Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Studious

SERIES:  IOU, Book 2

AUTHOR:  Leslie McAdam

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  262 pages

RELEASE DATE:  October 7, 2022

BLURB:

After a disastrous high school game of spin the bottle, I gave up trying to get a boyfriend and spent my time studying instead. Now I’m twenty-four, and I’m not only a virgin, I haven’t even been kissed.

When I meet Danny, a handsome legal hotshot, he catches my eye. Right before I trip on flat ground. Ugh.

He’s got a massive … reputation. He’s the most popular guy in the club, a total playboy with a new conquest every night. There’s no way he’d be interested in me.

But one night after I imbibe too much, he winds up taking care of me. And when I ask for his help with my travesty of a social life, he agrees to teach me how to be less awkward with men … if I let him document my progress so he can win a bet with his best friend.

Even though he’s just my love tutor and I’m just his apprentice, this starts to feel like more.

Too bad it can’t be anything but a high-level seminar in how to seduce someone else.

Studious is a sweet and sexy contemporary opposites-attract m/m romance about a suave attorney who’s scared to love and the shy, nerdy bookkeeper he’s teaching how to be a player. Cue makeover montage and a smoldering first kiss. These heroes most definitely are not falling in love. (Okay, heartwarming HEA guaranteed.)

REVIEW: 

“Alden is everything I didn’t know I wanted.”

Danny Villaseñor, hookup king and player extraordinaire, has vowed to never give his heart to anyone.  Not after having it summarily and brutally crushed by his high school boyfriend on prom night.  Danny gets his physical needs met through one night stands.  He never goes back for seconds.  He’s legendary for his good looks and never ending stream of partners.  If he’s lonely, … well, it’s a small price to pay.  Better that than having his heart torn to shreds again.

Danny rethinks his view when he meets sweet, unassuming Alden, his law firm’s new accountant/bookkeeper. Alden’s charming, shy, kind and so gorgeous even in all of his adorkableness.  So when Danny finds himself tutoring Alden on how to get a man in bed, he realizes Alden deserves more than to try to emulate Danny.  Alden deserves romance, love and commitment, not a revolving door of guys.  

While they start out with a makeover, Danny quickly realizes Alden is special just as he is.  He just needs to tweak his looks, not change them. Danny also realizes that he doesn’t want to help Alden find another guy.  He’s the guy for Alden. He just has to get out of his own way and realize that he deserves to be with him – that he can open his heart again for the right guy.

Alden, for his part, has a pretty low self-image. He’s put his studies first and let his social anxiety rule the day.  He doesn’t have many friends, his mother is recovering from cancer, and he’s lonely and pretty depressed about his prospects.  This is especially the case because he thinks he’s a mess, not attractive with no sexual experience and an inability to “people” successfully.  But Danny’s support and open admiration and attraction towards Alden not only surprises Alden, but makes him feel comfortable and confident enough to explore with Danny.  The minor detail that he’s been crushing on Danny and quickly falling for him … well Danny doesn’t need to know that because Danny would never want someone like him … right? 

McAdam is consistently exceptional at writing deep, meaningful, complex relationships between charismatic, endearing men who don’t seem like they’d work as a couple but prove to be ultra-compatible, filling in the gaps and spaces in the other.  We see McAdam do this successfully in Ambiguous, the first book in this series, and also in her prior Vino and Veritas books Undone and Unmanageable.  In Studious, she creates this yin and yang pairing between Danny the player and Alden the virgin, where they each start from extremes in terms of love, relationships and sex, but with each other’s support, they are able to embrace being the person they want to be. They become their best selves as they find the best person for them, and along with it, happiness and fulfillment.

Studious is a magical story that showcases McAdam’s intuitive understanding of vulnerability and resilience – the ability to heal and grow through unexpected avenues.  Her open-minded thinking and deft writing present an opportunity for the reader to appreciate that differences don’t have to be divisive and, in fact, can be quite complimentary, creating magnificent, meaningful results, especially in relationships – like the beautiful one between Danny and Alden that comes to fruition in McAdam’s skilled hands.

I loved everything about this book.  It checks all the boxes, including just enough in the way of emotional dynamics through some low-level angst to really invest us in Danny and Alden’s HEA.  McAdam even includes a heartwarming found family element with Alden’s office mates embracing him. I highly recommend you give Studious a read.  (You don’t have to read Ambiguous first, but I recommend you read that as well because it’s a lovely story in its own right, especially in audio.)

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon