Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Living on a Dare 
SERIES: A Shore Thing #1
AUTHOR: Grace Kilian Delaney
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 236 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 19, 2019
BLURB:
Stuntman Draven O’Connor never turns down a dare—even if it means getting down on one knee to propose to his former college roommate and friend. The same man he’s been crushing on since the first day they met. The same man that has grown distant over the past year. And the same man who just agreed to be his fiancé.
Julien Bouchard is tired of living a lie. He spent the past year exploring his sexuality in secret, enduring countless dates with women to appease his mother, and dodging his best friend, Draven, who knows everything there is to know about him, except the one thing that could change their friendship. Ready to face his friend, he meets him at a bar and is greeted by an unexpected marriage proposal. The dare isn’t surprising; it’s the scorching hot kiss that sends Julien’s head and heart in a tailspin—and gives him an idea for the perfect plan.
But perfect plans are never go according to plan, and news of their fake engagement spreads to their families as fast as a wildfire, forcing them to confront their true feelings about each other and hope they don’t get burned.
REVIEW:
Draven uses his bad break up with Victor as the reason for his not being able to commit. His friend, Tate, knew who Draven lusted after but wasn’t prepared to take his deflections re commitment any longer. To that end, Tate issued Draven a dare. He was to propose to the next person who walked through the pub door. As fate would have it, the next person was his straight friend, Jules, who, for some time, had been distancing himself from Draven. When notified of the dare Jules plays along when Draven gets down on one knee. Neither man was prepared for the breathtaking kiss that sealed the deal, nor the snowball effect of the gossiping witnesses to the proposal.
The story is told in the first person, with named chapters from Draven and Jules. I’m not going to comment much, on the technical aspects as the version I read wasn’t the final one. Though, I will say that what I read seemed reasonable to me. A factor I liked was how well it flowed with no situation being forced.
Draven is an out and proud stuntman. Jules isn’t out – at least not publicly. Unknown to his frosty parents and Draven, Jules has been experimenting. He has held a flame for Draven for a long time and wanted to make sure that he liked men before possibly ruining their friendship. Jules too is in the cutthroat world of advertising, where every mistake cost someone a job, so, relationships took second place – even friendships.
Tie in Jules’s job with a homophobic father, a controlling mother who puts on a front regardless of the situation and an accepting, supportive brother, and there is a home life that could fuck with anyone.
The character base has variations on the good, bad and ugly. Which, given that the cast is small is kudos to the author. There is also an array of action – physical, lustful and emotional. Draven shows his stuntman skills, and both put on a show in the bedroom, which I’m glad to say compliments the story instead of rules it. If anything, it is Draven who holds back.
The journey Jules takes is one of overcoming his controlling parents, a battle in which I got frustrated on behalf of Jules. I frequently wanted to slap his mother. Draven’s is that of conquering his fear of commitment and how it will affect his friendship with Jules. As a result, there is a healthy dose of overthinking situations. Sometimes more is made of them, occasionally less, when what is needed is a clear head and balance, instead of a blinkered stance. There was an element of predictability. It took the form of me hoping certain dramas occurred and they did. So even though there were no great surprises, I found Living On A Dare an entertaining read and one that kept me turning the page.
RATING: 
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