by Daisy Harris
Men of Holsum College #1
Siren Publishing
M/M Contemporary Erotic Romance
5 Stars
Review copy from Netgalley
Blurb:
When soccer star Chris Fischer moves next door to an openly gay classmate, he doesn't realize the wall between their rooms will be so thin he'll hear his neighbor's every move. But soon he and Peter become friends, and Chris is intrigued—imagining what happens on the other side of the wall.
Active on the Queer Student Council, Peter Cohen wishes he wasn't so damn hot for his straight neighbor. He can't tell if Chris is flirting or in denial or what, but Chris's innocent overtures lure Peter into flirtation that throws his world into chaos. Peter doesn't want to date a closet case, but he desperately, passionately wants Chris.
Soon Chris must choose whether to run away from his new feelings or embrace a relationship with the guy he loves. And Peter must decide if he can give his heart to a guy who hasn't yet figured it all out.
Review:
Grieving after the death of his mother, Chris Fischer requests a room transfer to a single dorm room so that his friends won't keep asking how he's coping. He doesn't want to talk about it and thinks that having his own room and his own space will help. What he hadn't realised, was that the single rooms in Cooper Hall were once doubles and have just been split down the middle with thin plasterboard walls and he can hear everything his new neighbour gets up to.
I adored this novella. Chris and Peter were both so sweet that you wanted things to work out for them. Chris' dilemma over these new feelings he's having for a man were well done without piling on too much angst. It's a romance so you hope things will work out in the end. It must be difficult after thinking you were one thing for a long time, Chris has had a few girlfriends after all and enjoyed his time with them, but here he is wondering about Peter and what it might be like to do things with him.
Despite his growing attraction to Peter, Chris is afraid to act on it. He's worried about what his friends and his team mates on the soccer team will think. His questioning his sexuality is what a lot of the book is about and you want to reach in and give him a hug. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to come out in real life and it was done with sensitivity in the book.
Chris and Peter spend a lot of the first half of the book talking to each other through the thin walls of their dorm room and it might have seemed a bit contrived, but it really worked here. They got to know each other in whispers late each night, starting out with intimate conversations and then moving on to shared masturbation sessions through that same wall, which were really hot.
It was great that they got to know each other a bit before they finally got together in the physical sense, it made him seem much more emotional because of that. I loved that their first time didn't quite go as smoothly as one would hope - Peter was a virgin and Chris had never been with a man before and it made it so much sweeter and realistic that they weren't these great lovers straight off the bat. The love scenes were intense though, and you could really feel the love between these two young men.
A wonderful read if you're looking for a romance that is both hot and sweet at the same time.
Reviewed by Annette Gisby
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