Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Tapped by My Roommate
SERIES: Thrust Into Love Book 3
AUTHOR: DJ Jamison
PUBLISHER: Self-published
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2021
LENGTH: 354 pages
BLURB:
Ethan Greene: Shy geek, newly bi-curious, and…propositioning his gay roommate?
I have a passion for a lot of things: wildlife biology, Godzilla, bowties…
But when it comes to people, I’m more timid.
Which is why I’m stuck with a toxic ex-girlfriend who’s holding my lizard hostage.
I need to face her–and save my dignity.
But a little backup won’t hurt, right?
My roommate is the perfect wingman.
Rhett is assertive and charismatic. The kind of guy people respect.
And when he meets my ex, he’s also the kind of guy to get protective.
I take comfort in his strength, even as I envy it.
But when he kisses me, things get awkward.
Frustrated by the tension between us, I turn to a hookup app for answers.
I don’t mean to proposition my roommate. Really.
It’s just a weird fluke–a mortifying one.
But Rhett has a proposition of his own.
He wants to help me explore my curiosity.
But he’s a bartender who practically flirts for a living, and I’m in way over my head.
It could all end in heartbreak.
Unless I find the courage I’ve been seeking my whole life.
Can I be bold enough to ask Rhett Hayes to be mine?
Tapped By My Roommate is Book 3 of the Thrust into Love series featuring a flirty bartender, a timid but passionate geek, and a mistaken app hookup that encourages these two roommates to explore friendship and love. It can be read as a standalone.
REVIEW:
Tapped by My Roommate is the third book in DJ Jamison’s highly diverting Thrust into Love series. While I enjoyed Swiped by My Dad’s Best Friend and Matched by My Rival, the two prior books in the series, Tapped exceeds them both by a good margin. Tapped reminds me in many respects of my favorite of Ms. Jamison’s works, Secret Admirer. It’s equal parts sweet and sexy, with absolutely endearing male leads, and a lovely, heartwarming storyline.
Tapped features Rhett and Ethan’s opposites attract romance. Rhett bartends at the bar Tracks with Simon, who starred in Book 2, Matched by My Rival (and appeared, to a lesser extent, as Cooper’s fraternity brother in Book 1, Swiped by My Dad’s Best Friend). Ethan is an adorkable, super-smart wildlife biology major who answers Rhett’s ad for a roommate.
The title of this book is a bit misleading. Given the series name, I can only assume that the vulgar, slang definition of “tapped” is the meaning intended. And yes, Rhett and Ethan agree to a hookup through the Thrust app. And yes, they have sex. A lot of it. But that is soooo not what this story is about, and interpreting the title in that way, IMHO, degrades Ms. Jamison’s well-crafted romance.
I’d rather reframe the title instead, interpreting “tapped” with its more complimentary verb definition: choosing someone. Here, Rhett’s tapped Ethan as his roommate. Ethan’s tapped Rhett to be his bicurious sexual guide. Ultimately both tap each other as lover, forever love, and HEA. The Thrust hookup app actually plays a very minor role in this story. It’s really just a vehicle to propel Ethan and Rhett along the road they’ve already started down in terms of attraction towards each other. Like the prior two stories, the men connect through the Thrust app, not knowing the other’s true identity until they meet in person for the hookup. Meanwhile, they’ve been pursuing a parallel track IRL with each other. Here, Rhett and Ethan’s chemistry is already crackling, and Ethan starts to engage his curiosity with Rhett even before the app comes into play.
I absolutely adored Ethan and Rhett. Their relationship is developed through Ms. Jamison’s solid writing and excellent character development. While seemingly opposites, they actually are very similar in many ways, and in the ways they are different, they dovetail like Ying and Yang. Ethan is an introverted loner, a bow-tie wearing, Godzilla loving, wildlife biology major who volunteers at an animal rescue center. Rhett is more of a jock, although his soccer playing days have been sidelined due to school and family demands. But where they similarly struggle is in standing up for themselves.
Ethan hates confrontation, so much so that he left most of his belongings behind in the apartment he shared with his vile ex-girlfriend, and is afraid to go back and reclaim them. He allows himself to be treated like a doormat because he’s too afraid to speak up for himself. Yet he otherwise does what he wants and pursues what he likes without concern for other people’s opinions. Rhett observes that Ethan is “a collection of contradictions … Timid but bold, shy but passionate.”
Rhett seems like a complete extrovert while in actuality, he’s a bit of a loner himself. He pours his social energy into his bartending job and school, but on his own, he doesn’t party or even date. He puts everything he has into making sure his family has what they need, and in taking care of himself. Rhett, like Ethan, struggles with confrontation, but in a different way: he doesn’t know how to say no and he refuses to ask for or accept help.
Ethan and Rhett have a captivating dynamic. Over the course of the story, we see how they learn about each other and about themselves, and develop the skills to put themselves first. They can do this because of the support they provide for each other. There’s a “rightness” to Rhett and Ethan’s relationship that resonates. They are a couple that’s easy to root for and hard to leave behind when the book comes to a close.
I wholeheartedly recommend Tapped by My Roommate. It checks all the boxes for a highly enjoyable, low-angst, sweet, sexy romance. You don’t need to read the prior two books to read Tapped so I encourage you to jump in notwithstanding whether you have read or plan to read the rest of the series. Tapped by My Roommate is worth it all on its own.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I think the word “Tapped” has more to do with the app. You tap on a picture, description, etc. that you like.
That’s a great review. I’ll bee reading this sooner than later.