Sixteen-year-old Jacob Smithson has a temper. He's picked on because he likes boys, and fighting gets him kicked out of public school. As a last re...
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Apr 25, 2010
Without Sin
by J. Tomas
Prizm Books
240 Pages
5 KISSES
Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Jacob Smithson has a temper. He's picked on because he likes boys, and fighting gets him kicked out of public school. As a last resort, his parents place him in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys.
At his first mass at St. Thomas he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they mee More...
by J. Tomas
Prizm Books
240 Pages
5 KISSES
Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Jacob Smithson has a temper. He's picked on because he likes boys, and fighting gets him kicked out of public school. As a last resort, his parents place him in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys.
At his first mass at St. Thomas he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they mee More...
Sep 11, 2010
YA Reads
rated it: 
I can’t make up my mind whether or not I liked this book. I read it a few days ago and I’ve been weighing up the pros and cons ever since. I think it’s probably safest to say that I’m sitting on the fence with this one. If you want to know my reasons, continue reading.
Con: Although Without Sin is narrated by two characters (something which I normally love), I couldn’t bring myself to feel any kind of attachment to either Jacob or Avery. Their “voices” were too similar for any real dist More...
Con: Although Without Sin is narrated by two characters (something which I normally love), I couldn’t bring myself to feel any kind of attachment to either Jacob or Avery. Their “voices” were too similar for any real dist More...
Aug 14, 2009
Jeff
rated it: 
Although Without Sin by J. Tomas is marketed as a Young Adult romance, there is nothing immature or even amateur about this story. The protagonists are teenagers, but the depth of their relationship is explored and described with adult-level precision, understanding, and compassion. The book is a compelling read, one that is so utterly raw and honest in its portrayal of first-love, that it is literaly breath-taking.
Jacob and Avery are respective sophomore and senior high school stud More...
Jacob and Avery are respective sophomore and senior high school stud More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jun 17, 2010
Tatiana
rated it:
"Without Sin" is first and foremost and story of truly falling in love with the one, that person that completes and makes you whole, and you can already see a happy lifetime of forever. Sounds like your typical teen romance novel, right? Well it is for all intents and purposes, but our two lovestruck teens are gay. So you say, what does it matter if they're gay? Sad to say that homophobia still persists in this new century, and that our modern day children are still prone to hateful an
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Mar 18, 2010
Lily
rated it: 
I read this book as my 'out of my comfort zone' read for Kris' M/M Rut Challenge. I haven't been interested in reading YA since I was young but I must admit I really liked this story.
Jacob and Avery are young guys attending Catholic boarding school and the development of their relationship from friends to boyfriends and then to lovers was very nicely written. The story flows well and although there is not a lot of character development in this story I liked the guys. They are pretty More...
Jacob and Avery are young guys attending Catholic boarding school and the development of their relationship from friends to boyfriends and then to lovers was very nicely written. The story flows well and although there is not a lot of character development in this story I liked the guys. They are pretty More...
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 06, 2010
Anne-claire
rated it: 
Oh my... This book was recommanded by a friend of mine, thus I had some expectations of it. Unfortunately I was disappointed and at times annoyed.
Almost all the sentences are made in the present tense, which give the effect of citing facts rather than telling a story.
So far the characters were superficially described. And Jacob deeply annoyed me: driven by lust (about 9/10 of what I read of the book) and responding by violence systematically with the sole (and repeated) j More...
Almost all the sentences are made in the present tense, which give the effect of citing facts rather than telling a story.
So far the characters were superficially described. And Jacob deeply annoyed me: driven by lust (about 9/10 of what I read of the book) and responding by violence systematically with the sole (and repeated) j More...
May 25, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
Without Sin is a young adult gay romance by J. M. Snyder writing as J. Thomas. It's a short, fast paced novel that covers the tumultuous first semester at an all boys boarding school.
Jacob is a tough kid who's been through a number of schools for his fighting. The best way to describe him is a young, hot headed and naive "Squash" Bernstein. As Squash explains in Victor Victoria: "...if you didn't want the guys to call you queer, you became a rough tough sonofabitchin' More...
Jacob is a tough kid who's been through a number of schools for his fighting. The best way to describe him is a young, hot headed and naive "Squash" Bernstein. As Squash explains in Victor Victoria: "...if you didn't want the guys to call you queer, you became a rough tough sonofabitchin' More...
Jun 13, 2010
Julia
rated it:
I'm having a hard time rating this book. I loved it and hated it at the same time. The writing style made me insane. The short sentences in present tense were grating and at times Jacob got on my nerves to the point of wanting to slap him. At the same time, though, the love story is sweet and endearing, the book is sexy without being overly erotic (not that I mind overly erotic in general) and several of the characters lovable.
I guess the pros outweigh the cons for me, so, despite my More...
I guess the pros outweigh the cons for me, so, despite my More...
Apr 18, 2010
Kassa
rated it:
Without Sin is a tightly written and beautifully told story about young love and the hardships of being different. With a well crafted premise and three dimensional characters, the story delivers a lovely romance that easily reminds of the difficulties of high school and the promise of first love. The romance fittingly ends on a hopeful and positive note, but still within the theme and character of the book. The author does a fabulous job of depicting realistic young adults as they struggle with
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Apr 08, 2010
Kris
rated it:
The Review:
Honesty from the outset~
It is true. The good reading fairies have been gracing me recently.
First things first~
When I found out that J M Snyder had started to write YA under the pseudonym J Tomas I immediately put up my hand for the book. I was even more intrigued when realised the book was being released by what is quickly becoming one of my favourite publishers, Prizm Books.
Do you remember about a week ago I wrote : "Je More...
Honesty from the outset~
It is true. The good reading fairies have been gracing me recently.
First things first~
When I found out that J M Snyder had started to write YA under the pseudonym J Tomas I immediately put up my hand for the book. I was even more intrigued when realised the book was being released by what is quickly becoming one of my favourite publishers, Prizm Books.
Do you remember about a week ago I wrote : "Je More...
Jul 21, 2009
Brenda (b)
rated it:
I liked it, I was surprised that I really did since it's not the type of story I'm used to reading. It's a young adult (YA) story, so it's not really aimed at me and that makes it feel awkward for me to rate it and comment on it. I read this one because J. Tomas is a pseudonym for J.M. Snyder (whose writing I like) and I saw an excerpt that made me curious about it. It's a sweet story about 2 teens discovering their feelings for each other and dealing with their fellow students' reactions to th
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Feb 23, 2010
The bad boy and the angel girl, all church and home... It's quite a classical plot, only that here, the angel girl is an angel boy, better the altar boy, and bad boy Jacob sees him the first day at the boarding school where he was sent due to one fight more in public school. Jacob is 16 years old and he wouldn't be a bad student if not for the fact that he picks up too more fight, above all when someone call him names since he likes boys. Jacob has not a problem with liking boys, he is well beyo
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Jun 24, 2009
J.M.
rated it:
This is my book, written under a pseudonym, so I'm not going to write a review.
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