This Little Whatever

Nicole Forcine is a new author for me and I really enjoyed this book. The blurb does a good job of describing it but it's much more indepth than the description. The writing is very good, the characters are well developed and the story is entertaining. For me, one of the best things is that the sex doesn't overwhelm the story. It's there, it's good, but the story is the foremost thing.
The Little Whatever is a book that can stand alone; it wraps up the story of the two main characters nicely. However, the author leaves us with a secondary character who's begging to have his story told and I'm begging to read it.

This is a fantastic little story of a man recovering from poor self-esteem. He's in one of those situations where, somehow, you realize one day that wtf? has happened and you're not sure what to do with it. I believe the author did an absolutely wonderful job taking Jon through the realization that his best friend really wasn't what he'd thought. As a reader, I saw the warning signs and I wanted to take the MC and shake some sense into him and it would've been easy for the author to give us a chapter-long inner-dialogue about Jon's revelation, but the author made him walk that path of discovery one agonizing step at a time.
Sure, there's heavy drug use and omfg whatever, but we start off the story with Jon's foray into recovery -- he's already seeing a shrink for his sex/alcohol/self-esteem issues -- he already has a reason for doing so (his mother) -- he already has doubts about his life and the way he's living it -- he already had a first boyfriend -- he's ready for something more.
The novel is about the part of Jon's life where the people around him (his dance troop and best friend) are starting to see the changes Jon is making, from his decision to drink and party less, to his quest for someone to love. Like most normal people, Rachel doesn't take like change. From pretty much the moment she and Jon met, she's been the one calling the shots and, as you might expect, she doesn't like one bit that Jon is no longer following her blindly. Unfortunately for her, over the years her bossiness has turned into obsessive control and by the time the story takes place, she's unable to see Jon's growth as anything but a threat and she'll do whatever it takes to keep him under her thumb.
It's to the author's credit that Jon doesn't just drop everything the moment he meets Dean. The friendship he feels for Rachel is so strong, he doesn't want to believe the evidence and it takes a really jarring conversation with Rachel for him to finally let go and believe that she has changed.
The side-story with Patch is horrible, but in no way are any of the characters okay with it. Not even Rachel, who runs away and most likely continues that downward spiral. I thought that the last conversation between Rachel and Jon was very moving. It made me want to cheer and cry at the same time.
The only critiques I have are the scene with Dean at the party is not very clear -- just what happened to him? -- and that Dean is some kind of reclusive millionaire. I liked that he had his issues and I loved how well they were weaved into the story, but the cinderella story is just so cliche of the m/m genre, it was a little disappointing when compared to the wonderful writing, supporting characters, and overall plot.
As a whole, I absolutely enjoyed it. As someone familiar with the artsy folk life-style, I found the characters and situations believeable. The writing flowed well, there were no jarring moments where the characters suddenly knew something they didn't have reason to know, and the slow realization from Jon that Dean loved him was too beautiful for me to describe.