Thank you to the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

#brat is the debut novel by Lynx Patt, and I have to say, it’s a very good first one! I was pleasantly surprised.

Now before I get into the review itself, I should probably note the story deals with a 6 year age gap relationship which might be uncomfortable to some. With that out of the way, let’s get to it.

Enter Kyle, school delinquent who’s apparently been escalating in troublemaking to the point where his principal sets him up with some after school work in a nursing home in hopes of righting him up.

Initially I was a bit iffy about whether I’d like his character, thinking he was just going to be a typical bad boy, but I actually found myself quite enjoying his shy but bratty attitude. For the most he read like the slightly troubled young man that he was, without going on obnoxious as some stories do.

He meets recently appointed male nurse Mason, his love interest, at the nursing home. Mason was dreamy. He had his own worries to deal with, but seemed like a wonderfully centered man and I quite enjoyed his character and his reactions to his younger love interest’s mess ups, though he could have been fleshed out just a little bit more.

While I was still getting a feel for whether I liked Kyle I was unsure at first if the two would fit as a couple, as it felt a little bit forced at first; but as Kyle settled in his character, so did the relationship seem to fall in place, and I found the two got along really well. Totally a fan by the end.

The story is pretty fluffy and low on the angst scale, which is perfect for me. It makes it a very easy, adorable read. It did have a handful of very cliché-y scenes, but they fit with the lovey-dovey, low angst of the book and I loved all of them.

I really enjoyed the way Kyle grew through the book and came to really like him by the end. It was also super cute how he got tongue-tied around his crush. Their interactions were pretty adorable overall, although I had some doubts about Mason being so easily wishy-washy on what landed Kyle there.

Another thing I quite liked about them is that they were fairly open and willing to talk about things, which is a breath of fresh air. Sometimes romances rely too much on misunderstandings and couples not talking to each other at all, so to see them communicate was really nice and healthy.

My nitpicks with the book are minor.

The first is more a taste thing- it’s a first person book, which I guess a lot of YAs are, but I never quite like them as much as third person. For the most part it was alright and I could ‘ignore’ it, but every now and again there would be mentions of “little did I know… “ or the character being home then backtracking to tell his day, and other little sentences that threw me off a little. Like, are in the present or what? Because it seemed like they already knew what was coming, but then made no mention of it being something that had already happened and being reflected on or told. It only happened like 3 or 4 times though. Also a couple times that started a time skip with “Fast forward to-” was a tiny bit off putting, but maybe it was just me.

Another thing was the flashback chapter. I get it was supposed to explain why Kyle ended up as a troublemaker/delinquent, but it really didn’t for me. It set him up as the class clown, but why did he escalate? Because he did. And I suppose the few mentions of his family were supposed to help fill in, but it never really felt like it was properly explained why he suddenly went into rebel mode.
It wasn’t a huge deal to the overall story, but it would have been nice to be able to understand Kyle better.

Then, the way everyone was so very supportive of everyone’s sexuality, regardless of which it was, while very nice and ok in fiction, didn’t seem very realistic (particularly for a nursing home), but again, I like fluffy sweet stories, so it wasn’t a big deal, it was just a bit weird to see.

The one thing that did bother me most was Blake Mash. He’s this guy who gets mentioned a handful of times as being a thug and true delinquent who has gone to juvie, but since you never see him at all, it feels like he’s just there to make a forced, stark comparison to Kyle and be “See? He’s not that bad.” In my opinion it could have been left out and it would have been just as well, otherwise he should have played a larger role.

As a final thought, not so much a like or dislike, but… it was certainly a spicier book than I expected for a YA. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude, I 1. know that YA can deal with sex and isn’t always ‘clean’, and 2. have read spicier stuff as a teen myself/would have no issue with my teen reading that, but I still felt like this was a bit spicier than expected.


All in all it’s a very sweet first-time gay story, and I highly recommend it if you like sweet romances.
Look forward to reading more from the author!