Once upon a time there was a romance reader who blogged and then wrote, and then got published by a publisher that imploded; she then moved to another publisher...that also imploded. And then, she basically faded away, leaving a handful of stories behind.

Like this one.

Narrated entirely from Buck's point of view, there is a lot of backstory packed in a hundred pages, but while there's a sweet 'grand gesture', this reads more like an interlude than a fully developed, self-contained story.

Buck lost his father to cancer and his mother in a car crash, then had to fight the state to keep his brother. Ari's mother kept him away from his father after the divorce, and then one day walked out, leaving him homeless while battling addiction.

For the past five years, Buck has harbored a lot of anger--and a lot of grief and guilt--around his once-best friend, who blew town after stealing some of his money, then basically poofed out of existence. Now, Ari is back, and both of them will have to face a lot of unsaid things.

I struggle a bit with the idea of two people who are each other's best friend since the second grade, who never suspect that the other is gay or share that they themselves are, and who now, as adults, tell each other that they always knew they were gay.

It would be easier if we weren't reminded several times that they had been each other's rock through a lot of trauma--Buck's father's slow death from cancer, Ari's mom deteriorating mental health and the resulting abuse-neglect-abuse cycle.

The writing is very smooth; it's very easy to get lost in Buck's life and to sympathize with his struggles, and there are some truly moving scenes--as well as the very earthy and explicit sex encounters.

There are a few things I wish had been handled differently, such as the fatphobia and the demonization of Adderall as a drug, rather than medication; and there are things I wished had been explored in the story. Mostly, I wish Ms Gregg had continued writing, because she had a lot of potential.

"There's Something About Ari" gets an 8.25 out of 10