Whiteout

This was a sweet and different piece with something to say about how many times we don't see the good stuff that's in front of us for the flash across the road. Alex is blind to the fact that his best friend and roommate Sam loves him in more than a friendly way and that he's also an awesome guy until he gets knocked-up by the in-your-face sexy Gerome.

The whole book is Sam having Alex's back in his moment(s) of need and the two slowly but surely coming together. The whole male-pregnancy issue being illegal adds a frisson of anxiety and danger to the situation and the ending, while a cliffhanger, is satisfying as far as the Sam & Alex goes.

I'll probably continue the series as it was intriguing. It just didn't have me racing to One-Click parts 2 & 3. But I'll get to them.

* One quibble is that the phrasing is sometimes odd which I later figured out is because I believe the author is German and hence American or even British English doesn't seem to be his first language. It's not distracting just slightly off. Kind of like reading a translation but I was cool with it.

Three things I disliked about this book and one thing I liked.

3. The way the relationship started was so unserious and required extensive suspension of disbelief. What do you mean you had naked cuddles with your roommate while you were sick and just refused to stop afterwards?

2. The fact that the offended party apologized first after the offending one revealed a heinous HEINOUS secret. The fact that mental health was sort of used as a cop-out to facilitate a situation where they had to reunite. This just soured me on the whole thing. I understand forgiveness but I'd rather it be earned and less about what will this person do to themselves if I don't forgive them.

1. The obsession on Caleb's end veered too close to instalove. Okay. I get it. You're obsessed with Whit. But why? He's (dare I say it?) very basic.

The one thing I liked.....

Alexander Cendese and Liam DiCosimo as the audiobook narrators. Wouldn't have finished this if not for them.

it is so bad i wanna give you a zero, but that's not possible so i give you ... a one

i have literally pages of rants in my notes app about this book but idek if i want to try and make it coherent enough for a review ... why did i keep reading this and not DNF when i realized like halfway through it was getting worse and not better? i think mostly out of morbid curiosity but also just disbelief tbh. anyway this was really bad lol sigh

tws: internalized homophobia, biphobia, self harm, suicidal ideation, mental illness, death of a parent, ableist and homophobic language, stalking, and a weird ass scene with ak-47s that was mildly triggering ???