Review: Middle of the road
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2013
Dale has a bit of apprehension at the thought that Adam may be at the twenty year reunion, but decides to go anyway. When he does spot Adam there, he's very wary of making the same mistake again. But when Adam requests for them to meet for coffee the following day, he agrees to the meeting, remembering the friendship they once had and that he'd missed not having. Maybe that had a chance of being salvaged. During their coffee date, Dale tells Adam how much he was hurt by Adam's abandonment, not once, but twice. Adam confesses the whole reason he attended the reunion was to see Dale again. That he had missed him and their friendship.After several more chapters of Dale convincing himself that Adam doesn't want the same things from him as he does from Adam, he finally gives into his feelings when he visits Adam in San Diego for Labor Day long weekend. Adam tells him that he doesn't want to fight his desire for Dale any longer. After a night of steamy sex, they go from `just friends' to `friends with benefits but a little bit more than that'. They see each other when they can, taking turns to fly back and forth to meet up. During that time, Adam tells Dale he needs to take things slowly and that he's not quite ready to define what they have, but it is something. Of course, this makes Dale's doubts start shouting at him again that he wants more from this than Adam and that he must remember they are just friends. With benefits.And that's two-thirds of the book.The brief recap of who's who from the previous two books at the beginning was really well done, especially since it's been a couple of years since the last book. Because it's written in first person, it just feels like Dale is standing next to me giving me the heads up. I enjoyed this book although, except for a couple of moments, it didn't really have much of an emotional impact for me. I liked the characters well enough and I loved the group dynamics, interactions and banter between Dale, Ethan, Rhett, Kieran, Alex and, later, Adam. My favourite scene was definitely Adam's Navy Retirement. All the emotion that had felt lacking in he and Dale's previous series of encounters were in that chapter in spades and it definitely hit me in the solar plexus. For the most part, though, the story went round in repeating circles with Dale's inner monologue of doubt. I did like getting a glimpse into how the two previous couples were going.Read the full review at Live Your Life, Buy The Book