Reviewed by Ro

TITLE: A Stealthy Situation

SERIES: Franklin U, Season 2

AUTHOR: Saxon James

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 294 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 14, 2024

BLURB:

Harrison

My life’s goal? Make plants fun!

I’m gonna be fighting for flora when I’m older and it all starts with auditing stats so I can level up for my masters, and lucky for me, the intriguing guy in my class is a math whizz.

He’s standoffish at first, but after a class where I bet my sitcoms can make him laugh, one bet leads to another and we’re hanging out all the time. Even though I know he’s interested in me, we’re easy friends, until I start to think I might be a little interested in him, too.

The only problem? He seems like a totally different guy in class to when we hang out. I brush it off as him trying to concentrate, but then I spot something I can’t explain away.

A scar. On his palm.

One I’m positive Benny has never had before.

Benny

Since we were little, my twin brother and I have always switched things up–literally. It started as funsies, and now we’re college juniors and still taking each other’s classes. I suck at Math, he sucks at English, and we both have a rule not to make friends in class as the other person. Our system is perfect.

Only Emmett has the audacity to get sick right before stats and I have to actually show up for my own class–where I meet my future husband.

Harrison is smart, weirdly into plants, and we instantly hit it off like old friends.

Only of course the gorgeous mountain of a nerd is straight.

Just when I’m telling myself to let my dreams of matching rings go, our text messages become constant, flirtier, deeper than I’ve had with any other guy before. My butterflies have butterflies every time we catch up.

And then I get a text from Emmett: I’m so sorry. I think I messed up.

REVIEW:

This is book 2 of the Franklin U 2 series and here we have the twins, Emmett and Benny.  Emmy and Benny are identical and they have been faking people out for years. ”So identical we switch places all the time and no one knows. Our own family sometimes makes Em show them the scar on his hand just so they can be sure who is who.”  Their parents died at 8 and while they come from a hockey legacy family and were actually on their way to being hockey stars as well the media attention and pressure was too much. They stepped back and moved from Vermont to California to attend separate colleges. The fun part? Benny took all Em’s English classes and Em took all Benny’s math classes. The easy way, the cheater way. No one in California even realizes that there are two of them. Except when Em “accidentally” gets expelled, he comes to stay with Benny at Franklin U. Their older brothers, West and Asher, will freak out about this. I was a little sad at the way they acted about West and Asher, who really stepped up when they were all left parentless.

Harrison, also known as Bowser for his red hair, is taking stats, although his passion in life is plants. It made me so happy as he rattled on about how interesting plants are and talked to his greenhouse babies. He’s been a plant fanatic since he was a kid but…  “It was right around then when I was excitedly showing my friends from school how tall the cattail had grown, that I got my first life lesson. People don’t give a shit about plants.”  Harrison is straight, or so he thinks.

Harrison and Em have been sitting together in Stats and Em has been helping. Em and Benny have a strict rule. “Not a loose kind of rule. An actual rule that we’ve always been super careful to stick to and I always, always did for you.” Except while Em bent that rule a little by sitting by Harrison, Benny bent it a lot when he has to actually take his own stats class and meet Harrison. They click instantly, even though Benny believes Harrison is gay. When Harrison says things like, “Your lips are like little pillows, dude.” You can see why he might mistake it!

Harrison and Benny make bets with each other, hang out outside of class and quickly make Harrison question his sexuality. He admits that every time a man has hit on him the auto reponse is “Sorry, I’m straight” but he now wonders. I loved that Harrison didn’t freak out, but thoughtfully and carefully took stock of his feelings and sexuality.

Harrison is confused because the Benny outside class is uber snarky, sarcastic and has a very morbid sense of humor. The Benny in class is quiet, focused and rarely says more than a word or two if it’s not about stats. But they continue to grow closer together until a situation occurs.

I loved Harrison and Benny. There were times I rolled my eyes at Benny and Em, especially Em, but he’s a good twin to Benny. Getting to watch Benny, the anti-feeler, start to get feelings was lovely. Insults as love language indeed. There is also a back story with Benny that I felt in my soul, I felt so badly for him. This was a great second entry into the Franklin U 2 series. We get to see Marshal and Felix, from Franklin U 1, and they are still lovely!

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon