Acing the Game
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
Shep Lee thought he had it all. A successful restaurant, a loving husband who understood his asexuality, and most of all, the ability to be himself, a popular chef in the small town of Cloverleaf, Montana. That is, until his husband, Elmer Eshler, began pushing Shep more on sex. Elmer doesn’t understand why he can’t turn his partner on—aren’t they perfect for each other? And Shep loves him, right? Shep, meanwhile, while confident with his body, is and forever will be sex indifferent. Why has Elmer suddenly changed his tune? But he doesn’t want to lose the man he loves so much. What can they do? Shep convinces Elmer to try a polyamorous relationship. Elmer gets to have Shep and the sex life he’s always wanted. Shep gets a cooking buddy and a chance to experience a relationship and even try sex with a woman as his authentic gender. At first, Shep isn’t sure, but finds himself coming around—this feels safer than opening up the relationship. All three of them will be romantically involved, so that should ease any jealousy, right? But when Willow Saint, a free-spirited, boisterous, and saucy young woman, comes into their lives, neither are prepared for the emotional and sexual rollercoaster that follows. Enthralled by Willow’s charm and kindness, Elmer and Shep struggle to understand what this means for their own bond. Can they become one happy family? Or will this ruin everything?
Reviews with the most likes.
Acing the Game had me thoroughly invested in Shep and Elmer's story and Shep in particular. He was just the best and sweetest cinnamon roll of cinnamon rolls and I wanted to hug him for basically the entire book. Shep is undoubtedly the best part of the story! I loved that he managed to be true to himself even while living in a small, backward kind of town that can't wrap its head around queer people, let alone trans people. It starts off a bit slow as we go through Shep and Elmer's back stories in some detail, from their finding of their identities, to their first romantic and sexual explorations as teenagers/young adults, through loss and finding new love. It really picks up after they've been together for awhile and Shep is running his restaurant – which, please, someone take me to this place, I NEED to try all these delicious meals. Eventually though, as often happens after relationships have been established for awhile, issues arise, insecurities crop up, and we try to deal with them in ways that may or may not be successful or healthy. Shep attempts to do this in dealing with his asexuality and Elmer's desires for more sexual exploration, and...well. The results are a bit sticky.
Overall the story has a very melancholy flavor and while I loved getting to see the journey of a trans person through finding themselves and finding love, I was disappointed in the ending between Shep, Elmer, and Willow. As a polyamorous person myself, I was so hopeful that it was going to be excellent representation for not only queer and trans people but polyamorous people too. Unfortunately that was not the case and I feel the treatment of polyamory was not well done. Sadly accurate, to the extent that people often dive into “trying out” polyamory without doing much research or introspection, but this was a trainwreck of an attempt at non-monogamy and not a good representation of it.
