Tropes: friends to lovers, opposites attract, nerd x jock, (childhood) friends to lovers, pining, virgin, in love the whole time 

There was a lot here that didn’t work for me personally but might work well for someone else!! In general, I love friends to lovers, but the emotions of this one didn’t resonate great with me. One friend — the out gay one, who is also the more serious and nerdy one — has been pining for his jock & kind of flighty best friend for years. There’s a lot of hurting in the first third of the book and in general, more negative emotions throughout than I prefer. There’s also quite a bit of emotional yo-yo-ing, especially in the last third, which isn’t my preference. 

I think my biggest problem was the general dynamic between the MCs (and I admittedly may be biased here by my own kind of similar less-than-ideal dynamic in a past best-friendship). I don’t like how Asher (the nerdy, pining one) basically follows Dalton (the extrovert) around, seemingly always working to make him happy and going out of his way to do so, whereas I didn’t see a lot of on-page examples of how Dalton reciprocates this energy. For example, Asher actively suggests doing and engages in Dalton’s interests but then has to bribe Dalton into participating in Asher’s interests. Dalton seemingly breezes through his life without too much attention to how his actions affect others/Asher, except in the most obvious of moments (and even then doesn’t nail it). To me, their friendship is very centered on Dalton, and having been in a best friendship like that… it’s not a great feeling.

I didn’t love the initial scene where they get together. It’s while sharing a bed & they wake up rutting together. The way it’s done doesn’t feel like the *most* consent-forward way for this to happen in my opinion. I don’t love that the jock friend initially seems to give very little thought to the romantic/sexual progression of their friendship; I think it’s supposed to come off as a natural progression, but to me he came across pretty flippant. Like, he dives into it without giving it much thought and doesn’t seem to consider at all how it will hurt his best friend if he realizes these aspects of the relationship don’t work for him. Of course they do, because this is a romance book, but his initial approach to it made it harder for me to root for him.

This was my first book by this author & I appreciate being given an arc to review! I would probably try reading something else by her to see if a different couple/dyanmic makes me enjoy her books more because I didn’t have any issues with the writing style or pacing. If none of this sounds like a deal breaker to you, then you’ll probably really enjoy this book & should definitely pick it up! It wasn’t my cup of tea but I can see why others like it!