3 out of 5 stars
Ebook. Kindle Unlimited. 227 pages. Published February 9th 2018 by Rachel Kane
Blurb:
A Friends to Lovers Gay Romance
Burns
I never meant to fall for my best friend! I dragged Karl on a camping trip to escape from my folks. They’re busy trying to set me up with their preacher’s daughter. They don’t know I’m gay, and I’m scared to tell them…but when I see Karl out there in the woods, gorgeous and strong and sensitive, I can’t help it, I fall so hard for him. Now my life is going to get really complicated…
Karl
People call me a know-it-all, but if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that you can’t date your best friend, no matter how big and sexy he is. It wrecks everything if you cross that line. Yet that night when Burns reveals his feelings, I realize I have to go for it. The only problem is, he wants to keep it a secret, and I want to tell the world, and I’m really not good at keeping my mouth shut…
Set In Stone is the second standalone in the Cray’s Quarry series, about five best friends who won’t stop meddling in each other’s love lives, until each one has an HEA.
Likes:
- Friends to lovers romance.
- Coming out can be harder for some people than others.
- The pressure of religion and family on LGBTQ+ people.
- Fewer italics in this book.
Dislikes:
- Did not connect with either character.
- The female characters.
- Most of Karl’s personality.
- Burns’ self-imposed martyrdom.
- So much left out.
- Plot dragged on and on.
- Would have been better as a novella.
- No one does anything, they just complain.
- I have no idea how old any of these people are.
While I’m giving this book a 3 star rating because the writing wasn’t bad, I didn’t enjoy this read. Karl was the side character from book one who made the biggest impression on me, but unfortunately that impression wasn’t a good one. He’s loud, opinionated, thinks that lecturing people is the best way to affect change, doesn’t do anything to make change actually happen, and always thinks he’s right. I felt like 90% of his character was an immature mansplainer. That goes for both the first book and this one.
Burns isn’t much better. He college educated, though I have no idea what he studied or why he doesn’t have a job or any friends. He’s living with his religious parents to save money so he can pay off his student loans, is deeply in the closet, and thinks his parents are so mentally fragile that coming out would destroy everything. So he lies to everyone, becomes a martyr, and is miserable.
The plot in and of itself isn’t bad. Loud, opinionated gay guy drags his best friend out of the closet and they get together in the process. It’s classic. Except that neither Burns nor Kyle has any qualities or traits that made me like them. Kyle literally cannot keep his mouth shut to save his job and Burns is so upset at his mom trying to hook him up with a girl that he almost drowns.
I can usually cheer on a couple as they struggle towards love, but with these guys, I just wanted them to get their heads out of their asses. They both had issues that needed to be fixed, that people kept telling them about, and that they refused to address until everything blows up. Burns needed to come out. Kyle needed to learn that he wasn’t always right. But it didn’t happen until the very end. It made the book feel long and painfully drawn out. With the lackluster subplot about Kyle’s job hunting, this story would have done much better as a novella.
I will say, the thing I liked most about the book and what ultimately pushed me to read to the end was Burns’ struggle to come out to his parents. Kane did a good job showing the difference in how easy it is for some people to come out while others struggle with it for years. Add in the religious aspect, and it was without a doubt the best part of the book.
Unfortunately, all of the religious characters who had more than a few lines were all negative stereotypes. As were the women. Of the three who were in the book for any significant amount of time, all were unlikeable.
I’m going to say that this book was just not for me. I could have come around to the characters had they been given redeeming arcs. If Karl had gone out and done something to make the world a better place instead of just lecturing everyone about the evils of humanity. If Burns had taken steps to make his life better instead of just being miserable all the time. Instead, this book felt full of a lot of talk and not much action.
I dropped this series after two books, but you can find the review for book one, Rock-A-Bye.
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