Reviewed by Vicki

 

TITLE: Love Lessons

SERIES: Love Lessons #1

AUTHOR: Heidi Cullinan

PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

LENGTH: 379 pages

BLURB:

Love doesn’t come with a syllabus.

Kelly Davidson has waited what seems like forever to graduate high school and get out of his small-minded, small town. But when he arrives at Hope University, he quickly realizes finding his Prince Charming isn’t so easy. Everyone here is already out. In fact, Kelly could be the only virgin on campus.

Worst of all, he’s landed the charming, handsome, gay campus Casanova as a roommate, whose bed might as well be equipped with a revolving door.

Walter Lucas doesn’t believe in storybook love. Everyone is better off having as much fun as possible with as many people as possible…except his shy, sad little sack of a roommate is seriously screwing up his world view.

As Walter sets out to lure Kelly out of his shell, staying just friends is harder than he anticipated. He discovers love is a crash course in determination. To make the grade, he’ll have to finally show up for class…and overcome his own private fear that love was never meant to last.

Warning: This story contains lingering glances, milder than usual sexual content for this author, and a steamy dance-floor kiss. Story has no dairy or egg content, but may contain almonds.

 

REVIEW:

Walter is a bit of a slut… But he’s a sweet slut! We first meet him as he learns he can’t manipulate his way in to an apartment off campus, and is forced to choose from a list of unacceptable living choices. He decides the lesser evil is to move in to a single dorm, with a allergy plagued freshman. Just to make his bad day worse, he discovers his favorite teacher/councilor/mentor/advisor/friend, may not get tenured and may lose his job. But it’s the beginning of a new year at Hope University, with lots of new boys to make friends with!

 

Kelly is shy, young, and away from home for the first time. He’s allergic to just about everything, and stuck in the jock dorm. At least he has a single room, so he should be on his own. But after being outed in a group, and treated like a new pet by an overly friendly girl, he heads back to his single dorm room only to discover it isn’t his alone anymore. He finds his small single room is now occupied by Walter.

 

Walter is instantly in lust with the freshman “talent”, Kelly is shy and concerned, but relaxes as Walter explains the situation, and seems understanding of his allergy issues. Walter is actually quite good with Kelly that first evening, they head out to buy a bed cover and have some dinner, getting to know each other along the way. Walter gives Kelly all the details about Hope, somewhat bursting his bubble. Food will be an issue, the jocks will be an issue, but basically it’s a good place to be. They share family stories, Walter from an urban, rich, split up family, with a dad that bribes him with presents, and a manic depressive mom. Kelly is from a small town, with parents who work hard to support and care for him and his sister, who also has health issues. The boys obviously come from very different places, which creates some wonderful contrast between them.

 

Kelly settles in at Hope, but is somewhat disappointed with his experience. I think he went in to it thinking it would be a wonderful, safe school, where he’d be able to gain an education, make lifelong friends, and learn about dating. He’s hoping for love. What he finds may be a decent school, but he’s harassed in his dorm, not getting his vegan meals, and is not making the group of friends he expected. He’s trying to open up, but is a small fish in a big pond. Walter helps as he can, as does Rose, and Kelly skates along, but he’s struggling.

 

Walter on the other hand, settles back in to his routine, other than being in a dorm instead of his apartment, and watches the naive Kelly learn about life at Hope. He protects him when he can and genuinely seems to want to help him in his dating life. He also wants to get laid. Since Kelly seems to be off the menu, someone else will work just fine! So he thinks.

 

Then we get to the real meat of this story. You know they’ll hook up and fall in love, they have to. In some ways it is predictable, a cute coming of age story, Walter learning to not be so jaded at such a young age, and Kelly discovering you really can fall in love. I’ve read it before, I’ll read it again, it is sweet and gentle watching them fall in love. But. It is so much more than that. Each of these boys bring something different to the relationship. Walter has family baggage and abandonment issues, everyone he loves has let him down one way or another. His mom is a mess, dumping her drama on him, his dad is a cheater, bribing his kids with gifts and toys, his best friend Cara fell in love and left him, and Professor Williams will leave him as well. Why would he not assume that Kelly will too? Kelly is such a Pollyanna, looking for the perfect Disney love story. He kept himself safe and hidden during high school, hoping college would be this incredible experience for him, come out of the closet, date, find the perfect man, fall in love, get a degree, a perfect job, and have a perfect happily ever after. But life is not like that. It all takes work and luck.

 

They are deeply connected, friends and lovers, their first true naked sexual encounter is incredible. Hot and sweet, innocent and naughty. Kelly comes out of his shell and is a sexy boy! We know Walter is, but Kelly surprised me with his passion. Walter alternates between smothering Kelly and pushing him away. Committing and backing off. Kelly stays true to his belief that Walter is his, and has to convince him of that fact. There is family drama, money drama, and teacher drama, but through it all Walter and Kelly stick together. Then the epilogue… Oh so sweet!

 

Heidi Cullinan is a fantastic author, and this book is what I come to expect from her. A clean cut story, they meet, they fall in love, they live happily ever after. But it’s so much deeper than that, trust, expectations, love and sex, all tied up in a great story with excellent writing. I look forward to more from her!

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: Samhain Publishing Amazon Are