Oh god, this book had so much potential, and it did not live up to any of it, woof. The setup is something out of my contemporary romance novel dreams: Ben and Maddox have been best friends since SEAL training, and a decade later they're SEAL teammates and also roommates whose friendship is complicated by a threesome they have with a twink from a gay club. But before they can talk about their feelings, they go on a rescue mission that goes bad and both of them are severely injured.
Now, so far this setup is fantastic! At this point we could have amnesia, or one of them confessing his love and then thinking the other one didn't hear him/didn't remember because of the live-threatening injuries, or one of them could almost die because he sacrificed himself to save the other one, or all kinds of things! And instead, they get back to the States after going through this horribly traumatic event, and then they decide to fake date each other? Only they're really dating, they're just...not calling it that? But also going to Ben's dad's wedding together. None of it makes sense, and it has nothing to do with the first half of the book, and all of their emotional issues and how they respond to them don't feel like how real people act at all. But beyond that, they don't feel like decade-long friends to me. Ben is shocked to discover that Maddox wants to leave the Navy and open a bakery. Maddox also has a totally fucked up family situation that is a major plot point while he's in the hospital after almost dying and is then completely dropped after that. This book feels like two novellas stapled together, with no emotional consistency or logic to it. I've liked a bunch of other books by this author, but this one did not work for me at all.
Grade: C
Now, so far this setup is fantastic! At this point we could have amnesia, or one of them confessing his love and then thinking the other one didn't hear him/didn't remember because of the live-threatening injuries, or one of them could almost die because he sacrificed himself to save the other one, or all kinds of things! And instead, they get back to the States after going through this horribly traumatic event, and then they decide to fake date each other? Only they're really dating, they're just...not calling it that? But also going to Ben's dad's wedding together. None of it makes sense, and it has nothing to do with the first half of the book, and all of their emotional issues and how they respond to them don't feel like how real people act at all. But beyond that, they don't feel like decade-long friends to me. Ben is shocked to discover that Maddox wants to leave the Navy and open a bakery. Maddox also has a totally fucked up family situation that is a major plot point while he's in the hospital after almost dying and is then completely dropped after that. This book feels like two novellas stapled together, with no emotional consistency or logic to it. I've liked a bunch of other books by this author, but this one did not work for me at all.
Grade: C
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