I’m convinced this was written on a dare.

Also can someone please write a sequel where Wes and Colton both get CTE and murder their husbands and a waiter who was bringing home their glasses? ( )

I’m convinced this was written on a dare.

Also can someone please write a sequel where Wes and Colton both get CTE and murder their husbands and a waiter who was bringing home their glasses? ( )

Picking up other characters from The Jock, The Quarterback follows Wes's best friend Colton and Justin's father Colton through a tentative friendship in the aftermath of Colton's serioius shoulder injury. The friendship turns into a surprise relationship—one that I thought was a bit too sudden even for a sudden relationship. But I liked the book for giving the characters a bit more room to grow and the relationship by being a bit longer than many other romance novels. ( )

It's a while since I read such a straight down the line romance. They hang out together, secretly having feelings for each other. They get together. Everything is great, until they have a big bust up mostly over a misunderstanding. Then after they've been apart for a bit, they get back together, declare undying love, and finally, rings are on fingers and here comes happily ever after. The only things in the least bit nonstandard about this tried and tested formula are that they're both men, and the 20 year age gap.

For a gay romance, the heros are surprisingly not very gay. This is not a 'I have finally discovered my sexuality and come out of the closet' book, this is a 'I have fallen in love with this particular person and want them'. There is a very funny bit where the younger man is looking at porn trying to work out if he's gay or not, and basically decides 'I don't fancy any of these men, but at least I've got some more ideas of what to do with Nick now.' It's a sequel to 'the Jock', which I haven't read, but which from the mentions in this book has a lot of 'if anyone finds out I am gay my career is ruined' and 'he gets horrifically beaten up for being gay', but actually, the heros in this one don't actually hit many problems because of their sexuality. Which I guess is refreshingly nice?

The drama and the tension comes from the fact that Nick is 42, Colton is 22, and Colton is friends with Nick's son. We are in romance-world, so Nick is definitely not an evil creepy groomer, he's the Hero, and in Love - the age gap is used to drive 'what would happen if my son found out' angst and 'I must not take him away from his career' angst, but the book is very team Love Conquers All, and once they realise they love each other, that is all they need. Which, you know, is what we are here for. But if you take off the romance glasses (and it's even clearer if you gender swap Colton in your head) it is very uncomfortable - Nick does a lot of plying him with wine, getting him an internship where his job is basically to follow Nick around, moving him in so he's cut off from his friends, and basically sabotaging his career by distracting him from his recovery programme. And this is all OK, because they Love Oneanother TM, but it's... a bit problematic.

Of course, I was looking for an uncomfortable problematic gay romance, and my only criticism of this one is that it is too much of a romance - the magic Love fairy sprinkles pixie dust on everything so that anything that could be a real problem smoothes itself out very unrealistically by the end! ( )

Colton is just THE cutest ( )