Life for Jeremy Tyler has been nothing but misery and broken promises. His father was killed in a car accident when Jeremy was two years old leaving him to live alone with his alcoholic mother in poverty. At age 17 Jeremy came home from school to find his mother almost dead in a drunken stupor. He is sent to live with his extremely wealthy great-aunt and her husband Bill. Jeremy's life is turned upside down by the rags to riches way of life. Jeremy soon finds out that even the wealthy have their ugly little secrets. I found this book to be a quick read although the story had many subplots. Mr. Nolan did an excellent job of intertwining a social commentary into the life of a young man discovering himself. Much of the story dealt with Jeremy's coming to grips with being gay and embracing his sexuality. I did feel like the wrap up conversation with his Aunt Katharine explained too much too quickly. So much was revealed in those few pages that it seemed as if Mr. Nolan was taking the easy way out of a corner he had written himself into. I did enjoy the story of young Jeremy very much and look forward to reading the sequel. ( )

Teenager Jeremy Tyler leads a challenging life. His single mother is an alcoholic, and he's often left to take care of her. But when he comes home to find her almost dead, he knows this time things need to change. Not only do the doctors say rehab is his mother's only option, but he's not sure how much longer he can be her caregiver. He's due to finish high school soon, and he'd like to at least have the chance to attend college.

With Jeremy's mother reluctantly agreeing to rehab, Jeremy finds himself whisked away to the home of a rich great aunt whom he doesn't remember ever meeting. But when he arrives, he finds that life with Aunt Katharine might just be exactly what he needs. She dotes on him and provides everything from clothes to a new haircut to advice on how to fit in. Though with that advice comes a clear message: a Tyler needs to be perfect in every way and nothing less is acceptable. Which is the one thing that makes Jeremy's new life bittersweet. If his great aunt ever found out his one flaw, would she disown him? Would he lose everything? And is that worth denying himself true happiness?

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A charming and interesting story. Jeremy is a surprisingly resilient young man considering the upbringing he had. And although life in Ballena Beach is much different from what he had in Fresno, he quickly adapts to his new surroundings. It's all the forces moving around him that create the conflict in this story.

While I enjoyed several of the side characters, I did find the character of Jeremy's uncle confusing. It's Jeremy's story, so maybe it didn't seem important--but there's no real indicator of his motivation. All of the secrets he kept for all of these years? Why? It just seemed a bit strange. But again, maybe we as readers are not really supposed to understand.

Overall, this is an easy read. It's got some comedic moments as well as some sad ones too. Entertaining enough to get you through a rainy afternoon. ( )

Jeremy Tyler, seventeen years old remembers neither the wealth into which he was born, nor his father who died two years after he was born, all he knows is a life of poverty living alone with his alcoholic mother, a life of missed meals, tattered clothes and little love. But the day he comes home from school to find his mother collapsed and near death's door is the day everything changes for him. With his mother facing a six months recovery in hospital he finds himself sent away to be cared for by his wealthy aunt in her luxury villa on the California coast near Los Angeles.

He steps immediately into a life of privilege and promise, loved, adored and guided by his aunt, and with the help and support of Arthur the family butler, his natural good manners, pleasing disposition and unspoilt charms blossom. He quickly makes friends at his new school, and proves himself a valued member of the swimming team.

But not all is plain sailing for Jeremy. Questions arise concerning his uncle Bill, is he all he seems, can he be trusted? Of more immediate worry though is Jeremy's sexuality, despite his strange fascination with boys he refuses to accept that he is gay. The openly gay Carlo, his first real new school friend, is convinced Jeremy is gay too, but Jeremy sets out out prove himself with a steady girl friend - despite the arousing fantasies he has centred on the handsome Cody, his swim team companion. But Jeremy still has a lot to learn about other people and himself; he will discover who can and who can't be trusted, and who his real friends are, who is true love is, and who he himself really is.

Strings Attached is a charming read, based on the traditional Pinocchio tale, is itself a delightful fairly story in which in typical fashion our hero comes triumphantly through all his trials and troubles. A fairy story complete with fairy-godmother Arthur the gay butler, and the wicked all consuming uncle Bill. It is filled with interesting and well-developed characters including the self-centred jock Cody; the two gossipy and often catty girls who take Jeremy under their wings; the fabulous and flamboyant Carlo, the beautiful Mexican boy who hopes to win over Jeremy; and the seemingly perfect Arthur, Jeremy's guide and guardian, always with the right answers, always in the right place at the right time.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, a well written book that is hard to put down, a book that is full of surprises, a book that is fast moving and wastes no time stating the obvious but moves ahead quickly yet cramming in much detail and interest along the way, but above all an involving and very touching tale - highly recommend. ( )

This is billed as a coming-of-age/coming-out mystery. This is actually nothing more than a gay teenage romance novel. The mystery plays only a small part in this book and is poorly developed and seems thrown together as an afterthought. It had good reviews, and I expected a well written novel. It was not. Thankfully it was free from Amazon. ( )

Until I haven’t read this book I was thinking that the “strings attached” of the title was a way to refer to emotional links, and in a way it’s like that since Jeremy, the 17 years old who is the main character of this coming of age novel has never had the safety you usually find in a family while you are growing up: his father died when he was only a little baby, her mother has an alcohol problem that prevents her to be a real role figure, and they are living far from any relatives. Considering all of this, Jeremy is even a good boy, he has no rebellion feelings and he is probably only waiting to be independent to build his own life and stability.

Then suddenly everything change, Jeremy’s mother has to be recovered in a rehabilitation center and Jeremy is sent living with his great-aunt, a woman who Jeremy barely knows and only since his mother hates her. Katherine is a very wealthy business woman, living in Ballena Beach, a rich heaven for rich people and their rich kids. Suddenly Jeremy looses even what little stability he had and he is in the hand of Katherine, who wants to watch, and drive, his every step. Katherine is probably the Mangiafuoco of this modern version of Pinocchio, the puppeteer, and Jeremy is the puppet. There is even the fairy godmother (fata turchina), Arthur, the cat and the wolf (il gatto e la volpe), Reed and Ellie, and I’m not sure if Lucignolo is Cody or Carlo… but considering that Lucignolo is the bad role model, then I think it’s Cody, since Carlo is indeed a good role model, an openly and proud gay teenager.

It’s not that Carlo is perfect or has a perfect life, on the contrary, he is still grieving his mother loss, and his father has practically disowned him for being gay; he is so unsure of himself, due to the instability of his family origins, that Carlo is always trying to prove that he is there, in the center of the scene. Sometime he is even too much and so Jeremy is almost scared by him.

Jeremy is a guy with a lot of doubts. One thing he is pretty sure, he likes boys; but this is something that he doesn’t want to consider as a possibility, Jeremy is already considering himself an outcast, that adding to it also the gay chip will be too much. And so Jeremy tries to be the perfect straight guys with a beautiful girlfriend and the right circle of friends, but his desires are always there.

Even if there is a love story or two, this is not the story of Jeremy’s search for true love; Jeremy is 17 years old, he has time to find Mr Right, in this moment is more important for him to understand who he is and what he wants. So even if he has relationships in this novel, mostly platonic, I don’t think that in the end he has really reached that level of self-confidence he needs. At the end of the novel, he is still a teenager, still with all his open questions; he has maybe some clues more to understand the puzzle of his life, but he is far from resolving it.

Even if the events around him are monumental and life-changing, Jeremy’s personal life story is simple and tender, the story of a misfit who wants with all himself to find his place in what he considers the world, and that, in reality, is only a neighbourhood and an high school. Real life is still out there, and Jeremy has yet to taste it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982555016/?tag=elimyrevandra-20