as a beta and I can t...

The Friend (Its Just Us Here #1)
  • English
  • 17 May 2018
  • Kindle Edition
  • 309 pages
  • Christopher X. Sullivan
  • The Friend (Its Just Us Here #1)