Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Floored by Love
SERIES: Rings Trilogy #2
AUTHOR: Finn Dixon
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 377 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 29, 2021
BLURB:
Lucas
I tell myself I can do it all over again. And do it better. Even without a boyfriend.
I mean…who better to succeed at the Olympics than me? Though training this close to Cam again and seeing how his body has developed might be too much for me.
Plus, being naked in the locker room with him makes it even harder…to focus.
It doesn’t take long for my pining curiosity to turn into desperate hope.
Is it possible that Cam still has feelings for me?
Camden
I relied on Erika to survive my heartbreak. I even made a new friend, the tall glass of water known as Colton. Any normal gay dude would have thrown themselves at him and said, ‘Pick a hole.’
Not me, of course. While I was tempted, at least one part of me didn’t give the green light. My heart.
What was left of it still belonged to Luke.
Without answers for what happened in Brisbane, he’s my teammate again. If only my hormones would mind their own business, then maybe I could focus on the Olympics and worry about Luke after I win.
Piece of ass…I mean, piece of cake.
I’m so fucked.
Floored by Love is a full-length gay romance novel, the second in the Rings Trilogy, with no major triggers, but possibly a little angst. Within these pages, you’ll find notepad flirting, almost-sex in a hospital, free-balling, a wet superhero with a bare ass, five Olympians in a hot tub and muscles flexing beneath designer jockstraps. Oh. It’s also the Olympics again. And though there’s a third book coming, there is no cliffhanger this time.
REVIEW:
Fit horny athletes? Check. Sympathetic coaches? Check. Foiled lovers finally getting together? Check. This tale is a bit of fantasy fulfillment and probably won’t be for everyone.
Cam is a closeted prince of the vault while Lucas, the first openly gay Team USA gymnast was given an ultimatum at the end of book 1. Drop Cam or lose all parental support.
Lucas chose wrong, broke Cam’s heart and it’s now 4 years later and they’re seeing each other again, this time in London.
The forced separation at the end of book one felt a bit unrealistic. I had trouble buying that an out Olympic athlete who medaled could be as much under his parent’s thumb as Lucas was at the end of book one. But that book really wasn’t about that as much as the team spirit and camaraderie of the team and the guys budding romance, so I was perhaps more forgiving than I should have been.
That said, it’s now four years later and while both guys have grown more skillful in their sport, they’ve not really progressed emotionally. Lucas has a strict female coach with explicit instructions to keep him away from Cam as much as possible. The fact that neither character has matured much and skipping ahead four years in time didn’t do this tale a lot of favors.
Once we get past the “sturm und drang” of that manufactured conflict and they guys re-unite, the tale once again gets to be an Olympic frolic; and this time the setting is London, one of my favorite cities.
Again this is told in a “he said/he said” manner with alternating chapters from the two main characters’ perspectives but with so many other male characters actively participating, the dialogue sections more than once get a bit confusing. More than once I found myself re-reading a section and still unable to determine who said what. This was also a problem in the first book but it seemed a bit worse here.
For some reason a “younger brother” character, Austen, caught my attention in book one and it was fun to see how he had “filled out” here in book 2. I’m guessing that book three will be set in San Francisco and be yet another four years in the future. While the boys are certainly worth reading about, I hope that the author gives them more scope to evolve in the next four year gap. While the sexcapades are fun, I’d like to see the characters grow beyond what some might say are still pretty two-dimensional characters.
RATING: 
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