The time period was my own youth, and I lived in the Seattle area in the mid-nineties, so much of the story took me down memory lane. In fact, in 1990 I dated a guy who regularly wore red Docs (though I remember his as "oxblood" rather than "cherry" red), so I could share Simon's thrill about how hot a man can look in them. *Drifts off in happy memories for a moment*Because of that, I expected to really enjoy it. And I did, but I'd have enjoyed it more with less telling and more showing. I felt like I was kept at a distance much of the time, watching the characters rather than living it with them. During the "showing" moments, I was fully engaged and turning pages frantically to find out what happened next. Even when I felt distanced, I still cared about the characters. It just would have been nice to have stayed connected with the characters for the majority of the story, as they were interesting people whose company I enjoyed. I'll definitely look for more by this author.
