Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Best Friends Float
SERIES: Neptune State University, book 2
AUTHOR: Camden Jess
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 258 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 20, 2023
BLURB:
When I fall, he always catches me. But what happens when he falls for me?
College is all about change. I want to get stronger, smarter, faster—and reconnect with my childhood best friend, Jance Stringfellow. A giant made of hard muscles, soft smiles, and an easy-going popularity. He’s protected me from bullies and my own clumsiness all these years, except the past one we spent apart. Now that we’re together again on Neptune State’s swim team, things are different.
He’s straight, but his friendly back rubs linger. His fingers tug on my curls. When I hug him, I feel his heart racing against my cheek. And when I accidentally walk in on him during the middle of the night…
I’ve always known how big Jance looks. Now I need to know how big he feels.
I hope the size of my heart is enough to handle this massive man. He promises to always catch me. But we’re in unfamiliar waters now. The fear of losing one another is dragging us both under.
So how do we let go long enough to float?
REVIEW:
This is the second book in the Neptune State University series. I did not read the first book but didn’t seem lost at any time. Brighton and Jance are a year apart, so when Brighton comes to college as a freshman, Jance has been there a year. Since Jance has always been big and always looked older, he tends to hang out with upperclassmen. Jance comes from a wealthy family and his mother puts a lot of pressure on him. Brighton, raised vegan by pretty hippie parents (who he calls Delia and Gunther) and is pretty supported.
I admit to being conflicted about this story. I love new adult books, friends to lovers is my trope of choice and cartoon undies are always a sure thing. It’s just that here, nothing was a sure thing. There are trigger warnings of body dysmorphia, toxic parental relationship, chronic illness of a parent and fixation on food diet. Some of these things were very evident – Jance’s relationship with his mother is toxic, for sure and his dad got sick while Jance was in high school and remains pretty ill. However, I don’t know if I missed it somehow but I didn’t see a big fixation on food, although Brighton does seem to have some body dysmorphia, as he views himself as too small, almost tiny, even though he is not. The size difference mentioned is due to Brighton being a slender man with a distance swimmer’s body and Jance is huge with a burst swimmer’s body.
We are told Brighton and Jance have been friends since they were young but honestly we don’t really see that. Jance went away to college and basically shut Brighton out. Now that they are both at the same college and both on the swim team, there is a little more interaction but, at least in the beginning, not much. “I don’t mention that this is the longest we’ve talked since official team practices started two weeks ago. Or since the last swim practice we shared over a year ago at our club team.” We are talking no calls, few texts, nothing. “It scares me how easily I moved onto campus and kinda shed the relationship. The memories.” That was Jance, who then has the audacity to think, “I hope my absence didn’t hurt him…”.
Brighton does change a lot, but I didn’t necessarily think it was a bad thing. That’s what college is known for, figuring out who you are. It was the thought that he was changing for Jance that was an issue.
There are some great supporting characters, particularly Carrigan and Tillie. What got me bogged down some was all the inner turmoil about being gay, being attracted to your bestie, ignoring/avoiding said bestie, etc. It was a little redundant at times and I found myself having to go back several times to reread things. There are some funny moments. “Bitch dick.”, which I will not spoil. Delia’s instructional seminar via PowerPoint. Just the name Might Morphin’ Meat Rager.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad story, just not really my cup of tea.
RATING: 
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