Caught Looking

by Adriana Herrera

One night with his best friend, changes everything.

When best friends Yariel and Hatuey's gaming night turns into an unexpected and intense hook up, Hatuey can't wait to do it again. Yariel is less certain--the major leaguer might seem to all the world like he has a heart of stone, but he's been carrying a torch for his friend for years, and worries this will ruin the most important relationship in his life. That means Hatuey has to do all the work, and he's planning to give it all he's got. Yariel may be the one hitting home runs on the field...but Hatuey is playing a game of seduction, and he knows exactly how to make Yariel crumble.

Genres: Romance, M M Romance, Queer, LGBT, Friends To Lovers, Contemporary, Baseball

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2021

About the author

USA Today bestselling author ADRIANA HERRERA was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last 15 years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings.

Her debut Dreamers, has been featured on Entertainment Weekly, NPR, the TODAY Show on NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Oprah Magazine.

When she's not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex vacations with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a social worker in New York City, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Reviews

[Teal]

DNF @ 20%

This seemed chock-full of potential, but it started at the wrong point in the story for me. We're dropped in as the guys are angsting after their first night together, furiously spinning their mental wheels and oh-no-ing. They're not even in the same room with each other, so nothing's actually happening outside their heads. Since I never had the chance to get to know them first, I can't find it in myself to care about their self-inflicted drama. YMMV.

Also: Why are there so many typos? That's just sloppy.

[Agla · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 maybe? I can't believe that I am rating an Adriana Herrera book so low but this one did not work for me. If you want to try this author go to Finding Joy or the Dreamers' series or Here to Stay but not this one. From the beginning I got the feeling that I was thrown into the middle of a story. The book starts the morning after Yariel and Hatuey had a one night stand. They have been friends for 10 years prior to that, Yariel has been in love all that time but Hatuey was oblivious and supposedly straight. That's the situation on page 1. We never find out what changed to make that happen. This could have been a wonderful sexual discovery, friends to lovers story but it wasn't. After that one night, (that we don't really get the details of, it was Hatuey's first time with a man but he did everything, and loved dirty talk no problem, what?) Hatuey is all in as in "let's be a couple" and Yariel is the one who hesitates and stops it for what was, in my opinion, a rather flimsy reason that felt unresolved Yariel had promised Hatuey's dad that nothing would happen between them when he was 18, I'm not sure why the father was against it because it is explained kind of twice but differently. Was it homophobia or fear that the community would not accept while he personally didn't care, I don't really know and there is a huge difference. When I say unresolved: we don't see Hatuey's coming out. He "called his dad and it's fine" but we don't really know what was said. We don't know whether Hatuey has a mom or not for that matter. I know it's a novella but instead of wasting time on unnecessary delays show us the journey and the important stuff. The father could be a source of problem/tension so we need to see the discussion, good or bad . We have unnecessary interruptions and delays. We have the "let's make him jealous so that he caves" nonsense, I mean they are 26 not 15. Finally, I don't feel that I got to know them as individuals or why they love each other in the first place. This one was a miss for me.

[lauraღ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our lips touched and I listed from the power of our mouths coming together. I imagined that we were inventing a whole new way to speak.

This was so so good. The entire novella is about the fallout after two best friends sleep with each other, and it was great in a way that I just never really expect novellas to be, and I loved it!

I really like friends to lovers in general, and I especially love it when it's like this, really intense and where one friend has been pining for another for years (give me ALL the yearning™). And of course, the pining isn't really one-sided. They both love each other so much, and they have for years, and with not so many words, we get a really profound sense of that? That's always a good way to make me like novellas, to have characters with established backgrounds and feelings for each other. But there was still a good amount of on-page chemistry and energy between the characters, and a lot of effective prose that made me emotional. The perceived obstacle to getting together was perhaps "not a big deal" but I could definitely see how it could be! IDK, I just liked everything about this, and having this story with Dominican characters in Herrera's style was everything I could ask for.

The bigger details around the characters and story weren't always communicated very well (idk if I just missed it but did we ever learn why they went back to the DR?) and some of the materialism got on my nerves. Not Yariel being rich (we got scenes of him giving back to his community, which was nice) but just like, name dropping brands and clothes and whatever lol. For me, at least, it's a mood killer.

