Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The Roommate Situation
AUTHOR: Zoe X. Rider
PUBLISHER: Loose Id LLC
LENGTH: 301 Pages
BLURB:
College freshman Shane Hahn finds himself unexpectedly shuffled to a new dorm room–which is fine by him, but his over-involved mother takes one look at toothpick-chewing, motorcycle-riding Derek McClain, his new roommate, and gets on the phone with the school. The school requires that Shane be the one to file the room-change paperwork, but Shane’s reluctant.
He’s attracted to Derek’s independence, even though that independence means Derek has to pay his own way through college, which he does by making leather products (you know: belts, wallets…bondage gear) and selling it online. Shane isn’t even allowed to work while he’s in school, much less join a band, which is what he really wants to do with his life. Unfortunately, his parents are holding his guitar hostage until he can prove he’s taking his future seriously.
When he decides he needs a way to come up with cash–the kind his parents won’t find out about–so he can buy a guitar his parents can’t take away from him, he turns to Derek with what sounds like a win-win solution: he’ll model bondage gear for Derek’s online store photos, Derek will get more sales, and Shane will get a cut. The one thing he doesn’t factor into his plan is the giddy stomach-flip feeling Derek McClain causes whenever he walks in the room–and what that might mean for them when Derek starts locking leather cuffs on his wrists.
REVIEW:
Within weeks of starting college, freshman Shane Hahn comes back to his room to find something blocking the door from the inside. Once he pushes the heavy weight aside, he finds his roommate, who has committed suicide and bled out all over the room.
Obviously the college moves him immediately to another dorm and new roommate. Enter Derek McClain. Derek is a junior, and Shane’s friends who are helping him move in think he looks like some sort of biker serial killer.
At first Shane doesn’t know what to make of Derek. He stays to himself on the other side of the wall of lockers…on the side with the windows….and Shane stays on his side…in the cave! Things start to change when one of Shane’s friends shows him Derek’s e-Bay sales page and the bondage items listed for sale. Shane is straight, but the pics of the cuffs and harnesses, etc. kind of turn him on!
Before he knows it, he has volunteered to “model” the items, in exchange for a cut so that he can save some money to buy a guitar. He has a perfectly good guitar at home, but his parents won’t let him have it, because he should be studying, not fooling around with a guitar.
But why is he popping wood every time he gets locked into the cuffs? How does he hide the hard-ons from Derek? What happens when the guitar isn’t the only thing he is fooling around with? What will happen when his parents find out that the degree program they chose for Shane, Economics, totally bores him and he refuses to continue in it? Finally what will happen when the “gay” word is spoken?
I liked this book a lot. I’m a sap for young love, motorcycles and men in harnesses! So when all three show up in one book…I’m ecstatic! I recommend it, and hope there will be a sequel!
RATING: 
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