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.

Review: The Boy Next Door by Kate McMurray

Life is full of surprises and, with luck, second chances.

After his father’s death, Lowell leaves the big city to help his sick mother in the conservative small town where he grew up. He’s shocked to find himself living next to none other than his childhood friend Jase. Lowell always had a crush on Jase, and the man has only gotten more attractive with age. Unfortunately Jase is straight, now divorced, and raising his six-year-old daughter. It’s nice to reconnect, but Lowell doesn’t see a chance for anything beyond friendship.

Until a night out together changes everything.

Jase can’t fight his growing feelings for Lowell, and he doesn’t want to give up the happy future they could have. But his ex-wife issues an ultimatum: he must keep his homosexuality secret or she’ll revoke his custody of their daughter, Layla. Now Jase faces an impossible choice: Lowell and the love he’s always wanted, or his daughter. 

I liked the premise. The writing was good. But I was left feeling underwhelmed by Lowell and Jase's romance. 

When Lowell moved back to his hometown to take care of his mother, he had no idea he was moving right next door to his childhood friend. Lowell and Jase were friends when they were kids but they had a falling out after their friendship had the potential to turn into more. Jase kind of freaked and that was the end of their friendship. Until years later when Lowell moved right next door to him and his daughter. 

Jase was very securely in the closet (except to a few "family" members) but he had a hard time staying there after being around Lowell so much. Their friendship picked up pretty quickly, considering how badly it had ended originally, and things escalated to sex very fast. They were good together. They were fine. Nothing exciting though. I just... didn't really feel it, ya know? 

And then there's some drama that I just had to roll my eyes at. Jase was a father and, of course, he wanted to protect his daughter. But he's also an adult and common sense and logic should come into play. He was too irrational and let his ex-wife control him too much. I didn't connect with him and his choices made him very unlikable to me. 

I loved the daughter. She was a sweet character and I liked her bond with Lowell. They were very cute and, even if I didn't particularly like Jase, I could see them all being a very loving family together.

There was a little bit of a secondary romance going on, too. It felt really open-ended and unfinished. So many unanswered questions. Are my guesses correct? Tell me what happened with them! I need to know! I think I liked them more than the main couple. 

The Boy Next Door was a well-written, nicely paced romance. It didn't quite hit the mark for me, but I'll still be checking out more Kate McMurray in the future.

A copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Find out more info on Goodreads and Dreamspinner Press.

Review: Out in the Field by Kate McMurray

2nd Edition

Matt Blanco is a legend on the Brooklyn Eagles, but time and injuries have taken their toll. With his career nearing its end, he’s almost made it to retirement without anyone learning his biggest secret: he’s gay in a profession not particularly known for its tolerance.

Iggy Rodriquez is the hot new rookie in town, landing a position in the starting lineup of the team of his dreams and playing alongside his idol, Matt Blanco. Iggy doesn’t think it can get any better, until an unexpected encounter in the locker room with Matt proves him wrong.

A relationship—and everything it could reveal—has never been in the cards for Matt, but Iggy has him rethinking his priorities. They fall hard for each other, struggling to make it through trades, endorsement deals, and the threat of retirement. Ultimately they will be faced with a choice: love or baseball?

First Edition published by Loose Id LLC, 2012.

In the interest of full disclosure I'm just going to own up to being a sports junkie, for those who don't already know this. 

I'm also a die hard Red Sox fan so of course I pounced on a baseball book. It took me about a minute to realize this was thinly veiled Jeter/A-Rod fic. Nothing but respect for Jeter, but A-Roid Rod? I've actually met him and he's a box of rocks so, I spent the majority of this read thinking Jeter a.k.a. Matt Blanco could do sooooooooooo much better. 

But I pressed on, tried to put it out of my head. Didn't stop me from punching the air when the "Brooklyn Eagles" got pummeled by the Red Sox. What can I say? I'm only human and Red Sox loyalty runs deeeeep.

The mentions of sabermetrics, farm teams and the superstitions of baseball players made it clear McMurray is a baseball fan too. I appreciate that. Nothing annoys me more than reading a sports book wherein the sports knowledge is sketchy.

Out in the Field is a slice of life tale involving a seasoned baseball player at the end of his Hall of Fame career falling for the young rookie full of promise. Matt Blanco has spent his entire MLB career in the closet. A couple of close teammates know as well as his family, but he's a furtive one night usually in a rented room kind of guy. Ignacio Rodriguez has had a hero worship crush on Matt since forever, but he's also in the closet. One knowing look betwixt the two sets their romance in motion.

