Pinky Swear by Lynn Lorenz

Title: Pinky Swear
Author: Lynn Lorenz
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Length: 100 pages/25k words
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Blurb:

Lane and Matt have been best friends since they were ten years old. They’ve been through everything together—childhood adventures in their New Orleans uptown neighborhood, Lane’s stuttering, Matt’s alcoholic father, high school angst, and “coming out” in college. All through the years, they’d shared secrets and, using the powerful pinky swear, vowed to keep every one of them. But neither Lane nor Matt ever told each other his biggest secret—that they were in love with each other.

For Lane, Matt was everything he wasn’t—gorgeous, sexy and outgoing. He had a different boyfriend every week, and Lane couldn’t get a date, let alone the man of his dreams. For Matt, he could never measure up to Lane, never be good enough for the man who set his heart on fire. Neither wanted to risk the deep friendship they shared to find out if the other felt more. Yet after one night of incredible drunken passion, Lane woke up to find Matt gone and a note saying he was sorry and not much more.

Four years later and half a country separated, one fateful storm, Hurricane Katrina, brings the old friends together again. But four years is a long time, and Lane’s grown up, matured, more sure of himself than ever. When Matt rushes home from the West Coast to find the friend he loved and fled, he discovers not just the man he left behind, but a man who knows what he wants—a best friend and a lover who won’t run, who’ll stay forever.

Now, it’s up to Matt to make the pinky swear…

Review:

Pinky Swear is a cute best friends turned lovers story that stays light and easy, even when it’s attempting to be more serious and intense. The writing is pretty typical of the author, although not one of her best. It’s a decent, lightening quick read that has some likable characters and set in New Orleans. Despite some heavy issues, none of these ever felt intense or demanding but instead stayed easy and mostly glossed over pretty fast. As a short read, its fun with some colorful dialogue and a fabulous older gay mentor at the end but nothing particularly memorable or one to keep unfortunately.

The summary is pretty in depth and lengthy given the novella is only 25k words long and it actually gives more background than some of the scenes themselves. The story jumps in time frequently as it starts with a truly inspired scene between a young stuttering Lane and his best friend, Matt. Matt has stolen a leg bone from the cemetery and Lane is worried about getting bone germs. The cute, funny, and charming scene sets up the tone for the two boys with Matt as the more outgoing one of the duo with Lane happily following. After that, the story jumps ahead several years to Matt coming out and getting kicked out of his abusive fathers’ home only to be taken in by Lane parents. Then it jumps again to college and a fateful night and finally another jump to years later during Hurricane Katrina.

Told mostly from Lane’s third person perspective, the narrative is decent with some humorous and touching scenes but all the leaps in time leave some obvious holes. The timeline feels a little fuzzy with the dates and ages afforded to the boys, not always matching up and some issues are dropped entirely. For example Lane has a stutter all through college but then in the final time leap, this is missing with no mention of it. I assume he grew out of it but the stutter is so prominent for most of the book, the omission is somewhat awkward. Additionally Lane comments that his parents think Matt is too common and he’s not allowed to be friends with him as a boy, which makes their later acceptance of Matt as a family member and son odd. There is no mention about how the parents went from disapproving of Matt to taking him in, putting him through college, and accepting him as a son. I can assume most of this is due to Matt being kicked out of an abusive home but it’d be nice if the story had mentioned why rather than leave it as a guess.

Also the story does touch on Matt and Lane’s coming out but both of these and in fact Matt’s abusive background seem to go by incredibly quick. The story summarizes these events with a comment or two and moves on, which is the basis for most of the issues in the novella. While this lets the story fly by quickly, it also mutes any sort of intense or emotional impact. These issues brought up are weighty but treated somewhat too easily. Abuse, neglect, and even Matt’s betrayal of Lane are all dealt with somewhat easily and offhand. This isn’t bad but it keeps the story a lot lighter than you’d expect. The end resolution between Matt and Lane is equally as light, without any real angst as the two instantly forgive and life happily ever after.

The city of New Orleans is a nice addition and one that is always wonderful to see included, especially during the time of Katrina. The writing lacks some descriptive nature and tends to tell rather than show so the real flavor, taste, texture, and unique atmosphere that is New Orleans never really comes across. There are a few comments about the situation but the real fear and worry of the time is also muted and very subdued. It’s again handled easily and lightly with a few mentions here and there. The pace and writing kept me off balance since a lot of the situations and issues brought up would seem to be intense and involved yet the light tone glossed over them quickly each time, so I could never really get into the tone of the story.

Some of the dialogue is really funny with great touches and the older man, Sebastian, is simply fabulous. From his wardrobe to his past to great advice, he’s a character I wish had been included more. The novella as a whole felt like it could have been fleshed out at several spots and made into a pretty effective, memorable story but instead remains a bit empty and light. Again that’s not bad if it’s what you’re looking for and fans of the author are likely to enjoy it regardless, but it failed to really hit the perfect note for me. As always since this is just my opinion, check it out and see for yourself.