I’m so glad I wasted no time getting into The Road to Amazing, the third book in Brent Hartinger’s Russel Middlebrook-The Futon Years series. The three books (you can read my review of the other two here) have led to this moment: the wedding of Russel and Kevin.

I loved every moment of this book–from Russel and Kevin’s arrival on Vashon Island, which is in the middle of Puget Sound, right on through their reception and going to bed for the first time as a married couple. Hope you don’t consider that a spoiler. I don’t because, of course, Russel and Kevin had to get married in this book since that was the whole point of it.

The path to them getting married, however, over a weekend has many twists and turns. There’s a beached whale that stinks up the wedding venue. There’s a storm that knocks out the power and causes a challenge for catering. There’s another storm that makes it a challenge for the guests to get to the island. It’s all a lot for Kevin, who wonders if the wedding should actually happen. For once, it’s not Russel who is neurotic, which is refreshing and just shows more of Russel’s growing up.

All the friends get some beautiful moments too–Gunnar has the role of the fixer, Min has some beautiful words (and more than once) and Otto offers up a song and an interesting look at his life that resonates so well in this story. Here, I’m being more careful about spoiling. I was delighted at every turn how Russel and Kevin’s friends worked over time to get them married. Also in the core group for this book are Vernie, who we met back in the first book of The Futon Years, as well as Ruby (Min’s girlfriend) and Nate (Kevin’s best friend from college).

Through the last five chapters I cried on and off as Hartinger rolled out the story of the wedding day. There were beautiful moments between Kevin and Russel (yup, there were more than one) and how much their friends helped them create the perfect day–a day that was what everything it was supposed to be.

There is a secondary plot that runs through the book as well, the mystery of the town Amazing. It’s just a few steps away from where the guys are having their wedding and they mystery of where all the townspeople went decades before enthralls Russel, Min and a few others. It makes for an interesting, and surprisingly relevant, part of the overall story.

These adventures are due to continue early this year when The Otto Digmore Difference comes out. I can’t wait to see what happens there given what we find out about Otto in Amazing.

NOTE: I received a free ebook for an honest review for Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast.

It was wonderful getting back into the world of Russel Middlebrook after so much time away. I originally met Russel back in 2004 when he was introduced in The Geography Club, Brent Hartinger’s incredible young adult book which spawned a series with four more books plus a film. (It was also one of the inspirations for me to write the original installment in the Hat Trick series.)

In 2014, Russel made the jump into new adult books with The Thing I Didn’t Know I Didn’t Know and I’ve had that book on my Kindle for a while and I was finally spurred to read it, along with it’s sequel Barefoot in the City of Broken Dreams.

Russel’s now a college graduate and trying to figure out what he’s supposed to do. In Thing I Didn’t Know he’s living on a houseboat in Seattle with his friends Min and Gunnar. Russel’s drifting with his two jobs–lifeguard and being a baker at a custom bread place, but he feels aimless. He also feels like his friends have their act together as Min’s in grad school and Gunnar has made a small fortune by selling an app, which lets him pursue whatever obsession he wants.

Granted, I’m 20+ years older than Russel, but I liked the book because of how it captured how anyone, regardless of age, can feel adrift in life, whether it’s career, relationships or anything else. Hartinger infuses Russel with such a strong voice. Some may call it whiny, but I found him realistic. One of the centerpieces to the story is Russel befriending an older woman he saves as part of his life guard job. She’s a former screenwriter, so he finds someone who loves movies like he does and she’s a great influence on him. Reuniting with his high school boyfriend, Kevin, also throws some interesting turmoil into his life, which he also learns a great deal from.

This was a delightful book to bring us up to date with Russel and where he is in life.

Broken Dreams moves Russel and Kevin to L.A. so Russel can go after his dream to be a screenwriter. Min and Gunnar stayed in Seattle, but in this book we get to catch up with Otto, another one of Russel’s high school friends. Otto’s in L.A., pursuing an acting career. Otto’s storyline has always been a highlight of the Russel books and I loved seeing how he’s doing in adulthood. Russel’s journey in this book resonated for me because it was one of the creative and that always works for me these days. I’m not a screenwriter, but as an author I related to his struggles and insecurities.

More than anything, watching Kevin and Russel navigate Russel going for success was a great element in the book. Kevin tries to be supportive even while he sees what’s happening. The ease in which they both say completely the wrong thing makes for good tension. With the book in Russel’s point of view, you get his thoughts as he’s saying the wrong things but he’s not able to stop himself.

I’m moving directly into book three of this series, The Road to Amazing, so I’ll be ready for book four when its released in early 2017.

NOTE: I received a free ebook of Barefoot in the City of Broken Dreams for an honest review for Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast. The Thing I Didn’t Know I Didn’t Know was purchased.