Review: What's the Use of Wondering? (WMU #2) by Kate McMurray

Violinist Logan has spent most of his life training for a career in music. But as the pressure mounts during his junior year, he questions whether playing in an orchestra is the future he wants, or one chosen by his parents. His new roommate—that annoying jerk Peter from last year’s production of Guys and Dolls—complicates matters. Crammed into a dorm room with the overconfident but undeniably hot accounting major, Logan can’t stop snarling.

Then Peter sprains his ankle building sets, and Logan grudgingly agrees to play chauffeur. But instead of putting further strain on their relationship, spending time together reveals some common ground—and mutual frustration. Logan discovers he isn’t the only one who doesn’t know what he wants from life, and the animosity between him and Peter changes keys. But just as the possibility of a happier future appears, Logan gets a dream offer that will take him away from Western Massachusetts University—and Peter. Now he has to decide: will he live the solitary life laid out for him, or hold on to Peter and forge his own path?

I have a minor confession; I am a musical lover. It’s not a terrible confession but I adore musicals, I even have a few favorites on vinyl and often break into song just because. I wonder why life can’t be like a musical where a simple walk down the street can’t turn into a song and dance where everyone knows the moves and words. Bjork did it in a video and Enchanted captured it perfectly on film so what I am trying to say is when I read the title of this book, I didn’t actually read it… you see, I turned into Bernadette Peters and sang the classic from Carousel.

Now that we have that bit of information.

This was a really sweet and slow burn kind of roommate to romance story and I adored it. Told from Logan’s POV we meet him as he is being assigned a new roommate his junior year at WMU and it’s not who he expected. Last year, Logan had a run in with a Theater Tech who let Logan know he was killing himself by smoking and now, the Tech aka as Peter is his roommate. It’s not such a problem for Logan but it is because Peter is a hot blond jock who Logan assumes is straight and they really don’t hit it off to begin with. The boys pretty much stay out of each other’s way as Logan focuses on his violin rehearsals moving toward a career in performance orchestra and Peter one in accounting. But being roommates and in each other’s space can lead to unrequited crushes and misunderstandings.

Life is uncertain. You never know what’s about to happen. Sometimes what feels like the worst turns out to be the best.

When Peter has a fall while working with one of the sets for the Guys and Dolls show and his ride around campus bails on him, he asks Logan to help him out and Logan is too nice of a guy to say no. But one single sentence that Logan takes the wrong way puts a strain on this new almost amicable friendship between them and almost ruins a beautiful romance that never even began.

“Do you even know the effect you have on me? Do you know how fucking hot you are?”
“Why are we arguing about this?”
“I don’t know. Why are you cleaning your half of the room when we should be kissing?”

I truly adore both Logan and Peter. These boys are under so much pressure from their parents to be who their parents want without regard to what they want. They are so focused on doing the right thing that they almost miss the chance to be with the person that is right under their nose or at least right across the dorm room. The feelings Logan has for Peter are laid out clearly even when he thinks Peter is straight but after reading an LGBT article Peter wrote that included a story about him coming out, Logan decides he needs to apologize for judging Peter without knowing who he really was. I loved how honest these young men were with one another from the beginning even when they aren’t exactly sure how to move forward with their romance.

Honestly, the build up to Logan and Peter with their crush confessions and then them moving forward was nice but everything after that was even better. I love college age romances because it’s lovely to watch young people figure their lives out and I get to live the college experience I never had through them. Roommate romances though are so much fun! You are in this space, sharing space with another person who you find attractive and then once the physical starts followed by emotions there is always this bit of angst around because what happens if it doesn’t work out? Thankfully, Logan and Peter find out right away that only honesty will do with them and I fell hard for their romance as they learn to be friends and lovers looking toward the future.

“We’ll rebel together, here in this room, even if no one else knows about it.”

I could ramble a good deal about the details of violin playing and how I could see and almost feel Logan as he played and hear the notes coming from his instrument. I could ramble about Peter and how steadfast he is in his love for art and painting and how freaking supportive he is of Logan. I could ramble about how I liked the way the author handled sex between these two and didn’t over saturate the story with it because they were more than sex though when they were together, I felt it. I could ramble about Logan coming back to the dorm after talking with his parents and how much I loved the epilogue or how I need to go back and read Dave and Noel’s story because it’s definitely one I need to read or… I could stop here and go listen to Maria and The Captain sing about doing Something Good.