REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: The Blueprint
AUTHOR: S.E.Harmon
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 270 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2018
BLURB:
Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend.
NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.
When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay.
It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.
Much of this story is about Kelly pushing his feelings for Blue to the side, though he continually sabotages his relationships using his friendship with Blue as an excuse. On the flip side, there is Blue, who is completely in denial about the possibility that he wants Kelly, that he could be bisexual, back and forth, he’s in the NFL, etc. All he knows is that he wants Kelly in hits life, isn’t happy when Kelly spends time with other guys, and selfishly pulls him along giving an insane amount of mixed.
I had a hard time with this story. There were aspects I enjoyed – Kelly’s coming out to his parents, the great banter these two share which was totally attributable to their close friendship, the best friends to lovers pieces, including the sexual discovery. Unfortunately, the wishy washy back and forth of both, though mostly Blue, Blue’s selfishness, jealousy and overall treatment of Kelly just turned me off. I wanted to see them as a couple, but they didn’t make it easy. It was really difficult to picture these guys as mature adults (successful in their professions) when they acted like teenagers.
That aside, I loved the banter and comraderie, and was glad they finally figured things out. I would love to see this play out a little further, perhaps in future stories and am definitely interested in seeing what’s next in this new series.
