Try Anything Twice [Paperback]

It's easy to find pretty good stories in the m/m genre but it's not nearly so easy to find excellent ones. 'Try Anything Twice' is excellent. Josh and Ziggy are delightful characters, the kind that get under your skin and make you keep reading to see what happens next. They're the kind of guys you'd like to have met when you were young and you can't help wanting to read more. It's one of those books that really needs a sequel, not because it's incomplete but because the characters are just so likeable that we don't want the story to end.

Josh is the gay guy. He's been in an emotionally abusive relationship in Memphis but he's been slow to realize this. And then, on a weekend trip to St. Louis with their friends, Josh's partner ends the relationship and leaves Josh behind. But Josh has met Ziggy at a club and when he goes back he reconnects and that's the beginning of a remarkable relationship.

Ziggy isn't gay but he's also not exactly straight. In fact, it's pretty hard to categorize just what he is except that he's a guy wise beyond his years, a guy who turns out to be just what Josh needs as a roommate. First Josh agrees to stay for only a week after which he'll decide whether this is going to be permanent or not. But long before the week is up it's clear that he and Ziggy just simply click. He's the older brother Josh needs to help him get his head on straight and he's also the object of Josh's erotic fantasies. Ziggy has had an amazing past and he's able to give Josh the kind of support that Josh needs to build his self esteem.

The relationship that is described largely in dialogue between the two characters plays out in a little more than a week. It's quite a feat of good writing to put this much dialogue into a novel and still maintain the reader's interest and this author succeeds amazingly well. It's all so natural and such an easy progression that one looks forward to the next day's instalment in the knowledge that the young men are moving further ahead toward an inevitable good conclusion.

Since they're just guys living together, and sleeping in the same small bed together, it's only natural that they see each other in the nude and it's also pretty well a foregone conclusion that they'll see each other aroused. From that point on there's an amazing development of sexual tension between the two, a tension that manifests itself in some of the most erotic and arousing sexual encounters I've ever read. No, the book isn't all about sex but it sure has lots of it and it's hot, hot, hot.

I loved the characters, loved the story, loved the setting, and loved the book. There, that's about as good as it gets. I hope that author Josh Jango continues the story of Josh and Ziggy, two fascinating men who deserve at least another couple of novels devoted to their lives. Until then, this is an easy 5 star novel.

I normally avoid literature of this genre. It seems that all such works are simply a series of sexual encounters with a bare minimum of story and character development.
I purchased and read "Try Anything Twice" on the advice of a friend who had read it. I was extremely pleasantly surprised! Yes. There are lots of sexual encounters. And they are HOT! But there is also an enormous amount of story and character development that made me really care for and care about the two main characters - Josh and Zig. I had a difficult time putting the book down. Josh and Zig are the type of guys I would like to have for friends. And I would like to know more about them and what happens to them next.
Perhaps Josh Jango will write a sequel. How about "Try Anything Thrice".