First, he took away my coming out moment.
Next, he took my scratch-off and won $77,777 for himself.
Then, he took my first boyfriend away from me.
Despite how crazy he drives me, I am still obsessed with thinking about him. It’s sick!
Christian Delgado is the gift that keeps on taking.
The Perkins and Delgado families meet on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s annually at their joint single-family home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. This long-standing tradition has become an annoyance to Liam Perkins, a high school senior, who is still in the closet to his family. Liam is forced to have to hang out with the Delgado’s son, Christian, during this yearly holiday get together.
Everything about Christian annoys Liam. From his suave looks, to his popularity and athleticism, and even his laid back, carefree personality. On their most recent Christmas family vacation, Liam planned to come out to his parents, but somehow Christian managed to make that night all about him, too.
Liam has had to put up with Christian taking everything from him and he is determined to somehow put a stop to it. But little does Liam know that Christian has kept some secrets about him for years that will soon surface, causing Liam to second-guess all of his former opinions about Christian Delgado.
Momma Says: 3 stars⭐⭐⭐
The Gift That Keeps on Taking feels most like a coming of age/growing up story to me. And I'll just say it, Liam has A LOT of growing up to do. The book covers about 6 years, from Christmas of Liam and Christian's senior year in high school forward with most of the story jumping from Christmas to Christmas and a little of the in-between thrown in. The jumps in the timeline work well here since the joint holiday vacations are when Liam and Christian spend the most time together.
When I read the blurb, I was hoping for a fun story, maybe even a few laughs, but I didn't really find that here. Most of that falls on my opinion of Liam. He was just an unlikable character all the way around for most of the book. I tried telling myself that some of that can be blamed on his age, but he's petty and annoying, and he blames pretty much everything on Christian. If Christian got something or did something Liam wanted, it was like Liam thought Christian only did whatever it happened to be to one-up Liam. We only get Liam's point of view, so Christian is basically a secondary character, and we don't really get to know him. I feel like this story could've benefitted from a dual point of view to give us Christian's side of things. Maybe Liam would've been a little more likable then.
There are some things that happen in the latter part of the book to turn things around a bit, but getting there felt much longer than it actually was in pages. I have read BJ Irons before this book, and quite liked his crime thriller, Sinfluenced. Maybe it's just a case of not the book for me, but this one fell somewhere in the fair to middlin' range. It's not bad, but it's not something I'd read again or that would come to mind to recommend.
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