Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Just a Bit Confusing
SERIES: Straight Guys #5
AUTHOR: Alessandra Hazard
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 202 Pages
RELEASE DATE: December 15, 2015
BLURB:
Best friends, inseparable since childhood, one in love with the other, the other straight and in love with a woman.
Stories like this don’t have a happy ending; James Grayson knows it. He puts on a smile, he laughs, he jokes, and he pretends he’s fine when Ryan kisses his girlfriend in front of him–until he can’t.
Except nothing is easy and letting go turns out to be much harder than one might think. Some bonds are too strong to be broken, even for a straight man. And sometimes love and desire can have different faces and layers.
A story of two men trying to function without each other and failing.
Publisher’s note: this novel contains explicit M/M content, rough sex, drunk sex, and graphic language. Book #5 in the Straight Guys series. Although it can be read as a stand alone, it is preferable to have read Just a Bit Wrong, Zach Hardaway and Tristan DuVal’s story.
REVIEW:
I didn’t realize that there was a fifth installment in the Straight Guys series from Alessandra Hazard until I stumbled onto it on Amazon while I was pulling a blurb for another book I was reviewing. Happily it popped up in my recommended row, and the rest is history.
As those of you who follow my reviews might remember, I’ve read and reviewed the previous four, or four and half to be more exact, books in this series and really liked them all. For those of you aren’t familiar with them, you can access those reviews on Love Bytes here. While the books in this series can be read individually as standalones, I would recommend reading the entire series because each of the stories flows into the next one. As the author noted above, she believes that book four in particular should be read before this one. In book four, we had the story of Zach Hardaway and Tristan DuVal, and if I remember correctly we also were introduced to their brothers. In book five we shift focus to those brothers, Zach’s brother Ryan, and Tristan’s biological brother James Grayson. We had also heard details about Tristan’s biological father and brother in the previous book, but this time that brother moves center stage and we hear the other side of the story.
Ryan Hardaway and James Grayson have been friends nearly their entire lives. They met as young boys when the very posh James met the very poor, rough and tumble, Ryan. Something clicked that day, and they have been best friends ever since.
But James, or Jamie as only Ryan calls him, has been hiding a massive secret from Ryan for at least the last six years of their fifteen year friendship. He is in love with Ryan, and lusts after his best friend. The problem? Ryan is straight. As in has a girlfriend, who he is currently parading around with…having bountiful sex with…and hanging all over in front of Jamie with, straight. Jamie realizes his love is unrequited and always will be. What will happen when he confesses his love to Ryan?
I enjoy Ms. Hazard’s books. Do I think that straight men are as sexually fluid as some are in her books? I’m not sure. Human sexuality is a complex thing. There has been a lot of argument about the “gay for you” trope recently in the m/m writing community, but I’ve totally avoided reading any of the posts, or buying into any of the drama. It doesn’t matter one way or the other. Sex with straight men does happen…just ask any gay man you know and they will more than likely confirm it, although it is usually in the “man was I drunk last night” way. Could this story really take place? Sure it could. Is it completely plausible? I’ll leave that up to the readers to decide.
I recommend this book, and its predecessors. They are fun fast reads with complex characters from varied backgrounds. Pick up either this book or the series today, you won’t be sorry. For those of you in countries where Kindle Unlimited is available, this book is included in the Kindle Unlimited program, as are all the others in the series.
RATING: 
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