Leo Loves Aries

This book starts with twins Theo and Leone trying hard to move on after breaking up with their exes – who actually fell in love with each other. That's understandably rough. They decide to find each other dates for “The Wedding”. In the meantime, they also interview roommates and Theo finally settles on his previous semesters' econ tutor Jamie. What follows is a story of friendship, trust, jealousy and love in all it's fun forms.

Theo is very funny and sweet and adorable but absolutely clueless in certain matters. He loves getting Jaime's skin, irritating him to no end but also enjoying their encounters. Leone is legally blind and can only slightly see outlines and some colors but she is fierce, loyal and independent. Jaime is calm, cool, smart, a health food nut and gives back as good as he gets to Theo. The three of them develop a great dynamic living together and it was fun seeing their daily interactions.

Jaime is always attentive towards Leone's needs but also considerate to let her be and figure out her surroundings in a new place. This makes Theo want to setup his sister with Jaime but fate has other ideas.

When Theo goes on a date with Liz and Leone and Jaime join them, Theo ends up spending most of his time with Jaime. He gets incessantly jealous seeing with his childhood best friend Sean. The banter between them is absolutely hilarious and so full of sexual innuendo but Theo is as usual his oblivious self. Even when they take their friendship to the next level, he couldn't get it through his thick head that he was in love and his insistence that they were just friends with benefits fooled no one.

The book also has good side characters and I loved all the friendships. Sean is a great, supportive best friend to Jaime and I loved the progression of his relationship with Leone. Ben and Kyle are also a cool addition to their group and definitely help Theo figure out his feelings. But the most charming of all is the twins' mother Crystal – her obsession with the zodiac and insisting that the predictions in the horoscope will work was very funny. But her emphasis that the sexual chemistry between Leo and Aries will be explosive does turn out to be true. I can't wait to see more of her in the remaining books of the series.

To wrap up, I just have to say that this book has great elements – beautiful friendships, amazingly positive sibling relationship, very slow burn romance and hilarious entertaining banter. It is also quite angst-free and will make for a delightful read when in need for some fun.

J'ai apprécié ce livre beaucoup plus que ce à quoi je m'attendais je dois admettre. Je me suis retrouvé à sourire des aventures de Theo, Jamie, Leone & Sean énormément, à avoir plusieurs moments d'attendrissement, bref à vraiment apprécier ce moment. Ce n'est sans doute pas le meilleur livre que j'ai lu mais il a l'immense mérite de m'avoir fait sourire du début à la fin :)

"When will you start making sense, Theo?" - an apt summary of this. I loved a lot of this. I also have a lot of BUTS.

Theo isn't generally dim, BUT he is when it comes to Jamie. This man is as oblivious as it gets. He crafted a narrative in his head(Jamie being into Leone) and just ran with it, disregarding all evidence to the contrary.

Theo is generally expressive, BUT cops out a lot when it comes to telling Jamie how he feels. Even at the end, it has to be dragged out of him.

I love a slow-to-get-it MC as much as the next girl, BUT Theo is a discovery. I always hate when an MC needs to have it pointed out to him that he's in love. Fumble all you want, but I NEED you to get it on your own. Focus, people!

Jamie is absolutely a green flag MC, BUT he coddled Theo a bit too much, in a bit too many ways. He mommies him. And judging by his past, this is his MO. I can't wait for them to have kids so he can focus his parental energy on that. He'd make an amazing dad.

These two work great as friends, BUT I didn't feel the sexual chemistry. Okay. Not quite true. I felt it in the before. Before things got physical. The emotional pining they had. Real yearners. But once things got physical, meh. I didn't feel the sparks.

Their sex scenes read like friends with benefits scenes. Which would be okay, given this is what they were telling themselves, and I felt more of the yearning from Jamie(which is honestly wild, given we only had Theo's perspective) but I wanted to feel it from both ends, and I don't feel like I got that.

The love got declared, BUT the process was too drawn out and convoluted. Who makes you wait days? AFTER making you wait months while he played catch-up? Theo. That's who. TELL THAT MAN, YOU LOVE HIM, ALREADY!

Yeeish.

I feel like there's so many bits I didn't quite love, BUT I honestly enjoyed the book overall. I couldn't put it down till it was done.

I loved the writing and the humor. Maybe I'll be trying another in this series.

3.5 stars. Thoroughly enjoyed this and absolutely LOVED Leone as a side character, considering that I usually don't care for side characters in romance books. The romance itself was very slow burn but not incredibly angsty, if that suits your tastes (I love angst but I didn't mind the lack of it here).

But I have one complaint. Are some mm authors scared of bisexual people? Call a character bisexual when that's what they are. When they like two genders, don't call them gay! I hated the inadvertent bi erasure. I need authors to call people bisexual instead of categorizing people in these mm books as simply gay or straight.

Ultimately, is this a story I'll remember a couple weeks from now? Probably not, I don't think it will be memorable for me. But did I enjoy my time reading this? Absolutely.