Audiobook Review: The Blueprint (The Game #1) by S.E. Harmon

Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend.

NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.

When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay.

It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.

Listening Length: 8 hours and 24 minutes
Narrators: Sean Crisden & Alexander Cendese

4 Confounding Hearts!



I’m scratching my head as to why I thoroughly enjoyed this because for me, there were many things in this book that shouldn’t have worked despite this containing the well loved trope of the classic friends to lovers progression. However, this features an adamantly heterosexual star athlete whose gay bestie is in love with him and is tossed liberally with female bits and in the closet overtones, understandably giving me plenty of reasons to furrow my brow.



So yes, I shook my head about 90% of time while listening to this, as Blue tries to reconcile these quasi-new feelings towards his bff. Once they cross the line, Blue’s not sure about going all in, but he’s not satisfied in going back to friendship only either. However, Kelly isn’t about to let him have his cake and eat it too and therein lies the rub.



Props to Harmon in giving both Kelly and Blue distinct voices, completely likeable personalities, and a dynamic that obviously clicked. It doesn’t hurt at all that these two were hot as fire. My brain short circuited no less than 8 times!



I absolutely believe that the narration by Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden literally brought Kelly and Blue to life and made them and this story 10 times better. They delivered their lines with precision, expounding on the sarcasm, the snark, the doubt, the back and forth, and the above mentioned seriously-too-hot-to-handle chemistry between these two. Unf.



Despite my bafflement, this was smart and funny, and I immensely liked the push pull between Kelly and Blue, all the while fanning myself as I listened to this genius narration. I’m just happy there’s a sequel since this ended somewhat suddenly, and I look forward to more of this mind boggling goodness!



Thank you to the author/publisher for the audio in exchange for an honest review.