3.75 stars!
This was an interesting and fun read, for the most part. Noah and Zach definitely had chemistry, and I loved their interactions after Zach stopped being a jackass. Thankfully, that happened fairly quickly.
The story was interesting. Noah is 22 and hiding, 4 years after he gave evidence against Donovan Moretti, a crime family boss. In that time he's developed agoraphobia and only feels comfortable enough moving around the apartment building, never stepping out of it. Even then, he counts his steps from his apartment door to the elevator, to the elevator to the gym in the building, and so on.
He's barely living, always in fear of the Moretti family coming after him and murdering him for giving over evidence that put the crime boss in jail.
But then Zach comes along, with his own demons and walls, hiding in his own way.
Zach pretends, really, that he hates Noah at first - for no reason - and always comes up with any excuse to. He says it's because he wanted Noah so badly since the first time he saw him and that scared him, given that he'd given up on love a long time ago and felt he was too broken to love or be loved. It was a shitty excuse, imo, for treating Noah like shit.
But, Zach DID apologize and he truly meant it and improved, so that made me like him. He still had his idiotic moments, like when he had stupid ass thoughts like "I wish I could give Noah love, but he deserves better than a broken man incapable of love, it just wasn't possible" and blah blah blahhh bullshit. Thankfully he realizes that bullshit.
Noah had his own idiotic moments, but for the most part he was a sweetheart. I mean, when everything is coming to a head, I think he acts just as stubborn as Zach acts, and his actions are idiotic. He thought doing shit on his own would be keep Zach and Cameron (Zach's BFF and also Noah's friends) safe, but it wouldn't have. Characters who think sacrificing themselves will keep their loved ones safe (and thus keeping them in the dark about what they're doing) always annoy because it's like...do you really think this psychopathic bad guy is really gonna let them go? Almost always the bad guy turns around is like "nah, i'm gonna kill them even though i said I wouldn't" it's like...a stereotype by this point. I mean!!
Also, I wish there had been more steam. We get ONE sex scene, ONE and that's it. Pages and pages were filled with Noah and Zach's thoughts and feelings, which honestly weren't always needed, and they could have been spent giving us some sexytimes, is all I'm saying.
Definitely worth a read, and definitely a good read, but it could have been improved in areas. I still really liked this, though, so it gets a thumbs up from me.