Mud & Lace

Rainbow Place, Book 4

De: Jay Northcote

Narrado por: Hamish Long

When Wicksy falls for drag queen Charlie, they discover that both sexuality and gender can be fluid.

Simon Wicks - Wicksy to his rugby teammates - has only ever been interested in women. But when he sets eyes on Lady Gogo, a drag queen who performs at Rainbow Place, he can’t stop thinking about her. He knows there’s a guy behind the fishnets and make-up, but he’s ready to explore his fantasies, and Lady Gogo is game for making them come true.

Charlie adores performing in drag. It allows him to indulge in his love of cross-dressing while earning some extra cash. Fooling around with a mostly straight guy in secret seems like a fun diversion, and gives him the chance to explore his feminine side. He feels safe wearing the mask of his confident alter ego, because the real Charlie is hidden from view.

When Wicksy sees more of the guy behind the make-up and glitter, his attraction to Charlie persists, and he realises he’s bisexual. In turn, Charlie begins to understand and accept his gender fluidity. As their mutual journey of self-discovery brings them closer, the secrecy becomes increasingly hard to deal with. If they’re going to have a future together, they both need to find the courage to show people who they really are.

©2019 Jay Northcote (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

A hockey player & a queen, discovering themselves.

I loved this book.
Both Charlie and Wicksy are navigating the muddy waters of self-awareness, discovering things about themselves and trying them on for size. All of this mixed with their anxiousness about revealing those parts of themselves to others and their growing feelings towards each other.
I loved both characters, Charlie is so young and unsure, but when he puts on his Lady Gogo persona, he transforms into a self-assured and sparkling diva.
Simon Wicks has always considered himself straight, and when he finds himself entranced by the dashing drag queen, he’s very confused, because mentally he recognizes there’s a dude under the glitter, wig and make-up…
Charlie and Simon start to see each other and both of them understand things about themselves that will make them take some chances in their lives and they will come out stronger thanks to this.

Good addition to the series with great narration

I've been meaning to get back to this series for a long while and I'm glad I did. I'm also really glad that I waited for the audiobook version because this narrator is reliably fantastic. Mud & Lace is part of the Rainbow Place series, and while technically a standalone, the overlap of characters makes these best read as a complete collection.

I liked Charlie and Simon quite a bit and found their story exploring sexual identity both sweet and interesting. While I liked both men and really liked the care and emotion the author poured into this story, I did struggle a bit with Simon's seemingly selfish desire to hide Charlie to keep himself comfortable. However, the author did provide significant development to both men's characters and journeys to understand their viewpoints. I also appreciated that Simon's reluctance to embrace Charlie as his boyfriend was acknowledged a bit in the end. As with the other books in the Rainbow Place series, Mud & Lace is a lower angst story and the conflicts resolve pretty easily, making this an enjoyable, low drama and high heat listen.

I always get excited at the though of listening to this narrator's works because his voice, tone, and cadence is pleasing to the ear and always seems to elevate the story. Mud & Lace was no different, and I'd definitely recommend listening to the audiobook if this seems like a story and series you will enjoy.

Mud & Lace

I wasn’t sure about this book for me I am not a big fan of Fem guys in my stories but that is just me. And that is ok. But I am so glad I kept going because I loved their story. Simon really grew as a character for me and Charlie oh Charlie he came into himself I loved it.

I love them; I loved the friendships and the chemistry. You really don’t miss the older characters either because we get a little dose of them in this story too.

The mothers in this book my gosh my heart. I loved their acceptance. <3 Kindred spirits them and I.

Again the narration was spot on. Loved it Hamish is my new narrator crush.

Who Am I?

Both Wicksie and Charlie are having to do some soul searching abut how they are not just to each other but to themselves as well. I also love the fact that they have a supportive family. This was another great addition to the Rainbow Place series.

I listened to the audio version which is well done. Really love the accent.

My favorite one of the series.

I loved Mud and Lace as an ebook and I loved it even more as an audiobook. I can't say enough good things about Hamish Long's performance of this entire series, but I especially loved this one. His voice for Charlie fit the character perfectly. I know Jay Northcote has another book in this series coming soon and I sure hope that Hamish Long is the one to bring it to audio.

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Below is my original review when I read the book last year:

Mud & Lace is part of the Rainbow Place series but reads just fine as a standalone story. Characters from other books in the series appear but you won't feel lost if you haven't read them. While I have very much enjoyed all of the books in this series, Mud & Lace is my favorite.

I haven't read too many stories with gender fluid characters and I really enjoyed this one. In Mud & Lace both Charlie and Wicksy (Simon) discover things about themselves that they didn't know or acknowledge until they became involved with each other.

Charlie loves performing in drag as Lady Gogo and Simon loves watching her. As their sexual relationship turns into something more Simon must make some decisions and admit how he really feels. He finally realizes that while he was first attracted to Charlie's Lady Gogo persona, he's also attracted to Charlie no matter how he's dressed.

I really felt for both of these characters. It was hard to read how hurt Charlie was when Simon denied their relationship to his friends. At the same time Jay Nortcote's fantastic writing of this story also had me sympathizing with Simon. He was so confused about his feelings for Charlie and it took him a while to admit to himself how he felt.

I don't know if there are more stories planned for this series or not but I hope there are because Rainbow Place is a very special place to visit and I wouldn't mind spending more time there.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com*** (posting March 4, 2020)