Lima Oscar Victor Echo and The Truth About Everything

Title: Lima Oscar Victor Echo and The Truth About Everything
Author: Suki Fleet
Publisher:  MM Romance Group
Release Date: June 7th, 2015
Genre(s): Contemporary, New Adult
Page Count: 83
Reviewed by: PrinCkhera
Heat Level: 3.5 flames out of 5
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Dear Author,
I saw this picture and would love to know their story.
These two are either long-term friends or lovers, not sure which. They should be happy but for some reason they feel sad to me, maybe they have lost someone close or even a beloved pet. I don’t really know. One of them could be ill or going away. Could you please write their story?

Photo Description:
Two young men sit on a wooden bench overlooking the countryside. The men sit with their backs to us. They have their arms around one another, and their bowed heads are touching. They look to be lovers.

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group’s “Love is an Open Road” event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings

I was Hotel Oscar Oscar Kilo Echo Delta

Jamie and Oscar were Alpha Delta Oscar Romeo Alpha Bravo Lima Echo

Romeo Echo Charlie Oscar Mike Mike Echo November Delta Echo Delta

That was me using the phonetic alphabet, which I didn’t even know existed. Yes, I did make the L.O.V.E. connection in the title. No, I didn’t get why the hell there were words like Lima in there.

Moving on.

This is absolutely adorable. And I kind of fell for this author’s writing. I kept being reminded of this book I started reading by her but on-holded a while ago. Then I came across this and it…

I don’t think many people realise what good writing is until you come across sentences like

He hadn’t meant to fall in love with Jamie, but trying not to fall in love was a little like trying to stay awake forever— sometimes your body took over, dragged you under, and you woke up with someone’s name carved on your heart like a secret you never wanted to know.

They take your breath away.

Maybe because you think “YES! You just put into words what I couldn’t even begin to describe”.

Unrequited love. Angst. I felt so much for Oscar who kept himself in this spiral, who didn’t know which way was out because all roads led to the same.

I couldn’t stop turning the pages because at times Ms. Fleet soared you up and then…

He felt like he’d been in a beautiful glass lift being taken to the top of some tall spectacular building, but now someone had cut the cable and he was falling so fucking fast— the glass already shattering around him.

You get scenes like this. Misunderstandings. Heartbreak, without fully comprehending said heartbreak.

I read. I read again. Because I couldn’t not.

This story is simple in many ways, yet profound.

There’s no overdramatic plot going on. No OTT villains. No lies that got out of hand, well, except the ones Jamie and Oscar kept telling themselves, and no plot lines you’d roll your eyes at for being too unrealistic.

This story is just about two guys.

Who love each other.

Who need each other.

Fuck labels. Screw them. Love is love. I just wish I could see the animations Oscar made because they sound amazing.

Simple stories that pack emotional punches get me every single time.

Well-aimed punches are a dime a dozen, though.

This book was one of them.

Oscar’s in love with Jamie.

But, unlike some books where that can consume the MC, Ms. Fleet doesn’t let that happen to Oscar – or Jamie. Oscar struggles with his homosexuality. He’s afraid of being the only gay guy in a “fifteen mile radius”. He has an emotionally abusive dad who loves to put him down and who’d kick him out if he found out. He has a dream he wants to follow, things he wants to do, but he’s too scared.

He was going to destroy so many things by leaving. In so many ways, his life would change.

The future was unknowable, and Oscar felt terrifyingly blind.

He’s relatable. The fear of stepping up. Leaving behind what’s comfortable to step into the big wide world. It’s scary. It’s terrifying. It can be paralysing, preventing you from ever actually taking that leap.
And sometimes you come to the realisation that

The stuff that scared you wasn’t ever as terrifying in reality as it was in your head.

Jamie. He doesn’t push Oscar away, he’s confused about his feelings, scared by a lot of stuff – one thing he knows though is that he doesn’t want to lose Oscar. Ever. Because Oscar’s the most important person in his life, and whether he can put a label (though seriously, fuck them) to his feelings, he knows he would do anything to make/keep Oscar happy.

It was one of the things Oscar loved so much about him, that he’d laugh through his tears, that he’d been through so much and he never let the darkness touch him. That he made everything seem like it was going to be okay.

You understand Oscar’s love. You understand his heartbreak. You want them to find each other. You need them to.

This book did have its eye-rolling moments

When Jamie smiled, licked his lower lip, and then sucked it between his teeth, Oscar considered he might as well have sucked all the air out of the room too, because Oscar couldn’t breathe.

If he was perfectly honest, everything else was just background noise. Jamie was the song that filled his head.

Yet, I had this huge smile plastered on my face throughout.

Oscar, we are not the only gay people in the village… Loads of people we don’t know and never will. We are not fighting some lonely battle against everyone we’ve ever known. We are living our lives, and if it matters to some people who we love, then they shouldn’t matter to us.

Sometimes you don’t know the truth, and sometimes you aren’t ready for it, but that is okay as long as you never close yourself off from it, because the truth is a lot like love.

Sometimes you read books that check all your boxes. This checked all of mine. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this short story.

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