Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Being an actor is not the glamorous life Connor Telford once expected. Now he lives in a budget hotel, spending all his time working…or working out. He’s on friendlier terms with the catering team on set than he is with his co-stars, and his mum keeps telling him to get a life.

A real life. Con kind of agrees. He plays Detective Cass Powell in the multi-award-winning show White Noise, making the audience swoon with his character’s skills and charm. Detective Powell has his life all figured out, and when you play someone whose life is picture perfect, it’s easy to see that your own life is anything but.

Con doesn’t even know how to live anymore. Date? He’s not been on one for years. At least, not one that wasn’t set up by his agent as a promotional stunt. There’s no time to think when your brain is constantly fried. Work. Gym. Sleep. Gym. Work.

Then he meets Matthew Winston.

 

Book Review

White noise, as we all know, is a specific type of broadband sound, produced by combining all audible frequencies, that blocks distracting environmental noises. As such, it is used in some hospitals to help patients fall asleep easier, for example. It is also cleverly used as the main metaphor and as the title of Sophia Soames’s latest release. ‘White Noise’ is, in fact, the title of a fictitious murder mystery TV show that has raked in a lot of awards. Hunky young Connor “Con” Telford is one of the main actors; he plays the role of a reckless police officer of ambiguous but voracious sexuality. That’s why, over several seasons, he has shown almost his entire and admittedly superb physique on the screen.

 

No surprise, then, that when young teacher Matthew Winston stumbles upon this epitome of male beauty—namely for a gay viewer like him—in the local gym, he overcomes his inhibitions and accosts him. Well, the actor’s shoelaces have come undone, too, so it’s more a question of ensuring that he doesn’t trip, isn’t it? But Con is rehearsing an action scene, doesn’t see the other man come closer, and—deals him a terrible blow in the face. Someone said awkward first encounter? Definitely. And yet, Con’s nice behavior, his solicitude, his eagerness to amend for Matthew’s injury are enough to make sure that the latter doesn’t give in to a serious bout of star-struckness and simply run away. Little do both know that destiny holds loads of unexpected follow-up meetings in store for them. And maybe even more…

 

It’s not a spoiler if I say that of course, there’s an HEA or Happily Ever After. This is a Sophia Soames book, after all. And Sophia does multiple twists and turns, messy lives and even messier main characters, steamy scenes a healthy gay guy shouldn’t read in public (beware of the accidental tent), but Sophia doesn’t do unhappy endings. Phew. This author’s books always lead to dotted is and crossed ts.

 

So, the characters. Con is the perfect example of how you can be utterly alone and lonely in a crowd. Of how you can become so absorbed in your job that you forget to live. Of how you play a role so well that you forget who you are and what you need. He doesn’t know how to buy groceries in a supermarket, he doesn’t know how to act with someone from outside his film industry comfort zone, he doesn’t even know the first thing about his sexuality. His TV character is bi-pan-omni? That’s very well, he has no problems with it, but what about him? If asked, he would define himself as straight. Yet that easy preconception falls to pieces when he invades Matthew’s life (one would have expected it to happen the other way around, but that’s the kind of lost guy he is). He suddenly discovers he’s pushy, needy, almost clingy, and doesn’t have a clue of what he’s doing or why. All he knows is that he mistook his job for the white noise he believed he needed to keep his questions and anxieties in bay.

 

Matthew, on the other hand, is wary at first. Why would a hunk of a guy like sexy Con run after him? Why would he show up on his doorstep time and again? He, Mat, is no one special. He isn’t handsome, he isn’t muscular, he isn’t even very interesting. He’s your average, normal man. And yet, whenever needed, he comes up with the right answers, suggestions, pieces of advice for Con. He lends his shoulder, his ear, his clothes, his bed even without even thinking of seducing the confused actor. Well, he might think of it, in his wildest dreams, but he wouldn’t dream of acting on it. He’s a decent man, well-educated, well-behaved.

 

I really loved this improbable romance where nothing is really what one would expect from the “famous star meets ordinary fan”  trope. Sophia Soames has a knack of taking well-known subject matters and turning them upside down. Sophia also has the knack (I often commented on this in my other Soames reviews) of creating threedimensional characters, messy guys with messy ideas and messy lives that always spell “real life” in my eyes. But there’s a sort of fairy tale side to that “real life” à la Soames that my own lacks, so it’s always a pleasure to discover yet another of Sophia’s heart-warming stories.

 

In one word, this is a book to fall in love, to fall in love with, a bit like a cuddly toy one wouldn’t part with. It has just one flaw: it ends at the end.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 224 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	15-August-2023
Price	$6.35 ebook, $10.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/White-Noise-Sophia-Soames-ebook/dp/B0C6QHP8R9