Review: Nothing Serious by Jay Northcote

Mark O’Brien is finally being honest with himself. His relationship with Rachel is over and he’s moving out of the home they've shared for six years. They get along, but he can’t fix a relationship when the person he's with is the wrong gender.

Jamie Robertson, one of the removal men, is huge and ridiculously gorgeous, and Mark is smitten at first sight. When a cardboard box splits, revealing items of a personal nature that Mark never wanted anybody to see, he's mortified. But it sparks the start of a beautiful friendship with benefits.

As Jamie initiates Mark into the joys of gay sex, the two men get increasingly close and “nothing serious” turns into something rather important to both of them. But communication isn’t their strong point. Will either man ever find the courage to be honest about his feelings?

This is my third go around with Jay Northcote’s Nothing Serious and it charms me every time I read it. It’s a wonderful character driven romance and the author really excels at giving his MC’s full dimension and I get invested quickly into their stories. With the setup, the angst and miscommunication could easily go off the rails, but this is another thing the author excels at, stories with balance. The outcome isn’t tooooo easy, but it’s not unnecessary difficult either.

Mark and Jamie are true to themselves throughout, so for them to be anything less with one another wouldn’t have read genuinely and Nothing Serious is all about being genuine to itself. Sure, things may have been a little simple, especially for Mark, but I think he had already gone through so much struggle before we met him, so we got to see him embark on his new life. Even though he was ending his marriage, it was amicable and his new life seemed so hopeful in a realistic way.

Mark was excited to try his new life on for size, but he didn’t have a plan other than settling into his new flat as a single gay man and finally being able to be true to himself. Come moving day, Mark gets incredibly lucky in that one of his movers, Jamie, is a delicious hunk of man who is as sweet as he is easy on the eyes. And bonus! He’s gay and interested in teaching Mark the ways of gay sex. There really is no better meet/cute than the moment these two had when Mark’s box of sex toys busted open when Jamie picked it up. It was an awkwardly adorkable moment that was a precursor to the charm of the two of them together.

The evolution of their relationship was very sweet and swoon worthy. Having both points of view helped immensely so there was no “does he?” or “doesn’t he?”, I could just enjoy their interactions and watch them get closer and closer to couple-hood as the story progressed.

As always with a Jay Northcote story, two very deserving men received their HEA in a perfectly warm and fuzzy way. And while I’ve already read this story three times, I have a pretty strong feeling that I’ll read it again.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**