My review of The Book of Luke by Lovell Holder.

I really wanted to like this book, because in the blurb I saw similarities to my own The Big Race, an MM romance set against a reality TV background.

But sadly, it disappointed me.

Holder does a great job of  sending up reality TV, but unfortunately the episodic nature of the book and the huge cast of characters make it a tough read. 

We are following at least three distinct timelines-- season 1, season 2 (or maybe 3) and season 20, the present. Many of the chapters end in a cliffhanger-- something like "that was why X was dead." And then the author jumps back in time to when that happened. Often those earlier seasons have lots of characters who never recur, so knowing who to keep track of is difficult. 

The main characters are clearly drawn if sometimes unattractive or unappealing, and the ending is disappointing. The author clearly felt that by leaving a "lady or the tiger ending" -- Luke has to choose between two outcomes-- he was crafting a more "literary" work. Instead it left this reader feeling unsatisfied.