New adult is not my genre. I mostly prefer historicals when I read romance. But occasionally, a book catches my eye and gets such good reviews that the curiosity monster who lives in my head and makes all my decisions just can’t be denied. This was one of those books.
I’ve also read m/m romances before, but they are by no means something I’ve read a lot of. This seems to be a very well done one.
There’s no doubt it’s new adult, because holy hell so much explicit sex up in here it allllmost qualifies as erotica, but it’s also really well written, and the characters are great and actually have emotional arcs and there is a plot, so it just doesn’t qualify. Those of you who are curious about more explicit books but are too embarrassed to admit you read them, this might be a good entry point because you can also say, but look! Characters! Responsible adult behavior! A really interesting coming out story! Exploring identities!
And hot hockey players making out with each other.
So yeah. Smutty. Lady porn, if you will, because the emotions of it are just as important as the sexy times. I stayed up until 1 AM to finish it.
I’ll probably read more by both of these authors. Elle Kennedy writes m/f new adult, and Sarina Bowen the same, mostly, although I know there’s a m/m tucked in to her Ivy Years series (also about hot hockey players making out with each other . . . . do I sense a fetish?). I already have the first book in that series downloaded, but I keep getting distracted by other shiny things.
I don’t know if I’ll be reading the second book in this series since my favorite part of romance novels is the getting together (or back together). Not sure I will be as interested in reading about their continuing relationship since the big conflicts have already been resolved, and to add any more into their lives would smack of contrivance to me, but I guess never say never.
Yay! So glad you liked this one. Truly one of my top 2 books of 2015. Since I loved it so much I had to read the sequel, but it really is not as good.
Sarina Bowen is the reason I’m now obsessed with hockey books.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I just want to leave the story where it is. I’m definitely going to check out more of both of their books, though!
Last year, I fell into a new adult romance crevasse and I have particularly felt like crawling out. I enjoyed this book and its hotness. Like, Ellepkay, I am now really into hockey player books. The other sports don’t work as well for me, but I’m a Canuck so that’s not exactly surprising.
I don’t know if I will develop a fondness for hockey players or not. I’m not usually into super masculine guys, but I guess never say never.
This is totally high on my TBR list. I really liked the Sarina Bowen New Adults I read earlier this year, and have heard so many good things about Elle Kennedy as well. I don’t really care one fig about any of these sports that feature in quite a few of the NA books that are especially good, but luckily, none of the plots seem to require that the readers be sports-savy.
I think you will like it, but you should read Captive Prince first :)
Duly noted. At present, I’m all about The Raven King and Maggie Stiefvater owns every second I can snatch away to read, but I will read Captive Prince soon.
Actually, I need to read this rather soon, as I’ve signed up to do a RITA Reader Challenge review on it for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, due on the 11th of May at the latest. So it’s very likely to be one of the first books on my May reading list. I will be reading Captive Prince as well, though.