RobV

Couldn't get into it. Nothing about this story made sense to me. Didn't detect any chemistry between the lead characters, just weird instalove. Would've been much better if Miki slowly learned to trust Kane over the course of the investigation. Instead he clings to him right away and Kane becomes his pervy babysitter. His partner cop easily acknowledges and accepts that Kane has fallen in love with the victim/suspect/hugely successful pop star after one day. Miki's fame seems to come and go from one scene to the next. I dunno, this just wasn't for me.

The most bizarre “sports” romance I've read in a while. The story begins when the guys have already been living like a married couple (without the sex) for years. Their whole arrangement and the reasons they haven't acted on their feelings defy all logic and reason. We spend the entire book waiting for them to grab what's right in front of them. Sadly, the necessary confrontations to make it happen are either glossed over or never happen at all. When they're finally forced to face the situation, there's a six month jump to the epilogue. What?! Despite rolling my eyes every chapter, I wanted more. Because no matter the flaws of the story, the two guys are freaking adorable.

Struggled to finish this. This instalove thing between two older guys who had already been acquaintances for years was hard to get into. I'd have liked to see more of the years leading up to it when they were raising their kids and had this internal war going on.

Instead it's a very subpar crime story with the merging of their two families as the backdrop. There were some sweet moments and I really liked all of the kids but I just couldn't get invested at all.

The first half of this book was pretty incredible. The weeks in Paris falling in love, then reality setting in back home in Texas. Beautifully written, gorgeous prose, the emotions jumping off the page. I was expecting the story to take some devastating turns and really tackle the reality of being a closeted celebrity athlete.

I suppose in a way it delivered, but any semblance of “reality” evaporated a little too much for my taste. I needed more side characters (why does Justin have no friends?), I wanted the characters that were there to have more depth and nuance (the coach and the other players are all ridiculous), I didn't want all the drama to be resolved so quickly and easily. In the end it felt like the author was getting bored of the story himself and just rushing to finish it. It's a shame because there was so much potential.

That said, a lot of that potential could still be unlocked if there's a sequel, and I'm definitely invested in this couple's future.

I adored the first book in the series, and was eager to see Rick, Max and the kids build a life together and to see more of this crazy, wondrous universe. Unfortunately, this second book fell a little flat. There wasn't much of a story this time. Rather than diving deeper into this incredible alien society, I feel like more time was spent explaining humanity to aliens. It got a little boring. The setup for the next installment is quite promising, though.