I really enjoyed reading this book, especially the first 70%. There was a lot that worked, especially the pining, flirting, and the slightly forbidden aspect due to the fact that the LI was the brother's best friend/best friend's little brother. I liked both MCs, as well as all the brothers (and am excited the the other books in the series will focus on the other brothers!).

One of my favorite parts was the depiction of Alec's (the younger MC) unhappiness with the life course he was set on, both with his school and major. As someone who once worked hard to set myself on a life path that required a lot of skill, time, and effort and then realized I hated it and had to extricate myself from it, I related to a lot of his feelings, turmoil, and reluctance to do anything about it for a long time. That said, I wish we'd got to see a bit more of him setting up his new life on page, rather than having a lot of it happen off page and then told to us in the epilogue. I also liked the ADHD and Mexican representation with Alec. 

There's a significant amount of miscommunication and lack of communication, and most problems could be addressed by the MCs having a couple of difficult conversations (both with each other and other people in their life), but I think the author does a good job setting the precedent for why those conversations are unattainably hard for the MCs to have for a lot of the book; I'm a confrontation-averse person and often need an outside impetus to spur me into having those kinds of conversations, just like the MCs here. But if those are tropes you hate, this might not be the book for you.

The author clearly took care to make the age gap fun and sexy but not problematic. That said, there were a couple of moments where I felt uncomfortable, though I think they were situational and unavoidable for me and no amount of careful writing could have deterred them. The older MC has known the younger MC since the younger MC was born (he remembers when the younger MC's mom was pregnant), and everyone references this fact a lot throughout the book. Sometimes it was hard to not feel skeeved out by that, even though the author made it very clear that the older MC had no romantic or sexual feelings about the younger MC until the younger MC was 21.

For me, I think where this book fell from being a 4.5 or 5 star book to a 4 star book was the last 25%. I was disappointed by how little we got to see of the MCs actually being together (about 12% I think, including epilogue). I wanted to revel in the new dynamics of Theo with Alec's family and see how their day-to-day relationship looks, but we only get a glimpse of those in the epilogue, which takes place almost a year later. Also, the third act drama was dramatic, which was fine, but felt a bit like a deus ex machina. There did need to be an impetus for change, but so my qualm isn't necessarily with that. I think again, my problem is that the satisfactory conclusions were rushed quite a lot. I would have much more enjoyed getting to savor the characters coming to them and then living them out. I think the book would have been better if the events of last 25% took up the last 40% of the book -- I don't even think I'd cut anything from the beginning, just have a long af book, it's fine.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, will absolutely and enthusiastically read the other books in the series when they are released (which seem like will focus on the other King brothers, who I loved). I had a few qualms that prevented me from rating it higher, but it's still a book I would recommend and very well might buy a physical copy of when possible.

tropes & representation: Mexican MC, ADHD MC, oral fixation, brother's best friend/best friend's brother, virgin x experienced, athlete (soccer)