There are two things that diminished my enjoyment of this book.

First, the romance gets overshadowed by the agenda on the MLB's lack of support for gay players. It's common knowledge that professional sports aren't all that inclusive. One need not look any further than Michael Sam for proof of that or the sheer dearth of openly out athletes in any professional sport for that matter. I'm sympathetic to the need for change with more inclusion and acceptance as the next person, but it's not very romantic to read about. It read a little bit like an After School Special and was just as predictable-boy meets boy, they fight THE SYSTEM together and ride off into the sunset, or in this case buy a brownstone in Brooklyn.

Second, I've recent binge watched RuPaul's Drag Race and they have the perfect word for what this book needs-zhujing. This book needs some zhujing in the worst way. It needs some zest, some pizazz, some uumph, some vitality. ZHUJING, I tell ya. There's nothing wrong with the writing it's just... dull. I could quote and nitpick but honestly I don't have the energy for it.

ZHUJED!
GO KIM CHI GO!!!!!!
#TeamKimChi

I'm somewhere between 2.5-3 Hearts, but there are numerous other top-notch reviewers who completely disagree with me, so your mileage may vary.

An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Find out more on Goodreads or Dreamspinner Press.

Author Visit: Out in the Field by Kate McMurray

We're thrilled to have Kate McMurray stop by today to talk baseball on the re-release day of her highly acclaimed novel, Out in the Field

Fantasy Baseball
By Kate McMurray

I play fantasy baseball every season. If you’re not familiar with fantasy sports, it basically works like this: at the beginning of the season, you draft actual MLB players to your fantasy team, and you earn points daily based on how those players perform. Fantasy baseball is bizarre and nerve-wracking because there are so many games per season.

It’s interesting, too, because it distills each player down to a certain set of facts: his stats (home runs, RBIs, OPS, etc.) and whether or not he’s healthy.

I suspect most fans don’t much care about much more than that when it comes to baseball players. It doesn’t matter if the players are single or married, straight or gay, as long as they put up good numbers and don’t end up on the disabled list.

Except, of course, the media cares. Athletes coming out of the closet still create headlines.

Big market teams, like those in New York City, also have players who make headlines for their personal lives. These seems less true these days—I mean, the real headline lately is how much the Yankees are stinking up the Bronx, since they’re in last place in their division as of this writing—but before Derek Jeter retired, he dated a long string of models and actresses. After his very public divorce, Alex Rodriguez briefly dated Madonna. A Yankee coming out of the closet would make the front page of the Post in a hot minute.

When I was writing Out in the Field, it was important to make the Brooklyn Eagles as realistic as possible. That included researching roughly how the stadium would be laid out, who might be working in the front office, and roughly how they would be perceived by the New York media. There was certainly a time when coming out would have been dangerous, when homophobic slurs were pretty common in major league stadiums, but I’d like to think those days are behind us. Which isn’t to say there isn’t still homophobia among players and managers—I tried to show that in the book, too—but to us fans? It really only matters if a player is earning points for my fantasy team, and his sexuality has zero to do with that.

Iggy Rodriguez remains one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever created (Matt, too) and I think he’d earn my fantasy team plenty of points.

BLURB:

Matt Blanco is a legend on the Brooklyn Eagles, but time and injuries have taken their toll. With his career nearing its end, he’s almost made it to retirement without anyone learning his biggest secret: he’s gay in a profession not particularly known for its tolerance.

Iggy Rodriquez is the hot new rookie in town, landing a position in the starting lineup of the team of his dreams and playing alongside his idol, Matt Blanco. Iggy doesn’t think it can get any better, until an unexpected encounter in the locker room with Matt proves him wrong.

A relationship—and everything it could reveal—has never been in the cards for Matt, but Iggy has him rethinking his priorities. They fall hard for each other, struggling to make it through trades, endorsement deals, and the threat of retirement. Ultimately they will be faced with a choice: love or baseball?




Buy link: Dreamspinner Press

BIO:

Kate McMurray is an award-winning romance author and an unabashed romance fan. When she’s not writing, she works as a nonfiction editor, dabbles in various crafts, and is maybe a tiny bit obsessed with base­ball. She has served as President of Rainbow Romance Writers and is currently the president of the New York City chapter of RWA. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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