Rating: 
Summary: wonderful and moving, a great debut novel
Review: this is a tremendous first novel for a writer. i loved it and could barely put it down. the main character is toby and he is a young gay man in the bustling life of new york city. his friend jamie is funny, and there are a lot more side charcaters that add to the appeal of the novel i like the way dolby flushed out his supporting characters but did not allow any of them to take to much of the focus away from toby. the novel gave me a pretty good idea what it would be like in the club scene of new york. it sounds like a non-stop party that is filled with drugs and hook ups. i like the fact that dolby did not try to hide those aspects of the gay culture, but i also like the fact that he gave consequences to these actions rather than pretending that this behavior is ok and nothing ever comes from promiscuous behavior. aids is included in this story, but it does not over power the main flow of the book. the story does sort of read like a fairy tale, you have a new world, then drama, but in the end everything turns out ok in the end. i feel there is a lot to be taken away from this book, especially by a young gay reader struggling with issues that are explored in this book. it deals with coming out, drugs, [adult content], work, family, and anything else under the sun. i love the fact that the book was very straight forward and did not try to get to involved with the words. i think the goal of this book was to tell a story and it does so perfectly. i highly recommend this book as a quick read or something fun to pick up. it would make a great book to take with you to the beach or read by the pool. all in all i really cant wait for tom dolby's next book, i can only hope it is a good as this one. this is a promising author for gay fiction and ranks up there with christopher rice.
Rating:
Summary: Take the Trouble to Read This Book
Review: This riveting first novel takes an unapologetic look at the first post-Yale year in the life of cute twenty two year old Toby Griffin, an insecure gay man dealing with the pressures and demands of big city existence. Success in "The Big Apple" is the goal here, and upon graduation, Toby joins the rest of the migrating Ivy League masses determined to find it. Toby, a child of privilege originally from San Francisco, is a struggling writer with dreams of Oscar winning screenplays and world-wide recognition. He also fantasizes about "hooking up" with the perfect guy and living in domestic bliss. However, if he doesn't achieve these goals "like right now", he is sure he will be perceived as a total failure by the very society he so desperately wants to succeed in. Inevitably, comparisons are bound to be made concerning, THE TROUBLE BOY and, SEX AND THE CITY, but I am more readily reminded of Tom Wolfe's brilliant, THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. The portraits painted of "the high-living capital of the world" by both these books, while certainly different in scope, are not only spot-on, but fascinating to look at. THE TROUBLE BOY, beautifully integrates human geed and the need for success, with all the insecurities inherent in being extremely young and career driven. The young men and women here walk a very fine line between what they want to accomplish, and what they have to do to accomplish it. Integrity still has a place in this fast paced world, but quite often these players have their blinders on to it. This wonderful "slice of life" piece of fiction is full of candid observations and truths about big city life and aspirations. While the book is painstakingly realistic, it still remains blatantly hopeful.
Rating: 
Summary: A good debut novel
Review: Toby Griffin has just graduated from Yale and moved to New York to start his adult life. He finds an apartment in the East Village and jumps headlong into the hip, gay, urban life that he believes is his destiny. Faced with career, relationship and moral crises, Toby is forced to confront the stereotypes he has applied to himself.
Tom Dolby's debut novel follows Toby's coming-of-age story. The author is a keen story-teller: the novel's plot moves quickly, particularly when it visits New York's club scene, which Dolby captures in painfully honest detail. However, with the exception of the protagonist, Dolby's characters are thinly drawn and largely uninteresting.
Lastly, a word of caution. Some of the intimate scenes are described in detail that borders on vulgarity. Squeamish readers may find them unsettling. As the novel progresses, Dolby moderates these descriptions from the nearly clinical to a more detached, romantic style. These moderations rather brilliantly mirror Toby's own changing opinions of himself and his relationships.
Rating:
Summary: No Trouble Here
Review: Toby Griffin is determined to prove to himself--and his parents--that he can make it on his own in New York City. Fresh out of college, Toby's dream is to be a screenwriter. His parents, both wildly successful at a young age, have high expectations of their only child. Those expectations don't include a career in writing. "I'm afraid you're living in a fantasy world," his father tells him.
In some ways, Toby's father is right. Toby's job writing club reviews for a trendy website throws him into the glitzy, sometimes gritty, nightlife of the City. Things become even more fantasylike when the website folds and Toby lands a plush job as personal assistant to Cameron Cole, an infamous gay film mogul. He suddenly finds himself in the world of movie stars, violence, sex, and drugs.
Thanks to Cameron's influence, everything seems to be falling into place for Toby--but at what price? Will he sell his soul to sell his screenplay?
The answers to the questions in his personal life aren't coming any easier. Toby is tiring of the endless string of one-night stands with virtual strangers he knows only by descriptive tags: Loft Boy, Real World Guy, Goth Boy. He longs for something more, but can he find it in a world that seems to value lust over love?
The Trouble Boy is Tom Dolby's debut novel. At first glance, one might be tempted to write off Boy as a frothy, gay version of a chick-lit book--a sort of gay sex in the city. While there's plenty of sex, fashion, pop-culture references, and name dropping, there's also a lot more happening beneath the surface. At heart, this is a book about a young man finding himself.
