Review: Textual Attraction by K-lee Klein

Author: K-lee Klein

Pages/Word Count: 34k Words

At a Glance: K-lee Klein is a talented storyteller who once again offers up a most comforting and satisfying tale of healing and love.

Reviewed By: Sammy

Blurb: Lewis has spent most of his adult life looking after his aging parents, and he recently ended a relationship with a domineering guy who’d been nothing but bad for him. Despite his less-than-stellar track record with men, he’s still hopeful there’s someone out there for him, but he’s learned to be careful with his heart. So he can’t figure out why a cryptic, gruff, drunken voice mail from a stranger named Jerry doesn’t make him hit the DELETE button. It’s clear the man’s got the wrong number. But when Jerry begins to text, Lewis finally responds, saying he’s not the guy Jerry wants. Jerry, however, is nothing if not persistent, and he keeps texting and teasing Lewis, even after he knows the truth.

Lewis is surprised when something sparks between them. Jerry turns out to be charming and witty, and they develop an odd friendship through text messages. When Jerry suggests they finally meet in person, Lewis is apprehensive, yet curious. Can he take the big step to meet Jerry face-to-face? More importantly, can he maybe even trust Jerry with his heart?

Review: Textual Attraction by K-lee Klein is an amazingly sweet story. When I say “sweet,” I am not talking of some sappy romance that leaves one smiling for a moment, but rather, this is a gorgeous love story that one puts on the shelf with every intention of reading again and again.

Lewis has been turned into someone he neither likes nor recognizes, by a boyfriend whose only aim was to remake Lewis into something he wanted–forget about what Lewis may need. That was secondary, if it was ever thought about to begin with. His parents are living apart, both old and under his care but unable, due to ravages of disease and creeping dementia, to really care for each other, or even, in the case of his mother, tolerate each other. Because Lewis has not one unkind bone in his body, he views caring for his parents as one more form of loving them. His ex did not.

Accidentally, Lewis receives a rather maudlin and drunken text for someone named Tom from a man named Jerry. After a few messages where Jerry is obviously upset and needing to return something to Tom, Lewis replies and a conversation of sorts commences. After much flirting, laughing and sharing, the two men meet and something magical happens. Jerry is as kind as his texts were, and for the first time, Lewis realizes how effectively he had cut himself off from the world by believing his ex’s lies. Now the question remains, will Lewis be brave enough to rediscover the man he used to be, the man he wants to be, and take a chance with Jerry?

Let me return to that opening sentence–this is a sweet story. Never rushed, carefully crafted and packed with characters who touch your heart and make a home there, Textual Attraction is stunning in it’s simplicity and staggering in the depth of its emotion and pathos. With each page, K-lee Klein builds Lewis and Jerry, fully fleshing out their foibles, their desires, and their dreams. These are two men who have seen a bit of life. Well into their thirties, they have loved before but never found fulfillment. Between Jerry’s silly humor and Lewis’s endearing self-doubt, you cannot help but root for these two to fall in love.

K-lee Klein is a talented storyteller who once again offers up a most comforting and satisfying tale of healing and love. I highly recommend Textual Attraction to you.

TNA_Signature_Sammy