Too much focus on sex, not enough focus on anything else.

When this started as a cute “best friends to lovers” romance with a main character who didn’t yet realize his feelings, or that he might be into a man, I was into it. Then it turned into, “We need to have sex for science,” and, “I’ve never done this before, so I’d better go prepare my ass for his giant cock,” and, “Even if I struggle and revoke consent, don’t stop because it’s for science!” and everything became having or thinking about sex. There was a paragraph when Newt realized he had some sort of feelings and said it wasn’t all about the sex, but sex and bodies were still all he really thought about. I wasn’t against the premise of best friends fucking for science only to then realize they’re actually into it, that could’ve been kind of awkward and fun, but the way it was done here just got so weird, took away all the cuteness, and felt more ridiculous than sexy to me. Even the whole drama of blackmail and threats from the shady pharma company ended up being secondary and really easily dealt with.

The audiobook narration by Chris Chambers was fine. I’ve talked more about it in previous reviews. Honestly, I think having the same narrator for every book in series where each book is about different characters throws me off a bit, even though I know that’s probably the standard way of doing things and is not his fault.

I enjoyed the previous books in the series, I plan to continue the series, this author writes well, but this one was not for me. But if what I described sounds like your thing, you may enjoy it more.

*Note: This is part of a series, but it is a complete story about these main characters that could probably work as a standalone.*

*Rating: 3 Stars // Read Date: 2021 // Format: Audiobook*