Ever have someone get you so well it’s like looking in a mirror?
Cruz
Starting over is not what I had planned.
Those stories about magically becoming best friends with the person assigned to live with you… Yeah, that won’t be me. I already have a best friend. Even if I wanted a new one, Liam wouldn’t be it. He’s permanently grouchy, carrying a negative energy I don’t need since I’m finally in a good place. But I’ve never been good at ignoring when people need help, so I paste on a smile and play nice.
Predictably, Liam isn’t much of a talker, but after an unexpected accident he needs my help in other ways. Ways that offer me answers about myself. Ways that raise new questions about the football dreams I’ve been chasing since I was a kid. Ways that make me relive the past I want to ignore.
To say I’m confused is an understatement, but there’s one thing I know for certain…Liam is either the key to one door or the bolt that could prevent another from ever opening. And I have to choose which I want him to be.
Liam
Starting over is exactly what I need.
I can’t get any more invisible than I’ve been for the past few years, and I figure rooming with another person means at least one human on the planet can’t ignore me. Unfortunately, that human is Adonis personified, and not gay, so it’s looking like my invisibility streak might continue.
Then I suffer a minor accident, and Cruz’s hero complex comes out in full force.
I should be grateful to have someone to open my door and carry my books, but when you pair his selfless personality with that body… My mind starts to blur the roommate line, which makes his blur the line of not being gay.
My heart is already battered, and I doubt it can take rejection from the one person who broke down all the walls I’d built around it. That doesn’t mean I won’t try to give it to him anyway.
**Beautifully Fractured is a high-heat MM romance with medium angst that features a grumpy/sunshine relationship, forced proximity, hurt/comfort situations and a sexual-awakening. This is book one in a series of interconnected standalones. Though the main characters are athletes, this is not a sports romance. Rather, it’s a romance that happens to feature people who play sports.
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“So, why medicine?”
“Hmm?” Liam arches one brow independently of the other, a gesture I find fascinating since I can’t do it myself.
“Why do you want to work in medicine?” I repeat. “Family business?”
Though it’s subtle, I can see Liam’s posture get a little more rigid, almost like he’s putting up a force field. I don’t follow why that is–I can’t imagine why a question about careers would be crossing a line–yet I get the distinct feeling I’ll have to tread carefully going through the door I just opened.
“Why do you assume it’s a family business?”
I take a minute to think of the nicest way to answer. “You don’t really strike me as a people person, and I think you have to be to deal with patients. No offense.”
“I people with you just fine.”
“You do.” I agree. “But you sort of have to since we share a room. With others you seem a little guarded.”
“And you know this because we hang out with other people so often.” He snorts and takes another bite of his dinner.
“Sort of, yeah.”
“You know that makes no sense, right?”
“It makes total sense,” I disagree. “You don’t go to dinner with anyone else, you never mention anyone else, so I don’t think you’re peopling with anyone else.”
“I’m selective,” he says, and something about his deadpan delivery has me cracking up.
“Glad I made the cut.” I grin broadly.
“Like you said, I’m sort of stuck with you.”
There was a lot in this book. Trauma from broken friendships, absentee parents, off page death, bullying and one character trying to figure out how to identify sexually. But even with the trauma, the story didn’t get bogged down with angst. In fact, I feel like one of the characters hasn’t had an appropriate response to his trauma seeing as it was fairly new.
Cruz is a jock football player, but he also wants to take college seriously which is why he is in the student dorms rather than the jock dorms. His roommate, Liam, is premed, and gay, and used to being bullied by jocks.
But they find their groove as roommates so to speak. Cruz is a total golden retriever type. Happy, helpful, doesn’t really understand why people can be mean. Like, what do
you mean you don’t want slobbery dog kisses all over your face? SO Cruz. But Cruz is struggling with his sexuality. Or lack thereof. He has just no interest. He seems to have just ignored it in high school, but in college, girls fawn over the football players. Especially the freshman who made the starting line up.
Liam refuses to hide that he is gay. And while he doesn’t think Cruz is gay, he does wonder if he is ACE or ARO or both. Which is kind of funny that he was bullied by jocks in high school for being gay and now he is helping a jock figure out what, if anything, gets his engine going.
Once Liam throws in the towel and accepts that Cruz is his new bff, they start opening up to each other. And then Liam gets hurt and Cruz wants to save the day. But that leaves them both confused.
Once we find out the real trauma that both of these guys went through and how it made them similar, we also see how different the response was for each. Sorry, no spoilers.
These boys will take you on an emotional ride at times. But it never gets too dark, too angsty, too much. Add in a pretty realistic (I think) view of someone coming to terms with their sexuality and what it might mean, led to a good story with an excellent ending.
4 pieces of eye candy
