Micah
I’m a broke ex-football player with a bum leg and PTSD. Last summer, I had two choices: the streets, or find a cheap room to rent in the city. I chose the second option, which landed me with a brand-new problem, cos I hadn’t banked on my roommate becoming my best friend. Or that before long I’d find myself head over heels in love with him. Trouble is, even if Sam likes me back, I ain’t fit to be no one’s boyfriend. I don’t know how. All I do is wade through every precious moment and hope that he doesn’t regret the day he ever met me.
Sam
I’m a gay book nerd with no business falling in love with hunky athletes. Micah is the dictionary definition of beautiful, inside and out, he just doesn’t know it. And he definitely doesn’t know I’m ridiculously in love with him. The embarrassing kind of love.
He’s all I can think about.
But it’s not as simple as loving someone who doesn’t love me back. Micah is damaged goods—at least, that’s how he’d put it. The world has chewed him up and spat him out, and he thinks he deserved it. That he’s still the battered mess he was a year ago.
I want to shake him, and shout in his face that he’s not. To force the truth on him and make him believe in himself the way I do. But I can’t save Micah. One day, perhaps he’ll realise that he already saved himself.
Ex-football star Micah and bartender Sam make for unlikely roommates, and even unlikelier friends. But the two men oddly understand each other and find common ground.
They have a good thing going.
Until feelings rock the boat.
Right off the bat, I felt like I was entering the book in the middle of the relationship. Sam and Micah were already the most important people in each other’s lives, and were already halfway to love.
That aside, I thought the two were very cute together. The small ways they looked after one another, how they gravitated towards each other, and how both men knew deep down that this was more than just a friendship.
And I was looking forward to seeing them admit their true feelings and explore their relationship!
Unfortunately, the pattern that emerged was very off-putting.
There is miscommunication galore. Again and again. There’s also a lot of refusal to communicate, even when both men acknowledge that they need to. It was very tiresome.
But what really rubbed me the wrong way - Micah. He’s a complex and gloomy character with a lot of demons, as are many of Garrett Leigh’s characters. But Micah uses Sam as his crutch and lifeline, with absolutely no care or thanks given, and then lashes out when things get rough.
And Sam takes it, never truly protesting the way he’s treated. Because Micah and his problems come first; they’re central to the entire relationship.
I could appreciate that Micah went through a lot and dealt with the mental and physical trauma of it, but that didn’t justify his behaviour at all.
By the end, though I was glad to see the two get their happy ending, I was no longer invested in Sam and Micah’s story.
A copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
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