Single, Cool, and Fine: How to get Laid as an Ex-Teen Idol #review

Title: Single, Cool, and Fine: How to get Laid as an Ex-Teen Idol
Author: Lux Zakari
Publisher: Smashwords, 2012

While the musicians I obsessed about as a teen were certainly not as squeaky clean as James Venora, I can certainly relate to Lux Zakari’s premise. We all had celebs we fixated on, and in Single, Cool, and Fine, Zakari paints a picture of a teen idol long after the initial wave of his success has mellowed. Plainly put, James is so out of touch with not only himself, and the world around him, that when his wife Greer leaves him, taking their two kids with him, he barely knows how to make a cup of coffee, let alone sign the divorce papers to finalise the demise of his marriage.

What follows is a journey of self-discovery, as James tries to figure out where he stands with women—and the world. The result: sexy romps tempered with poignant self-reflection. Though finding another woman isn’t hard for James once he lives up to the idealised version of himself that exists in popular media, none of them quite measure up to what he really wants. But sometimes one has to lose something of value before you are aware of exactly how valuable it was, and that’s exactly what’s happened to James.

What can I say about Zukari’s writing that I haven’t already said in other reviews? She writes stunning three-dimensional characters who have authentic dilemmas. She has a keen perception of people and their behaviour. She is witty, and her characters’ dialogues feel like they’ve taken place in real life. And that’s what I love about her stories. I feel like I’m vicariously living the lives of her characters while they go about their journey.

Single, Cool, and Fine alternates between kink and out-and-out humour, where life ends up imitating art. We’ve all got friends whose kids behave lik
e Amie and Noah. Or annoying siblings and their friends, like Wade and E.Y. Okay, I’m probably going to wax lyrical ad nauseam here. If you’re into contemporary erotic romance that has a little more going for it on an intellectual level than just boy meets girl, they shack up, something gets them apart… You know what I mean. Go read this book. And if you don’t laugh out loud and get weird stares at some parts, then you’ve got absolutely no capacity for emotion. Thank you, Ms. Zakari, for yet another highly entertaining read.