Outcast by Jamie Schlosser

New Adult Romance

Publication date: 03/15/2018
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

Audiobook narrators: Chris Chambers and Elizabeth Hart
Length: 9 Hours, 8 minutes

​There’s so many things I love about this book, and I’ll get to all of them. But just to be clear, this book isn’t going to be for every romance reader, so I want to point out that if you like alphahole, manwhore heroes, you’ll want to stay far, FAR away from this one, because Ezra, the hero, is maybe the nicest, most honorable guy I’ve ever run across in Romancelandia, and I DIG THAT ABOUT HIM!! (Sorry about the shouting. *clears throat* I digress…)

Here’s all the stuff that’s awesome:

Ezra

Like I said, er, shouted, above, Ezra is a nice guy hero, and nice guy heroes are my kryptonite. There’s never a moment in the story when he doesn’t treat Kayla, the heroine, with the utmost respect. His devotion to her is never in question. And best of all? He’s a virgin. Virgin heroes are another weakness of mine. He’s shy, a little socially awkward, and is the type of guy who gives up his pencil in art class to help the guy who’d just tormented him before class for being disabled. That doesn’t make him a doormat in my opinion. It makes him the kind of guy who treats people like he would want to be treated. There’s not a petty or vindictive bone in his body. He’s a genuinely good guy and seeing him get his happily ever after was a joy.

Now, you’ll see some other reviews on Goodreads saying that Ezra is naive and immature. I’ll admit that he’s a little naive, but only because of his sheltered upbringing and his insistence on seeing the good in people. That naivety was a part of his charm, as far as I’m concerned, and it was a trait that made perfect sense for his character, so it didn’t bother me a bit.

Kayla

Kayla’s a great heroine, too. She’s maybe not AS great as Ezra, but honestly, who could be? What I liked most about Kayla was her devotion and loyalty to Ezra. Like him, she never waivered, and it made me happy that she turned out to be a heroine that was truly worthy of him. 

Messages

There’s lots of messages in this book (be yourself, respect diversity, hazing is bad) but it never gets preachy. I hate being preached to, but this author managed to get all her messages in without annoying me, which is no easy task. (I’m pretty easy to annoy, y’all. Not gonna lie.)

Diversity

I’ve always said we need more diversity in romance novels, and this is a novel about a biracial girl who has gay adoptive parents and a shy white boy from a sheltered background who also happens to be disabled. If that’s not diverse, I don’t know what would be.  

I will spoil one plot point because if you’re an animal lover, you’ll want to know this. Pierre the dog lives. I won’t say more than that, but he’s perfectly fine at the end of the story. Y’all know that I can’t tolerate dead dogs in fiction. It should NEVER happen. That is all.

So, long-story-short, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and Ezra might just be the nicest nice-guy hero to ever grace my Kindle. He’s just that perfect.          
    
Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
No stigma here. This one’s not only clean and sober, but doing a fine job of crushing the romance stigma.

Other reading suggestions

Romance novels that DON'T feature two white people​

Deliciously imperfect heroes and heroines​

Romance heroes you'll wish you'd have met in college​