~Cloud Cover~
by Jeffrey Sotto
~Coffee & Thorn Book Tour/eBook/Independently Published 10-08-2019~
~Tour Date – 01-06-2023~
~Available On Amazon~
- Genre: Contemporary fiction, LGBTQ fiction
- Print length: 293 pages
- Age range: This is an adult book, but it might be suitable for some mature teens aged 16+
- Trigger warnings: Mental illness (eating disorder), death of a parent, brief episodes with explicit consensual sex, occasional profane language.
~About The Author~
Jeffrey Sotto graduated from The University of Toronto, majoring in Film Studies and English Literature. He was the screenwriter and script consultant for the Canadian short films The Tragedy of Henry J. Bellini (2010) and Sara and Jim (2009), respectively.
Cloud Cover, his first novel published in 2019, won a Best Indie Book Award (BIBA) for LGBTQ Fiction, an Independent Publisher Bronze Medal Book Award (IPPY), and a Literary Titan Book Award. It also briefly topped the Amazon bestseller list in LGBTQ fiction upon release.
He published his second novel, The Moonballers: A Novel about The Invasion of a LGBTQ2+ Tennis League … by Straight People (GAY GASP!) in Spring 2022.
Jeffrey is also an advocate for mental health and eating disorder awareness and recovery, having shared his story on CBC Radio, Global News, and Sheena’s Place. He is currently a peer mentor at Eating Disorders Nova Scotia (EDNS). He will be contributing to the anthology Queering Nutrition and Dietetics: LGBTQ+ Reflections on Food Through Art, to be released in December 2022. Finally, in 2023, he will be appearing in the docuseries Wicked Bodies by Truefaux Films, which focuses on fostering positive culturally competent engagement in treatment and support centres, universities, and non-profit programs working with LGBTQ+ groups with disordered eating and body dysmorphia.
He is a self-proclaimed “cubicle dreamer,” tennis addict, and compulsive social media duckfacer.
~My Thoughts~
The novel CLOUD COVER, by Jeffrey Sotto, opens in April of 2010, wherein twenty-nine-year-old Tony, our main character, works as a creative writing teacher to teens at the Gold’s Community Art Centre in Toronto, Canada, and, unbeknownst to him—his life is about to change.
Five years later, Tony has a new job at Melo and Co, a marketing and consulting firm, and teaches part-time at the community centre, where he first sees the handsome and much younger Antonio, a fellow teacher.
To his friends and coworkers, life appears to be going well for Tony, that is, until changes in his work habits prompt questions from his boss.
What they don’t know, and what the reader learns early on in the narrative, is that Tony is struggling with mental health, grief, and body image.
Sotto does a great job of weaving Tony’s heartbreaking past between present-day events that paint a clear picture of his mindset.
Here Is A Snippet:
‘“Everybody approaches life from their own narrow point of view. But to live what other people go through and feel their joy and pain and to share in it … it may not solve the problem, but it makes people feel less lonely. And I think that is magical.”’
No truer words were ever spoken, in my opinion.
Highly Recommend!
~D.K. Hundt Book Reviews~ 
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