3 out of 5 stars
Blurb:
It’s a rookie mistake, falling in love with your best friend. It’s even worse to be in love with your straight, soon-to-be-married-to-a-woman best friend. After all these years, and all the men I’ve fooled around with, I wish I could shake him. I wish I could close the proverbial door on a dream that’s never going to come true. But what if after all this time I had it wrong? What if after all this time he felt the same? Regrets and Resolutions is a 25k novella about two best friends, a bachelor party in Vegas and all the lines they cross to be together.
Likes:
- Friends to lovers romance.
- Both men are into each other from the start.
- Gael’s family.
- How smut.
Dislikes:
- Part of a full-length novel.
- Clichés.
- Cheating.
- The way Gael handles things with his fiancé.
- Too much angst.
I don’t usually start out a review with my least favorite thing, but in this case, it’s warranted. I got this novella for free as part of the 2020/21 Winter Wonderland Giveaway. I knew that some of the stories would be from existing series, and that was fine. I didn’t expect for there to be teaser stories like this one. Even though Regrets and Resolutions is a novella with a HFN ending, it’s not meant to be a standalone. It’s part of a full-length novel. A novel which hasn’t been published yet. And you only learn that important fact at the end of the story.
It’s a good thing this story didn’t hook me. I’m mad enough about the novella being a teaser. If I had fallen in love with the characters, and wanted to follow up by reading their whole story, I wouldn’t even be able to yet. The novel isn’t scheduled to come out until late June, which is half a year away.
But I digress.
I knew from the blurb that there would be angst. Openly gay Jordan has been pining for his straight best friend Gael ever since they were young. Cliché but still good. And I have to give major props to Gael’s family. They’re great. They took Jordan in when his own parents kicked him out. He’s part of the family, and you can really feel the warmth.
I also enjoyed that Jordan and Gael both got point of view sections. The story started with Gael, the ‘straight’ one, and it’s immediately obvious that he likes Jordan as more than a friend. Which makes it weird that he’s getting married to a woman.
With both men pining for each other but afraid to make a move, there was much angst and pining. Almost too much. I’m used to angst being spread out over the first half of a novel. This was all crammed into the first part of a 25k word novella. It was concentrated angst. As it rose to a boiling point, it became clear that things between them would be explosive. And it was. The sex scenes were plentiful. Once the dam broke, the two men could hardly keep their hands off each other.
The only problem? As the blurb stated, the men are in Vegas for Gael’s bachelor party. That’s right, he’s still engaged to a woman. So the majority of what happens to them is Gael cheating on his fiancé. That’s not something I enjoy. Sadly, even when Gael did tell his fiancé, it was in the shittiest way possible. It definitely made me like the characters less.
By the time I got to the end of the novella, I was ready to be done with Gael and Jordan. They weren’t bad characters, and the writing was good. But the story didn’t hook me. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. I think it’s more about a dozen little dislikes. There’s a lot of clichés and not much character growth. I’m not even interested in reading Deacon and Julian’s story, and their book is already out. I think, in the end, this just wasn’t for me.
Love is Love Reviews 