Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Risk
AUTHOR: Baylin Crow
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 271 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 25, 2018
BLURB:
We never should’ve been anything more than roommates.
DREW: Life dealing me a hard blow is nothing new. What’s one more sucker punch?
When my uncle offers me a job working at his MMA training center, I jump at the chance to turn my life around…not upside down and questioning everything I know about myself.
Light Heavyweight Champion Asher Ramsey is the definition of a ladies’ man. His stormy gray eyes and inked skin call to the artist in me and make me itch for my pencils and sketch pad so I can capture every detail. If I’m honest, they make me itch to touch every detail too, which confuses me.
After he offers to let me stay in his guest room, I discover there’s more to Asher than he allows the world to see.
ASHER: My life is a lie. A play written and directed by my PR manager.
With the biggest fight of my career only weeks away, my focus is on securing my title. Losing my belt to some new up-and-comer isn’t an option, and I can’t afford any distractions. Or an unwanted attraction.
When Drew begins working at the gym where I train, my priorities waver. To make things worse, I offer to let him stay with me until he finds a place of his own. It’ll be fine. Sure, I’m attracted to him, but I’m an expert at hiding behind the mask of a straight man. Besides, he’s completely off-limits. Not that it matters–we don’t even play for the same team.
What’s the worst that can happen?
REVIEW:
Asher Ramsey, MMA Champion, has been living in the closet for years. Determined to not wreck his career–and spurred on by his meddling PR manager–Asher has done everything in his power to keep his sex life as strictly hetro as possible. At least while there might be cameras about. He isn’t all that pleased with the lying but he doesn’t really see a way out that doesn’t tank his career. Which makes Drew just about the last thing he needs in his life. Because keeping his hands off Drew is quickly becoming one of the hardest things he has ever done. Eclipsed only by his ever failing attempts at not falling in love with the man.
Drew has his own problems though. Recently off probation and having just lost his–rather lousy, but needed–job, Drew is desperate. He can’t live on his best friend’s couch forever. So he gives in and asks his uncle for a job at his MMA training center. Where he crosses path with the famous, and undeniably sexy, Asher. That last bit being a bit of a shock to Drew since he has never really looked at guys like that before. Unsure about his sexuality, his future, and his job, Drew tries to fight his attraction to the man, but when Asher offers to let Drew use his spare bedroom, putting the two together far more often than is good for either’s peace of mind, things start to fall apart. Or together. The outcome remains to be seen.
I really needed this book, this week. After several stories with rather depressing undertones, I just needed something that was an easy read, with likable characters and an easy flow. Risk fit the bill to a T.
While hardly a story to reach far outside the box, this is a very comfortable romance story about to guys finding each other and having to face down the real world issues of being together in a world that really should have gotten its shit together by now, but somehow still is being a total bitch about equality. Asher is in the closet, Drew is shocked to find a new aspect to his sexuality–it all feels a bit M/M romance from 5 years ago…but in a good way. It might not take many risks, but I think it knows exactly what it wants to be and is comfortable in that. And hey, at least it is smart enough to realize that bisexuality is a thing and not throw the gay-for-you label around.
It is of course helped by the fact that both Asher and Drew came out of this feeling like real people. I was worried for a bit with Asher, in the beginning, but he does start to get better the more time we spend with him. He doesn’t get nearly as fleshed out as Drew though, which is a shame. Drew on the other hand is by far my favorite part of this book. I’ll admit that the scenes where he is starting to realize his attraction to Asher are by far the best parts of the story. Also that kiss during the storm was incredibly well written. I had zero problem visualizing it, and it was a very pretty picture.
I think the only reason this didn’t get a higher rating is the fact that the end was a bit anticlimactic. The fight is brought up again and again over the course of the story…but the actual event wasn’t much of anything. Not sure I needed the whole thing recreated on page, but a bit more of the action would have helped hold on to, and release, all the tension that had been building in the story up to that point. As it was, it felt like more of an afterthought, than anything else. Not bad, just not living up to the rest of the story.
All in all, I have no problems recommending this book. I had a lot of fun reading it, and the chemistry between the two characters clearly makes up for any of the missteps near the end.
RATING: 
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