Review : The Other Half by Jess Whitecroft

Two guys each inherit half of an old, historic house in The Other Half.

Chris is a black and Jewish, liberal, bougie book editor from New York. Son-of-a-con-artist Jody is a mainly Armenian, pansexual stripper, and just started being a porn star.

Oh, and Chris is engaged to be married to gorgeous model, Sebastian. So, you know. He's got the hot boyfriend, steady job, lovely apartment thing going. Until it's gone. In a reaction to finding Sebastian once again cheating, Chris leaves the apartment to him and takes to the hills and the rambling, rotten house he just inherited in New Hampshire. Where Jody is already staying.

Jody and Chris have already met though, during the funeral for Chris' aunt who was Jody's friend Becca. Jody had wandered away from the narcissistic conversations held between people who didn't seem to care about Becca at all. He ended up upstairs in the master bedroom, smoking some of Becca's leftover medical marijuana. Chris showed up and spends a moment upset at Jody's pot smoking, before he's hanging puffing away too. An unexpected kiss puts a stop to that when it reminds Chris that he is engaged to be married and that he probably shouldn't be smoking and making out with someone else at his aunt's funeral. This makes the unexpected shared inheritance of a historic old house especially awkward.

“Of course I’d end up owning a house with the stranger I tongue-kissed while high at a funeral. It’s like the only possible outcome with me.”

Jody inherited 50% of the house and Chris inherited the other half. They decide to share the house and work on it together as they each try to survive their own issues. Chris is working on getting past his feelings for Sebastian, while Jody is trying to earn some money making porn with his friend Dawn and her strap-on, Mr. Sparkles.

There is a lot of unresolved sexual tension between Chris and Jody, especially when they think back to that kiss. It doesn't help that Jody spends a lot of time walking around naked. And then the gaps letting in cold, New Hampshire air get too much and the pair end up sharing a tent set up inside the house alongside one of the few working fireplaces.

“There,” he says. “That’s better. No kissing.” 

“Yeah. We’ll just cuddle.” 

“We’re not cuddling.” 

“Says you,” I say. “We are spooning.” 

I feel his breath warm on my ear. “We’re not. We’re huddling together for warmth. In a manly way, like polar explorers.” 

“Emphasis on the pole,” I say, wriggling my butt. “And it’s kind of hard to miss the manly part when you’re poking me in the ass with your boner.” 

He prods me with it on purpose. “You have one, too. I felt it before you rolled over.”
“It’s a dick, Chris. It doesn’t know the difference between sexy cuddling and manly huddling. We’re just going to have to accept that these things happen.”

Just pounds of UST. But Chris is trying to get over his ex and while he has a fairly decent reaction to sex work, it's still a bit tough for him to get past when he starts thinking about how his ex cheated on him and now his new beau is sleeping with other people. At least it's honest, but still not something he thinks he can handle.

In a teasing aside the pair kid about how Aunt Becca might have set this whole thing up to get them together since she really liked Jody and detested Sebastian. Then they realize that would mean they were being manipulated from beyond the grave by a Rebecca and the possibility of the house ending up burning to the ground and they get a little worried about comparing their story to a fictional one.

They may not be yuppies, but Jody and Chris manage to have a classic house monstrosity renovation like the movie, The Money Pit. The Money Pit is hilarious, and so is the renovation work in this book. I'll never get that scene with chairs sliding like they were on the deck of the Titanic out of my head. And the bed scene could have been from High Spirits it was so visually interesting. Chaos is never ending, but the boys deal with it.

“Paint thinner and weed,” he says. “The New Hampshire high life."

So, the pair get along. Trying to resist each, making porn, and fixing up the old house. Chris trying to pretend his real life in New York doesn't exist and that he's just going Walden Pond. Jody trying to get laid. If it was just the two of them things would work out. But as time passes, and they eventually start hooking up, the outside world starts knocking at their door.

Family gets all up in arms about their actions. Chris' father spends his time hanging with his almost-future-son-in-law, Sebastian, and psychoanalyzing what causes men to cheat as an excuse for why they both are cheaters. Chris' mom and sister are a bit upset that his sister didn't inherit the house along with Chris, and they are busy trying to figure out how to get him back to sanity and New York. Jack, Jody's father is looking for his next score and trying to figure out how to con his way into money.

And is it Elrond? Legolas? Zoolander? Elf-Prince Zoolander? No, it's pretty, blond model Sebastian is sitting in their shared apartment, still expecting Chris to get over this cheating episode too and get back together with him.

