The Little Things in Love Review
The Little Things in Love by M.C. Roth | My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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The Little Things in Love by M.C. Roth
This was the first book I’ve read from this author, and I’m glad I read it. I enjoyed the book. The characters feel real, and I felt connected to them, even with the book being written primarily in 3rd person, which is harder to achieve.
Finding Love
This book is ultimately about finding out that one can love two people simultaneously and that one love does not diminish the importance of the other. Annan comes into Wallace and Elgin’s life at a low point, even if one of them doesn’t fully see the reality until it smacks them on the head. Together the three men create something beautiful, which provides Wallace with solace as he looks to a future he didn’t foresee, one where he ultimately leaves Elgin alone.
MCD is a Major No for Some
And there’s the snag, where some readers will come to a full stop, and it will be a tough call to decide to read The Little Things in Love. Why? Because it involves the death of a major character. There’s no way to review this book without making that very clear, because this is a trigger warning worth knowing from the start.
Poly Triad
The main characters start as a poly triad. One of them is sick and he dies. Many people can read MCD but I find any death in a book difficult, especially Main Character Death. So while I enjoyed the book, I am glad I was aware of this trigger and made the decision to continue on.
We Don’t Know Wallace
The author does a good job of keeping the reader from getting to know Wallace too much, I think for that reason, so we are not as attached to him as we are Elgin and Annan. But it is still a difficult thing, to read things from the pov of a character who you know is going to not make it to the end of the book.
So Wallace’s death isn’t super surprising, but the story revolves around the eventuality of his death. From a reader’s perspective, it is not hard to see that Wallace is sick. That doesn’t make it easier to deal with as he gets sicker and sicker, and the two men in his life do everything they can to make him comfortable and experience things he’s always wanted to experience. It’s bittersweet and sad.
Bucket List Trip
I think the highlight of the whole story for me was the sweet bucket list trip they all take in an RV and let Wallace see some of the things he always wanted to see. That was when the emotional element of his impending demise really got to me.
Annan, Elgin, and Wallace
I like the main characters a lot, even though I feel like parts of their characterization could have been better developed.
Annan
I have questions about why Annan would hide such a core part of his identity, setting himself up for failure with partners over and over again. Hiding something like what profession he works in, one he’s very passionate about, hiding it so completely that he perpetually makes bad matches with partners, doesn’t make sense. He would want partners who have similar interests. Right? That’s a normal way humans approach relationships, right?
And then, what’s more, why would Annan propose to a partner, multiple partners, out of the blue? This recurring joke was so confusing, I really did not understand why he would do that with partners who aren’t at the same level as him, or who don’t even know how passionate he is about his job. No one proposes just bam! Out of the blue, right? It’s not something people do. It doesn’t make sense to me why Annan would approach his relationships like this. One explanation could be if he maybe has autism. It isn’t explained that way though, nor does he have many other neurodivergent tendencies, so I had so many questions about why his character would be so bumbling about social cues, partner selection and love in general.
Elgin
Elgin is also a bit of a mystery. He and Wallace are rich, have a big old house and expensive cars. But is Elgin a businessman? An actor? When the main characters meet for the first time at a restaurant after Annan has a disasterous proposal rejection, it’s alluded to that Annan’s ex recognizes Elgin. But then that detail isn’t elaborated on, so I never came to to understand why the dude knew who he was. Then what Elgin actually does for a career is never explained.
Little Thing I DIDN’t Love: Vague Details
In fact that leads to my main complaint about this book, and it’s something that made reading it super frustrating. Everything, and I mean everything, about the background of this story is vague as hell.
What industry do the main characters work in? Except for Annan, who for whatever reason wants to hide that he is passionate about horses and works on a horse farm, what the other two characters do to make all the money they hvae is a mystery.
Yes, they work in business of some sort, but that is about as clear as mud. Is it investment, finance, tech, a factory, what? It’s never explained.
What’s more, I think it was a choice the author made to purposefully make all the background details extremely ambiguous. It’s like the story was written to be as vague as possible so readers could fill in the details they want. To me though, this was an extremely frustrating choice, if it really was a purposeful decision. Why do this? It made the story so much less solid and so much more confusing.
Wait, We’re in Canada?
I didn’t even understand that this story is set in Canada until late in the story when they travel and mention being in a province. Are they in Vancouver? Ontario? Quebec? Nova Scotia? Who knows. Nothing specific is ever locked down about the geographical setting, their jobs, their family background, nothing. And these are important details. Without them, the characters seem ephemeral, people without any backstory. And it made the setting too ambiguous to be enjoyable. “There was traffic in the city” is just too vague. All cities have traffic. Were there mountains in the distance? Are they on a tropical island? In Australia? Canada? Senegal? Lebanon? I just wish there were some details. Even if it was a made-up city, in a made-up place, that would better than being purposely ambiguous.
Enjoyable, with Nitpicks
Overall, I ended up enjoying The Little Things In Love, and thought it was well-written. But watch the triggers and be ready to fill in the gaps with whatever backstory you want, because the story doesn’t provide that at all.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
MM Romance Reviews
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