This second book in Fearne Hill’s Mis-Shapes series is a funny, sexy and poignant romance between two reluctant and very different housemates that really ticks those grumpy/sunshine, odd-couple boxes! We met Alaric Alvin in the first book (Maybe). He’s a urologist/surgeon and is good friends with Isaac Fitz-Henry; he’s an upbeat, flirty motormouth for whom adulting is still a far-off thing (despite just turning thirty) who works hard and plays harder, preferring to work a hard day out of his system by drinking, dancing and hooking up with strangers. When Fool’s Gold begins, he’s just found out that he’s going to have to move out of the comfy and convenient flat he shares with his bestie Stefan because Stefan’s smarmy boyfriend is moving in and doesn’t want Alaric around.

Alaric gets it (mostly) but it’ll be a wrench; not only is the flat home, it’s in a great location in central London – for commuting to work and for staggering back after nights spent partying – it was affordable (mate’s rates) and Alaric is going to be hard-pressed to find somewhere else that ticks all those boxes. Another friend points out that he knows someone who is looking for a housemate, but Alaric isn’t keen. Gerald Mason (whom we also met in Maybe when Isaac went on a couple of dates with him) is, in Alaric’s view, a stuffed shirt and then some, and his place is on the very fringes of London – it’s not even technically in London going by the post code – but time is running out and Alaric has to live somewhere. So Sutton Common and Gerald will have to do while he looks for something else.

Gerald is quiet and reserved, and likes things to be just so. He likes living alone and is happy with his own company, but he needs to make a bit of extra money, hence his wanting to find a lodger. He and Alaric are total opposites and their first few weeks of sharing space don’t go well at all. Alaric bursts into his life like a whirlwind; he’s a sparkly, sassy chatterbox who seems to feel the need to voice every thought that comes into his head, but Gerald doesn’t do well with chaos and needs space and regular downtime. Things go downhill very quickly and harsh words are exchanged, leading Alaric to accelerate his search for somewhere else to live – until he comes home from work one day to find Gerald seriously unwell and badly in need of his help.

This helps to clear the air between them a bit, and afterwards, they both start to let down their guards and to allow the other to get to know them a little beyond the personas created by their first impressions. Each had acknowledged a vague sense that the other was attractive from the start, but it hadn’t gone beyond that because they were both so turned off by the other’s personality. Yet as a greater understanding starts to develop between them, that vague sense becomes stronger as their chemistry crackles and attraction starts to really simmer.

Unlike Maybe, which had a fair bit of workplace content, Fool’s Gold doesn’t spend a lot of time with Alaric at the hospital, so the story focuses completely on the romance (and avoids being repetitive, I suppose, although I can’t deny that I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Doctor Alvin!) and on Gerald and Alaric slowly coming to see each other for who they really are. I liked that neither of them tries to change the other, or feels that they need to change for the other; what changes is their perspective as their understanding of the other’s wants and needs grows and for Alaric, realising that the life he’d been living wasn’t really what he wanted any more.

As always with Fearne Hill, the characters are engaging, flawed and three dimensional. Both Gerald and Alaric can be hard to like at times; Alaric has no filter and sometimes goes out of his way to be a little shit, while Gerald can come across as stuffy and unyielding, but they’re ultimately good for each other and provide something they’ve each been lacking. Alaric needs stability and a way to switch off (his hamster-wheel brain keeps him awake at night) and Gerald wants to be able to let someone see the real him, the man with a very precise, dry sense of humour and a penchant for being bossy in bed. I especially liked the way Alaric encourages Gerald to re-think his relationship with his Dad, which has become fractured since his mum died, and how he completely embraces Gerald’s hobby – freestyle dog dancing (yes, it’s a real thing, and is an event at Crufts! Musical canine freestyle) and encourages him all the way, from helping him choose outfits to cheering him on at the competitions.

The romance has the odd feel of being both a bit insta and a slow-burn; while it takes weeks for Alaric and Gerald to stop actively disliking each other, when they do, it feels like they go from dislike to not-dislike quite quickly. But it works – there’s a genuine emotional connection building between them by the time they start with “the sexing” (Alaric’s term!) and I do so enjoy the idiots-in-love-without-realising-it trope.

One thing that isn’t mentioned in the text is that the way Alaric talks about his mind never shutting off kind of points towards his having ADHD; but I’m certainly not an expert and given that the author is a medical professional, I assume she’d have made a point of that if she’d wanted to.

Fearne Hill always brings the funny – Alaric’s stream of consciousness thoughts and word vomit is often hilarious – and her characters are wonderfully grounded; ordinary blokes with ordinary jobs, families, and problems. Fool’s Gold is a great example of an opposites-attract romance; Alaric and Gerald are very different, but those differences, and what they each bring to the relationship, are what make them fit together so well. It’s fun, charming and thoroughly entertaining, and I’m happy to recommend it.