Review: Death of a Bachelor, M.A. Hinkle

Despite the title, the only person who dies in this is a married woman (and although a catalyst she's not a Refridgerator Wife). Nor is it a mystery story. Nor is anyone even employing death metaphors. Weird title. Nevertheless, I recieved a Netgalley ARC of this in exchange for a review, and (dun dun dun)...:

I loved this book! It filled a warm fuzzy spot in my heart, for a while. In brief, Our Heroes are Damon, a recent widower with teenage son, a passion for cooking, and no idea how to function without his wife. And Cathal, said late wife’s best friend, who is anti-social by nature and an asshole as a defense mechanism, but committed to helping Damon in his grief. Cathal’s motivations are partly a promise he made to his best friend, and partly investment in Felix, the teenage son, whose theatrical endeavours and hopeless crushes serve as a sweetener in the gloomy grief and angst plot. Damon bakes his way back to life, Felix ends up with a happy ending (if not the one he expected), Cathal dispenses wisdom and avoids his feelings. All my favourite things, essentially.

I very nearly DNF’d this book in the first chapter, though - it features a particularly assholeish display of biphobic aggression, similar enough to kinds I have encountered myself that I was repelled. I ploughed on, because I /had/ signed up for ‘asshole to lover’ romance after all. I was pleasantly surprised to find Cathal apologising easily and the plot not revolving around ‘can he accept that bisexuals exist’. Not even an issue. I still have a grudge against that first scene, because Cathal’s assumption that he could ‘tell’ a bisexual by looking is never really challenged. But it’s a small issue in the overall scheme of things, especially given how rare bi protagonists are in m/m or f/f romance.

Other great points: interesting side characters, both among adults Damon encounters and Felix’s friends. As well as an Actual Bisexual, we get discussion of other identity categories, and Felix is charmingly straightforward and confident about approaching his sexuaity as a pick-and-mix personal blend rather than choosing one of several package deals. And Damon’s new hobby, elaborate baking and patisserie, is pretty well characterised, forms a solid sub-plot on its own, and provided me with an acceptable serving of Niche Information (most of which i knew, tbh, I was raised by a cake decorator, but it passes muster).