I was recently sent an ARC copy of Jack Of Hearts (and other parts) by the wonderful Lauren from Youtube channel She Is Such A Lauren and The tag line on the front was enough to make me want to dive straight in! I subsequently pushed it to the top of my TBR pile and today I’m sharing my thoughts on this newly released book.
About The Book
‘My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it’s going to be weird for everyone’s first time, though.’
Meet Jack Rothman. He’s seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys – sometimes all at the same time.
His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, ‘it could be worse’.
He doesn’t actually expect that to come true.
But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he’s been getting take a turn for the creepy.
Jack’s secret admirer knows everything: where he’s hanging out, who he’s sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They want him to curb his sexuality, or they’ll force him.
As the pressure mounts, Jack must unmask his stalker before their obsession becomes genuinely dangerous…
Review
Jack is out, proud and living his best life filled with partying and hookups. Unfortunately his popularity and ‘out there’ behaviour raises a few eyebrows at school and he often finds himself at the centre of wildly exaggerated rumours, which he simply brushes off. That is until he discovers a carefully folded origami note in his locker which becomes the catalyst for a prolonged attack from an unknown stalker.
With his online sex advice column for best friend Jenna’s blog appearing to be the reason for this unwanted attention, Jack and his friends must work together to try and discover Jack’s ‘admirer’ before things take a more sinister turn.
This book offers a refreshingly honest take on teenage sex that all teens (and parents) would benefit from reading. Whilst some may consider the gay sex detail in this book as explicit, in my opinion it’s no different to other YA books that discuss ‘straight’ sex as openly. I absolutely adore the diversity of the characters in this book with Jack definitely becoming my favourite very quickly.
Jack is such a relateable character and I felt his sex advice column offered important messages about safe sex, being comfortable in your own skin plus dealing with the pressure to have sex which are all perfectly pitched at the YA target market. The book also deals with other important topics, breaking down the walls when it comes to homophobia and gender stereotypes, which are real issues that face the LGBT community every day. By bringing these issues into the spotlight it allows discussion about loving who you are and feeling comfortable in your own skin and as a Mum of three kids I find this such an encouraging message and I’ll certainly be urging my teens to read this book too.
Whilst my review so far has talked about the sexual and queer aspects of this novel there is much more to the story with an amazing mystery thriller being the main focus. Having read a few reviews before I leapt in I was expecting to be able to pinpoint ‘whodunnit’ from an early stage, but I was surprised to find out who the stalker was thanks to the many clues and hints throwing me off the scent along the way!
The story is fast paced and kept me engaged throughout, with me whizzing through to finish it in less than a day! There are so many elements all wrapped up in this relatively short book; it’s full of laughter, fear and friendship all played out alongside a heap of teenage hormones that combine to make an absolutely fabulous read!
Jack Of Hearts (and other parts) is available to purchase from Amazon*
Fraser’s Fun House 