But this was really very good overall. A quick, sexy read that did a good job of distracting me when I needed it today.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down

Fun, smutty short story for Valentine's Day! Loved that both the MCs are POC, and Herrera tends to be really solid with her representation. I liked the characters well enough, but I did find Yariel's tortured reluctance routine to be a bit tiring. There's also a LOT of (filthy) smut for how short this is, and while you won't usually see me complaining, the dynamic didn't quite work for me which made the abundance of them tiring--I do think we could have done without the one in the epilogue regardless.

[Escape_in_a_Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and cute m/m friends to lovers novella. Although I was hoping this would continue the scene started in the authors newsletter. I was let down that it started the morning after.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I didn't love this one as much as Finding Joy, but it was still an enjoyable read. CW for on page graphic sex

[Samuel Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay read. Not bad not good. I did enjoy it, but I felt like it could've been more. There was something about the dynamic between the two main characters where the tension just seemed off in places. And some decisions made weren't what I was expecting. Overall though, the story was a decent tale.

The blurb led me to believe that an encounter would actually happen by describing a game night turned fun night. The book starts in the aftermath which is okay but doing so takes away from the fact that one character, Hatuey, has never done anything with a guy before from what I can tell so that whole experience is washed over. It's a good character development piece that got missed.

The blurb also led me to believe the was about a guy, who has an encounter with another guy, and that guy is resisting their obvious attraction but he’s determined to win him despite this. Basically a nice fun rom-com. That didn’t exactly happen. There was a lot of internal monologues that were basically backstory of their relationship. Most of that space could've been filled with some clever back and forth and evidence of some master plan to win over someone running from their feelings. Fun angst instead of the drama-filled angst found in some romances.

Also, Hatuey is supposed to be bi but it just didn’t come across as shocking that he had this encounter with Yariel and with the story starting after the encounter I honestly thought he was gay until later on in the book when his previous relationships are briefly mentioned.

All in all, I didn’t dislike this novel, but I wasn’t head over heels in love with it either. The set up read like it would be this fun erotic journey of a guy trying to resist the other guy’s plan to make him his. Instead, there were the usual petty arguments, one scene with jealousy that didn’t quite pay off, and a bunch of history about why it couldn’t work from Yariel’s POV, and how, from Hatuey's POV, he was too blind to see their attraction over their years of friendship. The whole 'mission to win him' plotline got sidetracked. There wasn’t enough page time after all the other stuff to delve into it. And the big question is what actually happened that triggered this realisation in Hatuey that sex with a guy for the first time, who happens to be his best friend, was a good idea? Starting the day after the encounter didn’t really address this epiphany as well as it could’ve.

This was a fun, light, and definitely steamy read. If you’re looking for something that won’t drive you mad but is instead a smooth, entertaining bit of friends to lovers romance, this will fill that void and it’s worth the read.

[JMarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novella is a train wreck, which is incredibly disappointing. Some of my problems with it are probably more a question of personal preference/not liking the author's writing style/things where your mileage may vary but... Man, even if we take out things like clunky dialog, torturous exposition, and inconsistent character reactions... This story needed editing + proofreading BADLY. There were multiple typos per page, so many places where the physical blocking didn't make sense, so many spots where it's obvious the author changed things but then didn't reread to make sure the changes made sense. It honestly felt like the story was sent to print without so much as a beta reader giving it a second look, let alone an editor or someone to give it a final proofread.

Considering I read it in a collection of themed novellas from multiple authors (and the first two novellas were very professionally polished and solid), I'm left wondering what the hell happened with this story. The sudden drop in quality was super distracting. Maybe it was written too close to deadline and there wasn't enough time for proper revision?

In any case, ouch, I absolutely do not recommend this novella.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with having auto-buy authors is that you see a tweet that a new book is coming, one-click to buy and find yourself in possession of a book that you read as part of an anthology some time ago. Never mind, it was nice reading Yariel and Hatuey's friends to pulling-their-heads-out-of-their-arses romance again.

