Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: His Heart Knows
AUTHOR: Riley Long
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 166 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2022
BLURB:
People fall in love with their best friends all the time. But for me, the circumstances of this unrequited attraction are even more agonizing.
I am gay.
My best friend, Sawyer, is not.
Since we were fifteen, I’ve harbored this torturous crush. Now, as we both enter our thirties, it seems time to resign myself to the fact that nothing is going to come of it. Ever.
Or so I thought…
One night, a bottle of gin and a little uncharacteristic self-pity were all the inspiration I needed to launch into a ramble about being alone because I’m bad at everything – even kissing. Determined to prove me wrong, Sawyer decided to shut me up with a kiss.
I know he meant for it to be innocent.
Turns out it was anything but.
Sparks flew as we unlocked a side of Sawyer he never knew existed. Now, more than anything, he wants me by his side forever. But this realization comes with its own set of obstacles. Can we learn to lean on each other as we build a future together? Or will the stresses of our day to day lives tear us apart?
REVIEW:
Sawyer and Axel have been best friends since High School. Axel has secretly been crushing on his BFF forever. Sawyer didn’t bat an eye when Axel came out as gay and supported him completely. As they grew up, they spent a lot of time together. But Axel comes from the wrong side of the tracks and though Sawyer’s corporate lawyer parents tolerated him, they never really liked him. They just wanted to keep Sawyer happy.
Now Sawyer and Axel are adults. Sawyer is a lawyer also – making his parents happy. Axel is in grad school, works at a bookstore and wants to own a bookstore someday. His Master’s is in children’s literature and he’s anxious to finish and move on to the next stage of his life.
Sawyer is a serial dater – only of women. But he never finds a spark and it’s mostly a one and done sort of thing. Axel really doesn’t date. Mostly of course because he’s pining for Sawyer and he’s just not interested. He’s worried that maybe he’s bad at it. Sawyer volunteers to “teach” him how to be a good kisser. Well. That of course leads to more. Sawyer doesn’t exactly freak out though – he’s comfortable with Axel. But Axel sneaks out the next morning and they cross signals at a friends cook out the next day. Axel flirts with another guest and Sawyer ignores him. But when they finally have a minute to catch up, Sawyer gets called into work.
A week of no contact has them both on edge and Sawyer has to bit the bullet and come clean with Axel that he really wants to try something real with him. Axel is of course skeptical at first because this is his secret wish. They decide to start dating. But Sawyer is a bit reluctant to share his new revelation about his sexuality – either at work or with his parents. But after some time, he does want to let his parents know. Let’s say it doesn’t go well. Axel’s mother is thrilled because they’ve always been so close. She also isn’t surprised how Sawyer’s family reacts. Thankfully Sawyer is stronger than that and he and Axel are solid.
This is a sort of conventional out for you story of a guy realizing what’s in front of him the whole time and he’s just missed it. Sawyer’s a bit clueless about this parents to some degree which I found a little unbelievable. I never feel like I got real handle on Axel for some reason. He’s a good guy, but I never got a real sense of him. There are some cute moments – particularly the presents that Sawyer kept getting for Axel that were a little sweet and sentimental. I read and ARC and I hope that the final edit cleaned up several continuity issues that I found which kind of threw me out of the story a couple of times. I of course did not like Sawyer’s parents, but they were only 2-dimensional characters and other than being snobs, I didn’t have any real sense of them. Then there was the throwaway character of the brother who is in two scenes but again, not really a character in the story. There’s nothing wrong with the writing, but I really wanted more – from the MCs, from the supporting characters and with the parents. It was just a little bit of a miss for me.
RATING: 
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