Audio narration: 3 stars
Story: 4.5 stars
Noah is a cis white gay 21 year old college student. He’s on the lean side, not tall or short, and wears glasses. I think he has green eyes and blonde hair but I can’t remember. He’s great at physicals and a sought after tutor and student, but bad at flirting. He’s a virgin and has no romantic experience with guys or girls (but is gay). He agrees to type Sawyer in exchange for flirting/dating/pickup lessons. He gets a crush on Sawyer after their first conversation and tries initially to ignore it. He’s pretty convinced Sawyer won’t ever like him romantically because he thinks Sawyer can do a lot better. Even when he mistakenly thinks Sawyer is trying to tell him that, he’s understanding about it. Sawyer wasn’t, of course, but this poor guy was made to think he’s inadequate (parents mostly) and it takes some time to grow out of that. He’s also pretty desperate to not be a virgin anymore. I hugely appreciated he had sex for the first time with someone he trusted but also not someone he was seriously dating. Too many people get married/committed JUST to have sex. That’s some expensive sex with a lot of pressure and strings. Just have fun!
Sawyer is a cis Asian bisexual 21 year old college student. He’s strong, muscled and very fit, but on the smaller side for hockey players. He’s about an inch taller than Noah and is broader. He’s the guy on the cover. He likes piercings and doc martens. He’s very popular and is basically a fuckboy. He’s definitely a jock character, and is a little ditzy/bro at times. He’s been sexually active since 16 with his first sexual experience with a girl, though he says it was awkward, and so was sex with the next few girls. He slept with a guy for the first time at 18. He’s failing physics and needs a tutor. He offers Noah anything he wants for tutoring, and agrees to train him to flirt with guys. Sawyer is very popular with men and women and says he sleeps with men and women about equally. However, he states he’s “low key” about his bisexuality, meaning he’s open/public about the girls he’s with but not the guys, so almost everyone thinks he’s straight. He does feel sad that Riley and Cameron are (very) open about being together, but he can’t do that with Noah like he would be able to with a girl. He vaguely thinks Noah is kind of cute after their first meeting but definitely isn’t into him at first. He gets jealous at times but has no idea that’s what’s happening. He doesn’t even consider he might be into Noah until about halfway through.
The “flirting” practice in the book is weird. Sawyer basically looks hot, is a jock, and acts like he’s not interested and insists this is what flirting is. It works for him, but it was both a little disturbing (the idea that acting uninterested is the way to actually appear interested has bad implications for consent), and bit hilarious because he’s not great at flirting, he’s just hot, lol.
I thought the main couple had very nice chemistry. They made pretty good friends too, which helps! However, I thought the brunette girl with green eyes had amazing chemistry with Sawyer! It was a bit unfortunate since this was a pivotal scene in Sawywr realizing he was into Noah, but I didn’t even care! She was similar to him and they seemed to get along so well and has such cool chemistry! I honestly started yearning for them to end up together! I love Noah, but I really felt this girl would be better for Sawyer. Noah is such a sweetie, and he already thinks Sawyer isn’t into him, I know he’d fine another guy. I know that wouldn’t happen, but I could hope! Not that I don’t want the MCs together, I do, they’re great, just for me not as great as I thought Sawyer would be with that girl. :,(
This happens to me sometimes; I end up accidentally shipping a side character with someone harder than the main character.
I’m not sure the narrator was cast appropriately for this. He wasn’t bad, but his interpretation was often at odds with how characters’s personalities were described. Also the sex scenes were both uninteresting and grating to listen to (a combo of “horny” sounding whiny/high. So I rented the ebook and just read the scenes, much better.
Some of this writing is too flowery/sappy for me, but this is an individual preference. I don’t enjoy phrasing that’s supposed to be poetic or something, but if you do I’d totally recommend this book and this author in general.
I really liked that eventually Noah decided to do what he loved and was good at rather than chasing a dream of his parents’ to constantly outdo himself with more and more prestigious things.
Content warnings and tropes:
—Explicit sexual scenes
—No sex until after 50%
—Jock doesn’t realize he likes nerd until after 50%
—Nerd likes jock almost immediately
—Very minor sports element
—Nerd x jock
—Minimal size difference (both guys are on the leaner/smaller side, though Sawyer is stronger)
—POC MC
—Gay nerd x bisexual jock
—Virgin MC x sexually experienced MC
—College
Other:
—First person dual POV
—No cheating
—Minor romantic “rivals” only in the sense that tons of people are constantly flirting with and being flirted with by Sawyer for half the book
—No breakup (they almost “break up” even though they’re not dating, but they don’t)
—Sexual roles: strict (Sawyer prefers to top and be somewhat dominant, Noah enjoys bottoming and being slightly more submissive)
—HEA implied