[Brandon Yoplac · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s only one of you. And I would never do anything to mess with that.

I enjoyed this story pretty well! I liked the characters, they were relatable, especially Yariel, I think we had a more inner exploration of his mind and his feelings, and despite the length of this story, we had different discussions such as coming out to your parents and all the fears this could lead into. The plot was a simple one and it depended mostly on what they were thinking but, it was effective and got along with the vibe of this story.
it was funny, touching and sexy!

I think there’s nothing deeper to say but I hope to hear more from Hatuey and Yariel in the future, maybe also with some flashbacks to see what their relationship was like, I have a hunch that our Yariel was angst all the time but we’ll see.

I imagined that we were inventing a whole new way to speak. Where words were superfluous and we communicated like this

P.S Thanks to this little story I have a new favorite song now.

[Toni K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this story as a part of an anthology some time ago and really liked it. Best friends and dirty talk - my favorites. I hoped that in this edition some grammar errors would be corrected - no such luck. Also, the time when Yariel had three hands - one on the back of Hautey's neck, the other in his ass and the third on his balls... Yeah, well. And Hautey was such a sugar baby, I would have liked a bit more independence in him... Anyway, sexy and nice.

[Adriana Martinez Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 - this was a reread because I’d already read it in the come undone anthology, but this one has a new epilogue! Tho, I was tricked!!! Into thinking this would actually be the prologue to the anthology story, because the newsletter had a sorta prologue for the story, so I thought it was a sneak peek. Alas, I still enjoyed the story again.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friends to lovers. Unlike another book I reviewed, this book fit its length really well. Possibly because there's a lot about the world already explored in other books in the series. And I always love Herrera's books, so I'm a bit biased.

[Betts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and fun novella that I received on Adriana's newsletter.
I remember that there was a little bit of Yariel in the book American Sweethearts and it was nice to see his love story with Hatuey.
(And there is a glimpse of JuanPa in here ❤)

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS IS 100 PAGES OF STUBBORN FRIENDS-TO-LOVERS AND I LOVED IT!

I was so invested in these two characters getting together and I will forever be in awe of Adriana Herrera's writing!

Rating: 4 stars

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends to lovers m/m.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Sepia Reece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends to lovers story.

[Ryan - Sweet Red Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5 wine glasses

[Emmah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well written. And I was so lost with all the non English words. But I still really enjoyed it and enjoyed being exposed to a culture I’m not familiar with.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of the He’s Come Undone anthology

[This Curly Arab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adriana does it again with another steamy love story that ends with the sweetest and most gorgeous HEA. These guys really did have to work for that epic love that’s been growing for 10 years.

[Liz]

Quick read, with good pining and lots of “mio.” I wouldn’t have minded starting with their first hookup!

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe this gorgeous novella is a freebie with Adriana's newsletter. Loved it!

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve got one thing to say: 🥵🤠🤼‍♀️🤭❤️‍🔥

[Verity W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steamy m/m romance between two best friends. I really liked it.

[Clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED how intense this short story was from the first moment to the last. This is a Latinx M/M, best friends to lovers queer steamy romance.

Yariel and Hatuey have know each other since they were kids and Yariel has always known he was gay. He is a super hot and publicly out baseball player in New York. His best friend Hatuey works as a translator for the team and they still spend lots of time together until things change. Hatuey has always been straight, he has never questioned it so the topic of questioning and self actualization are huge here. Yariel has so many reasons to be concerned. HE doesn't want to lose his best friend, he doesn't want this to be a mistake and Hatuey has to come to terms with everything about himself.

As friendships go, they both value it immensely and while it can be a huge risk to try a new relationship after so many years these two prove it is all worth it. It may take some convincing and some kissing and a lot more steamy stuff but in the end they were obviously meant to be.

This book really packs a punch of story and emotion in a small space. I'm excited to read more of her backlist.

[fulano · Rating 4 out of 5]

these two were hot and had chemistry! the only thing i’m disappointed about is that this is actually related to the author’s previous series.

[K.D. Casey]

I originally read this as part of the in the He's Come Undone anthology, because it had a hot baseball player and some lovely friends-to-lovers tension. Which, what more do you need?