Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Rule of Law
SERIES: The Goode Life Book 3
AUTHOR: Isla Olsen
PUBLISHER: Moonwalker Press
LENGTH: 171 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2021
BLURB:
Lawson
I have one rule when it comes to my sex life: I only hook up with guys who identify as straight. It’s a tried and tested way of avoiding the cling factor, which I’ve found to be a huge problem in the past. A one-night stand with a curious ‘straight’ guy is the perfect situation: no strings, no mess, no dodging unwanted texts and phone calls.
Is it the most healthy way to handle my commitment issues? Probably not, but it’s what I’ve got right now.
Of course, there’s one straight guy who’s completely off-limits. And because irony’s a bitch, he’s the one guy I just can’t stop thinking about…
George Goode is sweet, charming, hilarious, and sexy as hell. And he’s also become one of my best friends since I moved to the tiny town of Finchley about a year ago.
But let’s make one thing clear: I do not have feelings for him. I don’t get feelings. I’m not wired that way. I just think about him all the time, I miss him when he’s not around, and I seem to spend a lot of my time daydreaming about snuggling on Sunday mornings and visiting famers markets together. All totally, one hundred percent normal stuff to be thinking about one of your best friends…right?
You’d think, given everything, that when George decides to express a little curiosity, I’d be a hundred percent on board. But for some reason it’s not quite as simple as all that…
Come visit Finchley, CA, where the sun’s always shining, the locals are always gossiping, and you won’t walk two steps without bumping into a member of the Goode family. If you’re lucky you might find gold; or, even better…true love.
REVIEW:
Rule of Law, the third book in Isla Olsen’s The Goode Life series, delivers sexy, irreverent fun. Ms. Olsen follows her usual romance template, centering The Goode Life series on the relationships of the various men in a large family. Indeed, the Goode extended family is sprawling and once you add in spouses, partners, and friends, the interrelationships form a spiderweb that’s challenging to navigate. We’re on Book 3 now so it’s getting easier with the relationships solidifying in the reader’s mind due to repeated exposure.
Rule of Law puts the lens on the relationship between George Goode, a straight, serial hookup guy, and Lawson Hale, longtime best friend of Zack, spouse of Slater Goode, from Book 1, Clean Slate. Lawson initially comes to Finchley, California to provide support for Zack when he moved back home. But Lawson fell in love with the small town and its inhabitants and decided to stay. Lawson writes gay spy novels; he’s pretty darn good at it too, having many best-selling books and an avid fan base. So he now spends his days writing in a booth at George’s bar, the Finchley Saloon.
Lawson is as anti-commitment as you can get. He’s a gay guy who won’t hookup with gay guys because they get “super clingy” afterward. Instead, he only dates curious straight-identifying guys so there’s no risk of attachment.
George is straight and he’s not attracted to Lawson. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. That is until he doesn’t.
Lawson’s not attracted to George and won’t hook up with him anyway, even if George were “curious”, because they’re BFFs. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. That is until he doesn’t.
Everyone knows George and Lawson have feelings for each other, so much so that they have a pool going, betting on when George and Lawson will finally acknowledge their feelings for each other and act on it. However, George and Lawson are locked in a pattern of obliviousness until their friends and family finally hit them over the head with a figurative 2×4 to wake them up to their true feelings. Then they move into avoidance mode, rocked by this revelation until they finally are forced to communicate and admit their feelings.
As usual, Ms. Olsen regales us with laughter, silliness, banter, and bemusement as well as plenty of sexy times between George and Lawson. She does a good job of building up the unresolved sexual tension; these two men have a ton of chemistry that explodes once they give in to their mutual attraction. The other characters from the Goode family, their friends, and other Finchley residents round out the picture and provide the external viewpoint on the couple’s oblivious missteps regarding their feelings, which ramps up the humor. Ms. Olsen’s hallmark group texts in the “Finchley Locals Community Hangout” private Facebook group are present again as well.
Overall, Rule of Law provides a few hours of easy, enjoyable reading. Nothing particularly new or different happens here, but Ms. Olsen’s lighthearted, irreverent writing style makes you laugh and feel warm and fuzzy over George and Lawson. If you want a no angst, straightforward story, humorous content, and a happy couple with a solid HEA, then this is the book for you.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] Tucker is twenty-two and has just finished college, turning down an MLB contract for a job at the local high school. He wants to be close to his family and friends, who are almost all located in the small town of Finchley, California. Tucker has just recently come out, even though he’s known that he’s gay for a long time. As a result, he’s a virgin and looking to get his V-card stamped posthaste. He also needs to get out of his parents’ house, and Chance has a room available since Lawson has moved in with George Goode (their relationship is featured in Book Three Rule of Law). […]