L.M Langley

First off, this is a choose your own adventure story. I absolutely loved the concept, and it was totally fun for me to go back and choose a different decision or path. While I liked choosing the path, I found that there were definitely some paths I didn't like as much. I guess that is to be expected. With this, there were 3 potential suitors, and all 3 had an ending where Alex ended up with them. I struggled with that a bit when I tried to wrap my head around him with one character after reading about and/or liking another character better. When I read a typical romance story, I want the MC to end up with their perfect match, and this made 2 other guys get in the way.

Alex has wanted to go to seminary school for ages, but now that he has finally received his acceptance letter, he is having doubts about whether he wants to go. The main theme of all the stories is that Alex has been a quiet, lonely, and mainly celibate guy who is now doubting what he wants in life. Romance is in the cards for him with one (or two at moments) of the other characters.

-Cyrus is Alex's best friend who in most of the stories has harbored feelings for him. Cyrus is trans, and the stories do a nice job of mentioning it so we know, but making it a non-issue and natural existence for the guys. Even though they were best friends, I wasn't a big fan of the two of them together, and I didn't like Cyrus much. Cyrus seemed jealous half the time, and I thought he was too wishy-washy and whiny. I didn't feel a click of them outside of just being best friends. I did not like any path that brought me to Cyrus and Alex being together.
-Montgomery is Alex's roommate, and I wouldn't necessarily call them friends. It seems initially that there is hostility between them. When we finally get to the bottom of Montgomery's annoyance, however, he is actually a really sweet guy in some of stories (in others, he remains an idiot). I actually did like Montgomery and Alex together. I thought that once they broke the barriers of why Montgomery was a jerk to Alex (because he had a crush on him), they fell into a comfortable relationship that was supportive.
-Lawrence is Alex's mentor and former counselor in college. He is older and bisexual. When Lawrence is involved in the stories (which is not in a lot of the directions that I could tell), he struggled with the position of power he felt he was in over Alex. I liked that this was addressed and discussed. I thought that Lawrence and Alex together was great. He seemed to fit Alex's calm nature better than the other two.

I loved that there was diversity among the characters. I loved that it was a fun format. It felt like a bunch of mini-novellas, and I'm sure that I missed something along the way as I tried to figure out all of the combinations I could. This could not have been easy to write to keep all of the pieces straight. Well done for that. 3.5 stars rounded up since there aren't half stars.

I am voluntarily reviewing an ARC provided by the author… (meer)

I wanted to love this, but I couldn't. The flashbacks of Ethan with Alois were very well written. I loved watching their love story evolve, even though we know right off the bat that Alois is gone. It was heartbreaking and raw. The pain that Ethan was feeling was clear, and it totally made sense.

Max is someone who Ethan's sister (or her family) set Ethan up with for a political reason. He is still depressed and missing Alois and has no intention of anything happening with Max. It slowly does, although I really couldn't understand what it was that Ethan was finding attractive. I really didn't get a feel of WHY he liked Ethan, and it seemed like he only wanted him so he would have someone to control. I also was not a fan of the dog kink. That was a bit much.

My favorite couple of the book was Ethan and Alois, and unfortunately that wasn't the intention.

I am voluntarily reviewing an ARC provided by the author… (meer)

this was sweet! M/M romance with friends to lovers trope, matchmaking, a celebrity LI, a questioning teenage nephew, and more.

two weird things

1) there is a nonbinary side character using they/them. Character A misgenders them once, but immediately corrects and apologises, then Character B comments on how it's hard to get used to the correct pronouns because the media uses the wrong ones so often. this was fine and interesting. but then Character A misgenders like them twice more and there is no comment about it?

2) the two mains have sex when the teenage nephew is still in the building and could technically come down anytime?? okay… (meer)

***I received a free copy in exchange for a book review***

I enjoyed this 20 chapter book. My favorite lines: 1) He sounded so far away, it almost felt pointless to answer him. 2) “I’m–I always wondered how much happier everyone would be if it had been you in that car…”

The story was written in Casey’s first person point-of view and Alex’s third person point-of-view. They hadn’t been friends even though they were both close to Nate, a friend who died in a car crash. I thought it was cool that Casey lost her memory after Nate’s car went over the bridge–sort of like the brain blocking painful memories. The mystery of if it was murder, suicide, or an accident was intriguing. Finding out the answers kept me motivated to continue reading until the end. It turned out that the Sheriff’s daughter, Clara, was crazy and pretty obsessive over Nate. Unrequited love. Did she have something to do with Nate’s brakes not operating correctly? You’ll have to read to find out.

L.M. Langley did a brilliant job of making me care for the characters. I’m a sucker for sympathetic characters. I felt bad that Casey returned to town; she was an outcast. She lost her ex-boyfriend and friend just like that, without any closure. Talk about a mind trip. I definitely, definitely, definitely felt sympathy for Alex and Nate. They held a secret that there was no reason to be ashamed of, but their small-minded town shunned them. Casey found out that Alex and Nate had hooked up once. I hated the way Alex’s mother treated him.

I loved the characterization. It helped that the story seemed character-centric, so it helped me feel like I was going on a journey with the main characters. Even the secondary characters were full of personality. I loved the drama and tension on all ends. Alex’s fiance broke up with him after his secret came out, Nate’s older brother had fathered a child with Alex’s ex-fiance. It was great how all the characters were three-dimensional. There definitely weren’t any Mary Sues or Gary Stus in the bunch. As a reader, my favorite characters tend to be the bad guys or villains.

What would you do if you wanted to get revenge? That was the main theme that Alex and Casey had to face throughout the book. From Nate’s journal entries, they figured out that Clara was sort of stalking him. They devised a plan to avenge their best friend’s death. They felt so lost and lonely without him. It was cool seeing the different stages of their relationship–first, Alex and Casey hated each other, which turned into an acquaintance-ship in order to find answers, which turned into becoming buddies. I always got a kick out of Alex asking to sleep on her couch.

At first, it was confusing because of the time jumps without any warnings. But once I figured out what was going on, it was pretty smooth sailing. It was a very interesting twist at the end, regarding Nate’s brother. I didn’t see it coming! It made the story even more clever. What would you do after you got closure? You’ll have to read the book to see what Alex and Casey decided to do.

I RECOMMEND this book to read.… (meer)