Review - Bread Crumbs by Kim Fielding

Johnny plays drums in a band with his two half-brothers and Zimri, who Johnny has been secretly in love with for years. The band appears to be about to enter the big time when their manager, Johnny’s stepmother, announces some changes. Johnny is out. He just isn’t cute enough for pop music, even though he writes most of the lyrics for the band’s songs. Zimri quits the band as well in protest and convinces Johnny they can make it on their own. They get a gig playing at a drag club a couple of nights a week, and Johnny takes a job in a grocery store to make ends meet. He actually finds he doesn’t miss the limelight, but he can’t resist the pull Zimri exerts on him. When Zimri finally lands a deal with a big-name agent, it seems the two men are on different paths, but they can never quite forget about each other.

“Bread Crumbs” is a melancholy tale about two men who clearly care for each other, but can never quite get on the same wavelength. Most of that is down to Zimri, a beautiful and talented man who doesn’t seem to think he’s good enough for the plain, down-to-earth Johnny. The story unfolds in such a way that you really wonder if it will have a happily ever-after ending.

The story is told entirely from Johnny’s point of view. He’s clearly a very level-headed and pragmatic man in his late twenties. I doubt Johnny is as unattractive as he thinks he is, but it tells us a lot about him that he thinks that way about himself. To Johnny, Zimri is everything that Johnny isn’t: attractive, charismatic and able to flirt with just about anyone. It’s understandable that Johnny thinks Zimri is unattainable for someone like him.

Zimri is a bit of an enigma. We never get the full story of why he seeks fame and stardom. It’s easy to say, “Who wouldn’t?” but it’s also clear to see that Zimri knows the price, and yet he still goes after it. He seems to think he deserves the bad treatment he receives from people who use him to get what they want. Yet, it's Johnny that exerts an irrestible pull on Zimri just as much as Johnny can't get Zimri out of his mind.

“Bread Crumbs” is available from Smashwords or see BookBub for other online sources for your copy.