Let's Misbehave (Whit and Eddie #5) by Frank W. Butterfield

[Ulysses]

Let’s Misbehave (Whit and Eddie #5)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2019
Five stars

“Maybe we’re becoming more and more like Nick and Carter.”
“Maybe…”

There was a great payoff in this book, which is why I went the full five stars for it. There are two parallel story lines. The first is a birthday surprise for Eddie, which forces him to confront, emotionally and literally, his experience as an exchange student in Chile during his high school years. The second is an ongoing plot thread related to Whit’s NFL franchise, the San Antonio Matadors, and the local sports stadium. This is where Nick and Eddie have to face the world as an unorthodox couple – an older chubby bear and his young evangelical Christian jock husband. Smoke on that one for a moment. There is not a lot of precedent for this even in the world of gay romance novels.

All of Frank Butterfield’s comforting writing tics are there, as well as his gift for what seems like effortless storytelling. Behind the story, however, it’s always about the boys, and how they have somehow taken on the mantle of Nick and Carter. Nick – and Carter – are not absent, and that is a curiously intriguing motif that will continue to color the mood of these magical realist books. How amazing it would be to confront life armed not only with endless wealth, but with wise voices encouraging you.

In a present-day world that feels more and more as if it’s ruled by rich people flying around in private jets, manipulating things behind all of our backs while we feel increasingly helpless, Butterfield’s fantasies offer us an alternative plot arc. It’s no more realistic than Batman was, but like all the comic book heroes of my childhood, it makes us feel better.

A perfect gift for the new year.