4.5 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 1 edition. 245 pages. Published October 2nd 2017 by Riptide Publishing
Blurb:
Andy Tyler has been the class daredevil since middle school. Over the years, he’s convinced his best friend, Jake Masterson, to perform some dangerous-looking stunts with him. But the dare they attempt on the night of their college graduation goes sideways. The firecrackers explode too soon and both of them end up with badly burned palms.
But hey, nothing gets the “terrible two-o” down for long, and they recuperate in style at Andy’s family cottage in Cape Cod. As the weeks go by, both Andy and Jake grow frustrated over the inability to use their hands for all sorts of daily activities—including getting off. So Andy begins a new series of dares that don’t just cross the friendship line, they obliterate it.
But what might be mere sexual relief to Andy is serious business to Jake, who only recently got over years of secret pining for his straight best friend. Inevitably, the burns heal, summer ends, and hearts are broken. To fix things, Andy will have to face the greatest dare of all.
Likes:
- Andy and Jake, together and separately.
- Believable in their dumb guy-ness.
- The underlying current of more than friends between Jake and Andy.
- Story took off fast.
- So much sexual tension.
- The smut.
- Realistic thought processes.
- Character development.
Dislikes:
- The flashbacks to when they were younger slowed the pace a bit.
- Andy’s father.
- The casual homophobia.
This was a re-read for me. I wanted something contemporary that was brimming with sexual tension. A book that felt like it could 100% happen in real life.
Everyone who went to an American public school probably knows a pair of guys like Andy and Jake. The dumb guy-ness was strong and realistic. But they weren’t idiots. I liked that the flashbacks showed that Andy normally did a lot of preparation before pulling a stunt. He’s not totally reckless. That made him easier to like.
The story got started quickly, with the firework stunt going wrong in the first chapter. I was glad the wounds on their hands weren’t talked about in too much graphic detail. The focus was more on how Andy and Jake felt about their plans being disrupted. In fact, a lot of this book is about emotions, even though there aren’t a ton of long heart-to-heart chats.
Jake is easy to like. He’s levelheaded, and has been in love with Andy for years. Cheering for him was automatic. Andy was also surprisingly easy to like. His father has Andy’s entire life planned out, and even though Andy agreed to the plan, it’s clear he isn’t happy. It’s also clear right from the beginning that what Andy feels for Jake is more than simple friendship. It takes Andy a long time to figure out his feelings, but the journey was worth it.
Reading the book put me in a prolonged state of sexual tension. The blurb makes it clear that what happens between Andy and Jake starts off purely physical. Needless to say, the smut is on point. But it also ramps up in intensity and emotional entanglement.
I thought the flashbacks added a lot to the story. The flashbacks were always about Andy and Jake, always about a dare, and showed a lot of both their friendship and what they were each going through at that moment. However, the flashbacks did slow down the story. Each time one popped up, I wanted to rush through it so I could get back to the present day plot.
The downside of having a book that’s completely believable is that the casual homophobia is also realistic. Andy’s dad makes a good modern villain. He’s not evil. He genuinely wants Andy to succeed. But his version of success means having a lot of money to retire with. It means pointing out that Andy might not get the job he wants if he’s in a same sex relationship. Worries that Andy himself struggles with.
I liked that Andy and Jake took the time to think clearly and seriously about their futures. They both go through a lot of character development. It left me feeling like they had a good, secure future in store for them by the end of the book. And that’s what I really wanted. Especially since this is a standalone book.
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