The house is getting worse instead of better and the number of liveable rooms dwindles quickly. Suspension of reality is taking a beating as Chris isn't bringing in any money and Jody isn't doing porn anymore.

Funny and clever and interesting scenes abound. But there are some aspects of the book that will make readers not want to finish.

There is a lot of cheating. Previously, Chris' beautiful, model boyfriend was at a fashion party where he did drugs and slept with someone else. Chris forgave him and they got engaged. They are planning their wedding when the bf starts acting strange and Chris feels like he's trying to encourage him to look at other guys. Chris acts like an old creep leering at an intern, then gets high and kisses Jody at the funeral. Chris feels guilty about it, even thinks about admitting it. Then he catches his bf cheating on him again and they break up.

There are on page sex scenes with other people. Purposefully vulgar ones. Jody almost getting sexually assaulted by a bachelorette party with a bottle of barbecue sauce. Jody really going to town as he is licking out Dawn and they talk about shoving an eggplant toy up her. Jody just generally being skanky. Chris getting all up on Sebastian against the coffee table. I'm not really sure what the purpose of the scenes were as they are just kinda gross and don't add anything to the story at all. Maybe someone told the writer there needs to be sex right away to capture the attention of those sorts of readers? Some of the sex scenes matter. Like having Chris go upstairs and ask Jody and Dawn to not make porn when there are tradesmen visiting because flakes of plaster are falling from the ceiling and their moans are loud. Other scenes just seem to be there because the author was trying to make the book more porn than romance novel.

This is also one of those books where they think wanting to bone someone means they are in love with them. Which is strange because of how often they think about or have sex with other people. Chris' best description of Sebastian is that he is beautiful. That Sebastian is beautiful is something Chris remarks upon over and over again. He looks at him, sees how beautiful he is, wants to have sex with him, then decides that means he loves him. Then he switches to Jody. The two barely have any story between them before Chris and Jody are telling each other 'I love yous' and screwing each other. Considering that Chris is most attracted to redheads I have to wonder if in the future he'll see one and suddenly think he is in love with someone else.

It's strange because coincidentally I recently read and reviewed a book where the bigger of the two MCs is the male of a male / female set of twins who work in the same field, just like this one, and in that book too there are constant sex and stoner scenes. Something Magic is about a tattoo artist werewolf and his book editor hipster mate who live in Seattle though and that book manages to have lots of sex scenes and scenes where they are getting high, yet comes across so much better. Perhaps it's because the scenes in this book just seem thrown in to make it more like porn while the scenes in that book mattered.

There is some harshness at the end that doesn't usually occur in romance novels. No neat little bow making everything better and everyone getting along. No character development to become better people. Jody doesn't lose his bitterness, instead he gets more cynical. Chris just goes with the flow like he always does. There is also a weird scene about the beauty of place that doesn't really match any of the rest of the book. It's just off.

So, this book won't appeal to everyone. But it is good in its own way if you have a higher tolerance for its issues or like this style of book. Maybe you like funny books with chaotic scenes and things going wrong. Maybe you want to read porn but want to pretend it's romance to make yourself feel better. Maybe you too loved The Money Pit and this book makes you happy just remembering that movie. It is funny, it is well written, it just happens to heavily favor sex and cheating.

Even though I didn't like a lot about the book, I liked it more than I didn't. The funny renovation scenes are worth skimming over the icky parts. I'll probably reread it in the future too.

The guys play off of each other well. Jody tends to be pushy and Chris is generally a pushover, so they work. Hopefully they get some therapy in the future because instead of most books that have their characters mature, those boys started with issues and only got more as time went on.

Abandoning the city and moving to the country is a great trope, and though it would have been good to have more country in the story, it was still good. Though why would you add a scene about the MC seeing his friend wearing a robe so short he can see her vagina after having just ridden an eggplant, and only do a mention of a possum getting in the house and scaring one of the main characters? If a possum is running around the house and scaring the MC, ou feature it! Not one single wild animal scene in the house was in the book. That old of a house and there weren't any scary spider or mouse scenes?!

So, there was a lot of disappointment in reading this book. Scenes that could contribute to the good parts of it were neglected to spend more time on junk. It would be hard to like the book if the premise wasn't so good. But it is, and city boys having to renovate a country house, and having to share that house with a stranger you kissed at a funeral is too funny not to like the book at least a bit.