Dolby writes with great flair and wit. You come to care deeply about his young protagonist despite his mistakes and bad choices. Even at his worse, you fully understand Toby's motivations--a true testament to Dolby's skill. Dolby himself is a young writer, and I hope we can expect much more from this talented author in the year's to come.
Rating:
Summary: Review of "The Trouble Boy" by Cheri
Review: Tom Dolby has accurately captured the essence of what makes twenty-something preppy gay men on the Upper East Side of Manhattan tick in his refreshing and honest novel "The Trouble Boy." A native of San Francisco, Toby Griffin is a privileged Yale graduate who majored in film studies. Toby confides, "After a sexless four years at boarding school, I was ready to sleep with every available gay undergrad in the tristate area." [p. 3] Having had his fill of meaningless one-night stands he is more mature now at twenty-two, and is looking for the one guy that he can spend the rest of his life with. He moves to the Big Apple with dreams of fame, fortune, and a long-term relationship. His accomplished wealthy parents-his mother is a famous fashion designer and his father made his fortune at a firm specializing in biotechnology-have given him one year to prove himself in NYC, if not he has to go back home and work in his father's business. Talk about pressure...Toby's parents succeeded in their careers while still in their twenties and expect no less from their progeny.
"The Trouble Boy" begins with Toby meeting Jamie Weissman who introduces him to the guys who become his friends in Manhattan. A Princeton graduate, Jamie is an investment banker, hardly the type of guy Toby would assume was gay. Jamie introduces himself to Toby at the type of party "...where people don't talk to anyone they don't know already." [p. 1]. Jamie tells Toby about a job opening for a freelance writer at a web site called CityStyle.com. Toby becomes their nightlife editor and reviews nightclubs and interviews rent boys. The job has its perks including many opportunities for sex, drugs, and alcohol. Even after landing a job, Toby never loses sight of his dream to become a famous screenwriter despite his parents' desire for him to get a "real job" and have a respectable career. Toby is determined to succeed and when one job ends, he lands a more lucrative position as the personal assistant to an unscrupulous film magnate, Cameron Cole. Toby feels taking the job could be just the contact he needs to break into the movie business.
While Jamie lusts after Toby, Toby lusts after a series of boys, from a co-worker Donovon, to a whole cast of characters including Subway Boy, Loft Boy, Army Guy, and others. The fantasies of domestic bliss Toby conjures up as he sees a potential mate, is an endearing quality of the ever-hopeful young man. The reader hopes Toby can find true love, but first he has to get his life together and clean up his act. Will he succeed in business and in love?
When I wasn't laughing out loud, I was grinning from ear to ear at Dolby's wit, humor, and candor. Even in the face of inner turmoil and catastrophic events, Toby maintains his sense of humor which gets him through sticky situations. Toby is portrayed warts and all, or more accurately, pimples and all. He is not always a very nice person, but he is likeable even though the reader can't help but notice his shallow, egotistical, juvenile side. Toby makes mistakes but at least he has a conscience making him all the more human and believable. Hopefully, Toby can be saved from being the Trouble Boy and from making poor choices.
Dolby intimately tells Toby's story in the first person, except when he switches to the third person in chapter three as Toby has a flashback of his freshman year at college. What at first seemed jarring proved to be a well thought out tactic that emphasizes Toby's feelings that "it happened to another person, another Toby Griffin." [p. 40]. Who hasn't felt, or wished, that certain life events had happened to someone else?
With the gay Mecca Upper East Side of Manhattan lingo perfected in Tom Dolby's debut novel, "The Trouble Boy," it's hard to imagine not being there along with the characters. Vivid descriptions, catchy phrases, irresistible jargon all add to the charm of this fast-paced gay boy romp. "The Trouble Boy" is reminiscent of William J. Mann's "The Men from the Boys" in that Toby is like so many gay boys-he's desperate not to end up living alone. He goes from one anonymous sexual encounter to another searching for love and a permanent relationship, most of the time for the wrong reasons and in the wrong places. Dolby's insightful observations are wonderful. One example is when Toby admits, "Unlike those who had discovered a loss of libido on antidepressants, my libido was as strong as ever, which made the situation worse. I felt like an injured athlete who could only cheer his team on from the sidelines." [p. 37]. The metaphor was great as Toby describes the sexual side effects of Paxil.
While "The Trouble Boy" is classified as gay fiction, straight readers will be able to relate to Toby's dreams and aspirations quite well. This fun but troubling journey into the gay world should not be bound by genre. "The Trouble Boy" is engrossing, believable, and funny. The dialogue rings true, and the pace is quick. It could easily be turned into a screenplay and major motion picture. I give "The Trouble Boy" five stars and look forward to the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: fun read--something different!
Review: Wow, who knew the boys had all the fun? Definitely not your stereotypical air-headed "chelsea boys"--Toby and his friends in this book are smart, sassy and ambitious. ... I don't want to ruin it for anyone by giving anything away. I finished it in two days flat and then immediately lent it to my best friend. I know she'll love it too.
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