Review: Cute with angst and love
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 7, 2013
These days most people throw around the concept of a best friend, with laughing about BFF's, and taking for granted the unwavering loyalty, friendship, and love a true best friend would have. Ben and Rory have been best friends since they were seven. Tied at the hip, always together, no real interest in any other friends, and knowing they'll be friends forever - that kind of best friend. Senior year in high school they realize they each share the same feelings of romantic love with each other and life couldn't get any better. Except Ben does something supremely stupid and succumbs to peer pressure so he denies he's gay and in love with Rory, breaking both of their hearts.Eight years later Ben is out and proud and the art teacher at his old high school. First day of teachers back for the new year and there's Rory, the new science teacher, which means his lab is right next door to Ben's art room. Oh boy. Rory is still the only guy Ben has ever loved, the only guy he ever wanted to be boyfriends with, but thinking about what Ben did to Rory just to have a little popularity, still makes Ben sick to this day. The thing is, though, he's got to try to repair their friendship, at least, because otherwise it's going to be a very long school year. Ben isn't so sure how successful he's going to be because Rory barely even looks at him, yet he just knows he's got to try. Ben does get a chance to apologize, but Rory pretty much shuts it down and says they can be coworkers, and that's it.The weeks pass and Rory thaws a little to where he's willing for them to be friends again. It's so hard for Ben not to be possessive and jealous even though he knows he doesn't have the right to those feelings anymore about Rory. The problem is that Ben wants to have those rights, he wants Rory to be his again, because Ben has always been Rory's. Eventually friends turns into friends with benefits, which Ben isn't thrilled about since he wants so much more, but he'll take what he can get because he's afraid if he asks for more, Rory will be gone from his life again and Ben isn't sure he could live through that.This was a cute story with a lot of angst, some pain, a lifetime of love, and a beautiful happy ever after. I can't say that I always liked Rory, mainly because after eight years he should have understood what happened when they were teenagers and put it behind him, but I kept getting the feeling that he was subconsciously trying to get even with Ben, but I think that was just my opinion in my own mind and not reality. Ben beat himself up a lot over what happened and I wished he hadn't been so hard on himself. I would have loved to find out more about how Ben got interested in art because the author didn't touch on that and I was interested in that backstory, however, the writing was good, the characters were interesting and fairly well developed, and the ending was predictable but good. Thank you, M.J.NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews