Spring Fling

I've devoted three past blog posts to the first three books of a gay romance series, the Something Like... books by Jay Bell. Over the course of Something Like Summer, Something Like Winter, and Something Like Autumn, Bell explores a love triangle between three young men, each book from a different character's perspective. They skewed a bit Young Adult at times, but I generally enjoyed them. But there's one more season in the year, of course, and Bell obligingly provided a fourth book in the series for it.

Something Like Spring is both a break in the format and a slavish adherence to it. It picks up with a new character, Jason Grant, who did not appear in any of the three prior books. He is in his late teens as the story opens, and the story of his sexuality is different from what's come before. Mostly. Jason is in foster care, bouncing from family to family, and putting up emotional barriers for his own protection.

The character may be different, but the format is the same. Spring is divided into three sections, each with a time jump of years between, exactly as the first three books were. Spring is told entirely from the perspective of a single character, exactly as the first three books were. And then, about one-third of the way through the book, major characters from the first three resurface. It's hardly a surprise, I suppose -- and to Bell's credit, the book actually doesn't take a turn for the worse when it happens. The events of this new book are set after those of the three prior, propelling the story forward rather than revisiting its "greatest hits."

But as the book moves into the final act, its wheels settle firmly in the ruts carved by the earlier stories. Something Like Spring turns out to be the same formula reconstituted for a new character. Jason finds himself in a love triangle, torn between two men -- one who has treated him poorly in the past, and one the fates seem to be pushing him away from. There are subtle differences in the players, but it very much seems like a recasting of the same play, new performers taking on the same roles.

And something like Spring is not actually the last in the series. Bell found a new non-season-based naming scheme to continue on for many more books, no doubt continuing to shift perspectives within this new cast of characters. But while there were parts of Something Like Spring that I did like, I'm not sure I'm ready for another go on the same ride.

Put another way, I thought Something Like Spring was notably weaker than either of the three books before it, a B-. It was fine, though I am feeling like perhaps with so many other long-running series in my reading queue, this might be the point where I walk away from this one.