Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: The Forbidden Equation
SERIES: Love Equations, Book 3
AUTHOR: J.R. Gray
PUBLISHER: GrayBooks
LENGTH: 257 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 20, 2022
BLURB:
My father’s the president and my brother’s the golden boy which leaves me the black sheep. The son who never wanted to be here at all. The white house my gilded cage, and the secret service my prison guards.
I’m nearly twenty and nothing about my life is normal.
The only thing giving me life and any motivation to get out of bed is the way he looks at me. The stolen glances across the West Wing. Heated gazes in the private dining room.
He’s my father’s best friend, which isn’t even the worst part, he’s also the vice president. Utterly off limits and I can’t bring myself to care. Can’t bring myself to stop encouraging his flirting, dreaming, and hoping he won’t be able to resist me forever.
REVIEW:
The Forbidden Equation is an at times raw, emotional father’s best friend, political romance between Liam Hart, the President’s youngest son, and Matthew Wilder, the Vice President, who also happens to be the President’s oldest and closest friend. You may remember Liam from The Friendship Equation, the first book in this Love Equations series; he is Harden’s younger brother. Matt is a prodigy and brilliant political strategist, who graduated from Harvard Law school at seventeen. He knows what it’s like to feel like a fish out of water. To feel trapped. Just like Liam does.
Liam’s life in the public eye was thrust upon him against his will by his father’s political choices, and he’s paid the price every day in the lack of privacy that has also prevented him from having any kind of normal life. At nineteen, Liam tries to fit in at Georgetown, knowing he won’t succeed, but he can’t bear to live at the White House under his father’s watchful eye. His life in the gilded cage has worn on him, and he’s sunk into depression which has included suicidal thoughts. But suddenly, his long crush on Matt seems to be a possibility, so Liam is willing to risk it all, including his mental health, for a chance to be together.
The best part of this book is Liam’s relationship with Lucas, the head of his protection detail. Lucas cares about Liam as a friend and not just as his job. Watching that relationship develop into one of friendship and trust in Liam’s otherwise lonely life is truly a beautiful thing.
The worst part of this book in my view, though, is the complete absence of Matt’s point of view for almost the entirety of the story. The story is told from Liam’s viewpoint, which is a choice I question. Of the mutual attraction, Liam’s is more understandable and relatable. But Matt’s is not, and I feel we really needed to get inside his head to understand his motivations, his conflicted feelings, and his emotions. Without it, Matt’s character wildly vacillates, and I struggled to understand his interactions with Liam. When Matt’s character finally settles into something cohesive, it’s a complete about-face from how he’s presented himself throughout the story up to that point. It’s difficult to engage with a character if you can’t get a handle on who he is. I wanted to like Matt, and to be fair, I didn’t dislike him. I just didn’t understand him.
Gray does a better job with Liam’s character, but he has the room to dig in there because Liam is the sole narrator. Yet, even then, the simplistic portrayal of depression irked me. Depression is a complex disease, and not everyone who suffers from it feels like they want to kill themselves, contrary to how it’s described in the book. The topic could have been addressed with more nuance and sensitivity, especially as it is intended to be a core part of Liam’s character. But that seems to fall away as well, easily resolved without explanation.
Liam and Matt’s relationship is based on an intriguing framework, and the age-gap, forbidden political romance is usually like catnip. Which is all the more reason why I found the tone and progression of this story to be so frustrating. The push-pull, intense relationship between Liam and Matt is hot, as are the brazen, risky sex scenes. But it just didn’t coalesce into an overarchingly enjoyable romance. It’s not a difficult or unpleasant read, just one that’s hard to engage with and therefore proves to ultimately not be satisfying, at least for me.
RATING: 
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