Dilly and Boz

4.5Score another victory for the #blurbswhatblurbs camp. This was my first John Inman book, though I've had my eye on him for quite a while, and based on this read it won't be my last. I chose this book solely based on the cover, quite beautiful IMO, and the title that led me to believe it was a gentle romance, which in a way it is, but it's also something deeper, and sometimes darker. Grittier.[b:Dilly and Boz 48224910 Dilly and Boz John Inman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569105611l/48224910.SY75.jpg 73158037]is the story of two unremarkable people, the kind who are maybe side characters in other books, but never protagonists. Dilbert ‘Dilly' Allan Jones is 5' 6”, 25 y.o., skinny, klutzy, miopic, has almost pathological anxiety, and he works as the sole clerk at the Retro Record Shoppe. He's as lonely & poor as a church mouse, having only his cat Grace for company, but yearns for even a spark of human contact. Bosley ‘Boz' Maurice Jenkins 27, is not much more physically imposing than Dilly, and has a painful recent past, but he's marginally better off because he's got a stable job as a waiter, has his little dog Leon, and despite intense shyness, is willing to risk going after what he wants, which thankfully is Dilly. When these two get together it's the beginning of a sweet, beautiful, and tender romance which makes you yearn to wrap them up in cotton wool and sprinkle fairy dust on their road to HEA. You never doubt the veracity of them as men falling in love, the scents, and tactility of their physical attraction is clearly, and to my utter delight, written from a male perspective. I loved it.Supporting characters to the Boz & Dilly show are Leonard ‘Puffer' Moran, Dilly's octogenarian boss who's rarely without a joint, and his equally, young-at-heart, girlfriend Estelle. They provide not only comic relief but a grounding in the real world, unencumbered by inhibitions or fears. I'd say they're a sound mirror for Dilly & Boz to imagine themselves into a future of joy. So why wasn't this a 5 star read for me? Read on.The other prominent character is Bobby Mayfield. Outwardly he's a poster boy for both gay & heterosexual paradigms of masculine male beauty: tall, stacked, and a former soldier. But currently he's a methhead, with a violent, and sadistic streak who also happens to be Boz's ex, and won't accept that the relationship is over. While he plots, schemes, and threatens to get Boz back he snorts meth in massive quantities and has the unsexiest sex with Angel, an undocumented Guatemalan young man, who deludes himself into believing that there's a future with Bobby. The author does a tremendous job depicting both of these characters and the downward spiral progression of their story, which is necessarily dark, but at some points I felt like it almost overwhelmed the romance part.Though intricately woven, they form a sort of unhappy marriage. Boz & Dilly's story is a refreshing and unexpectedly engaging romance between two ordinary guys with no billionaires, blinding beauties, (save for how the MCs see each other), or six-packs in sight. But the Bobby appearances shift it into suspense territory, and it just threw me off a bit. My other quibble is of the greedy variety. Dilly & Boz grew on me and I'd really like to know more about them. We know nothing of their families, where they came from, or where they're going, and they seem to have no friends. It's almost as if they just sprouted in situ. shrugRegardless of my minimal complaints I'd recommend this as a nice change from the common MM romances currently in vogue, and I'll absolutely be reading more from this author.