A Rumor and a Grebe: A MM Enemies to Lovers High School Romance

by Alex Pendragon

Aspen Elliot isn't the worst person I could be stuck with on a school project, but it's a close call. He's confident, popular, and far too aware of his own good looks, but Aspen isn't immune to gossip. We're trapped overnight together, with no cell service and no the ideal opportunity for him to dig deeper into a particularly embarrassing, painfully personal rumor I really hoped would just go away.

Curiosity is a slippery slope. Aspen's interest started out teasing, but it's escalating in ways neither of us could've seen coming. At eighteen, I was meant to have sworn off confused straight boys and be focused on graduating and getting the hell away from small-town life. Instead, it seems everything I do to discourage Aspen only makes his fascination escalate.

The sex we're having may keep getting better, but the risks are growing faster; my plans to fly under the radar until I can escape to college are floundering in the face of Aspen's hurtling self-discovery. With the chances of a clean break looking less likely by the day, why is it so hard to figure out if I'm just another conquest to him, an experiment, or maybe something more?

A Rumor and a Grebe is a spicy enemies-to-lovers m/m high school romance from the author of Jock Auction and The Hitchhiker.

Genres: Romance

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2023

About the author

Born in the UK, and now living in California, I'm a gay writer with a love of coming-of-age stories and high heat-levels.

I've always had an overactive imagination, and have been a contributor to free online archives of m/m stories for some years. In 2015 my first published novel, Jock Auction, was released with Loose Id.

When I'm not writing about guys exploring their sexual identities, I'm a food-loving geek who can't get over the fact that California weather is so much nicer than it is back in Britain.

Reviews

[Tricia Ledford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smut that smuts hard.

First person point of view
Virgin, maybe bi-curious popular guy.
Cherry popping goodness.
🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 5/5 heat level and steam. Great descriptions .
Many first times.
High school setting
Ending was kind of bittersweet. Maybe a HFN, but also probably not.
Erotica. I wouldn't call this a romance.

A Rumor and a Grebe and that's exactly how this story began. Two guys who couldn't be more different forced to do a project together of bird watching all night leading into a more eventful and curious exploration. Aspen Elliot is popular and arrogant, but very, very curious and questioning of our leading man. Our leading man is openly gay and I didn't get a name for him, or if I did I completely missed it. Although, I wasn't left missing it because the dialogue and story flowed pretty well.
The plot was heavy in the smut department, and I'm here for it, but also it had undercurrents of the gay guy's struggle to understand Aspen's curiosity , wants, desires, and Aspen's over all demeanor of being completely unfazed by the smexy stuff they begin doing. A tenuous friendship and maybe with friends with benefits thing starts, and Aspen take it all in stride, but our guy struggles a little bit, keeps his emotions away, but this isn't super heavy on the feels I believe. Its super heavy on the experiences.
The ending was left open. HFN. Very bitter sweet.

[JD Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m so utterly frustrated with this book because it’s brilliant, and written so well and the characters are amazing, but there’s no HEA….

If I’d had known that I would have read it. Why couldn’t they just get together at the end? This is not a romance, it’s a book about hooking up and then they seem to go their separate ways. Ugh. Annoying, but we move…