Review: Enjoyable!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2014
Reviewed for TheRomanceReviews.comBy KindleRomance - 4 starsForgiving a break in trust is not easy, but it can be worth it in the long run to be with the love of your life.Grady and Mateo have been best friends since first grade. They are now enjoying their final year at college together, and one fateful night, they take their relationship to the next level. Unfortunately, while Mateo was more than willing to keep it moving forward, Grady couldn't deal with possibly being gay and so he walked away from Mateo.Once Grady is finally willing to accept that not only is he gay, but that he left the love of his life and best friend, he goes in search of Mateo. Mateo isn't the same person he used to be and has suffered greatly since they last saw each other. Now Mateo has to determine if he can forgive Grady, and if they can have a life together again.I loved Mateo and thought that he was such an amazing person who was trying so hard to do the right thing. He wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed in. Grady came across as somebody who was initially very spoiled, but was now finally maturing and accepting how horribly he treated his best friend. I wasn't sure I would be able to forgive Grady, but the author managed to make me love him and hope that the two of them would get back together.I enjoyed the heartfelt conversations that they had and especially liked watching Grady open his heart completely. These two were also definitely smoking hot together. The story takes a nice little turn and throws in a roadblock to their future happiness. It has to do with how Mateo spent the last 6 years. I was very surprised at the reason for Mateo's scars and thought the author did an excellent job with this bit of mystery.Although I finally forgave Grady, it was very hard to think of Mateo's life for the past six years and not get a bit depressed. His entire social connection was basically ripped away from him because of Grady's cowardice.An emotional take on the friends-to-lovers theme with a bit of mystery.By Pat Henshaw - 3 starsChildhood friends and college roommates reunite after one of them denies his sexuality and runs from the other.Although they had been friends forever, Grady now is ashamed of his rejection of Mateo because of a night of sexual awakening and wants to apologize and get back together with the man Grady now knows he's always loved.Finding Mateo, however, isn't as easy as Grady thought it would be. In frustration, Grady runs a personal ad online, hoping that Mateo will see it and contact him.Instead of finding him through the ad, Grady spies the changed Mateo watching a pride parade and follows him back to his apartment. There, Mateo tries to persuade Grady from having anything to do with him because he's in trouble and hiding.Knowing that the Mateo of his childhood could never do anything criminally wrong, Grady persuades the love of his life to hide out at a lake cabin that Grady's family owns. There they get reacquainted and conspire to extricate Mateo from his problem.While neither Grady nor Mateo is particularly memorable and the plot is fairly mundane, Sloan Parker's competent and readable writing keep the story moving.