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jacqueleenthereadingqueen's review
5.0
This is book 2 in the Gold Coast College series, a contemporary series by L.J. Hayward. We met Sean in book 1 as the fabulous lab tech who gave Brian gay sex advice. Though that is where we first meet him, I think this book stands alone so it is not necessary to read the first before this one. I adored him as a side character in book 1 and liked him even more now that I've read his own book. The book starts out with Sean living his dream life. He's made a list of what the perfect life should look like and all his boxes have been checked off...that is until they aren't.
Down on his luck after being dumped by his cheating bastard of a fiancé, Sean is left without a partner, an apartment, or his beloved dog Reginald. You could say he's having a bad day, which unfortunately turns into a bad week when in the middle of apartment hunting he loses his job. Thankfully this is where Lucas comes in. He's the manager of an apartment complex that Sean is hoping to score a lease in. Lucas is a bleeding heart and has a thing for helping people who are down on their luck. He comes by it honestly from having his own experience in their shoes. From this alone I knew I was going to love him.
Lucas isn't exactly all heart. He also has his own selfish reasons for wanting Sean to stay. Sean doesn't seem to have any idea that the manager who has taken pity on him at his lowest point has met him before. In fact, you could say Lucas may have been harboring an unrequited crush for quite some time, he just never thought he'd see Sean again to act on it. It was actually quite adorable. Lucas has grown up quite a bit since his college days, having taken on the job of raising his niece for the last 8 years. Amy is a super smart and super cute kid who adds a great deal of smiles to the story. She was present, but not overly so like in some books where it can hinder the romance. Now that she's older, Lucas finally decides to do something for himself. He's going to act on his crush.
Unfortunately there is a boatload of misunderstandings and miscommunication when it comes to these two. Mistakes are made on both sides and it killed me because they are both just such sweet men. I wanted them together now!! I wanted Sean to be over his ex! I wanted Sean to talk to Lucas instead of avoiding him and I desperately wanted him to understand where Lucas was coming from when the big secret was revealed. I also wanted Lucas to be honest because you just knew that it was going to lead to a major blow out. Sean has trust issues as it is from being recently cheated on, so as you can expect the news of Lucas having known him before did not go over well. And that isn't even the half of it.
The good news is Sean isn't a total idiot. Once he hears Lucas out and takes some time to reflect on his own issues, he finds himself ready to finally move forward and enjoy the life he has now instead of mourning the life he lost. Lucas was right when he told Sean that sometimes life takes you down a road you didn't expect, but that doesn't mean you weren't meant to end up there. In fact, I think that's some pretty good advice for us all.
4.5 stars
** An ARC was gifted to me by the author. This is my honest and unbiased review **
Down on his luck after being dumped by his cheating bastard of a fiancé, Sean is left without a partner, an apartment, or his beloved dog Reginald. You could say he's having a bad day, which unfortunately turns into a bad week when in the middle of apartment hunting he loses his job. Thankfully this is where Lucas comes in. He's the manager of an apartment complex that Sean is hoping to score a lease in. Lucas is a bleeding heart and has a thing for helping people who are down on their luck. He comes by it honestly from having his own experience in their shoes. From this alone I knew I was going to love him.
Lucas isn't exactly all heart. He also has his own selfish reasons for wanting Sean to stay. Sean doesn't seem to have any idea that the manager who has taken pity on him at his lowest point has met him before. In fact, you could say Lucas may have been harboring an unrequited crush for quite some time, he just never thought he'd see Sean again to act on it. It was actually quite adorable. Lucas has grown up quite a bit since his college days, having taken on the job of raising his niece for the last 8 years. Amy is a super smart and super cute kid who adds a great deal of smiles to the story. She was present, but not overly so like in some books where it can hinder the romance. Now that she's older, Lucas finally decides to do something for himself. He's going to act on his crush.
Unfortunately there is a boatload of misunderstandings and miscommunication when it comes to these two. Mistakes are made on both sides and it killed me because they are both just such sweet men. I wanted them together now!! I wanted Sean to be over his ex! I wanted Sean to talk to Lucas instead of avoiding him and I desperately wanted him to understand where Lucas was coming from when the big secret was revealed. I also wanted Lucas to be honest because you just knew that it was going to lead to a major blow out. Sean has trust issues as it is from being recently cheated on, so as you can expect the news of Lucas having known him before did not go over well. And that isn't even the half of it.
The good news is Sean isn't a total idiot. Once he hears Lucas out and takes some time to reflect on his own issues, he finds himself ready to finally move forward and enjoy the life he has now instead of mourning the life he lost. Lucas was right when he told Sean that sometimes life takes you down a road you didn't expect, but that doesn't mean you weren't meant to end up there. In fact, I think that's some pretty good advice for us all.
4.5 stars
** An ARC was gifted to me by the author. This is my honest and unbiased review **
vicki_williams's review
5.0
This book does tick lots of boxes! 4.5 stars.
Sean and Lucas are such beautifully written main characters who kept me turning the pages wanting to know their story. Unbeknownst to Sean they do have a history together and this, plus some miscommunication, does lead to a well balanced amount of angst between two very likeable characters who do heat up the pages when they finally talk to each other.
There were moments where my heart felt like it was breaking, other times I couldn’t keep from smiling and at the end of the book I was just so happy that Sean and Lucas wrangled their way to a HEA.
There are some very interesting side characters that have me begging for more in this wonderful series.
Sean and Lucas are such beautifully written main characters who kept me turning the pages wanting to know their story. Unbeknownst to Sean they do have a history together and this, plus some miscommunication, does lead to a well balanced amount of angst between two very likeable characters who do heat up the pages when they finally talk to each other.
There were moments where my heart felt like it was breaking, other times I couldn’t keep from smiling and at the end of the book I was just so happy that Sean and Lucas wrangled their way to a HEA.
There are some very interesting side characters that have me begging for more in this wonderful series.
haletostilinski1's review
4.0
4.5 stars rounded down
Overall, another win for me by this wonderful author, and in this series. This story grabbed me from the start, with our interesting two main characters, Sean and Lucas.
Sean has just recently gotten out of four year relationship where he'd been engaged, because his ex-fiance was cheating on him, and with a friend of his as well.
Brett, the ex-fiance, is an asshole, although he pretends not to be. And I thought Sean was way too nice to him for what he did. He doesn't forgive him or get back with him, but the few times we see Brett after the beginning, Sean isn't cursing his name and reading him the riot act, as he should be. He even lets Brian hug him, which...I would not have, if it were me.
From there, Sean's life seems to go to shit. He loses his fiance, his job and somewhere to live all within about a week. He's been couch surfing when Tyler, his older friend from high school, lets the manager of a complex know that his friend Sean is looking for a place to stay.
Said manager is Lucas, a 33-year-old who is raising his 8 year old niece, Amy, alone and who when he sees Sean, remembers him right away from 7 years ago. Sean, however, does not.
The first of many miscommunications in this, is Lucas not telling Sean he remembers him and why. While understandable, it's still frustrating AF.
Then, as these two get to know each other, become friends, and get closer, they kiss and they almost go further, but Lucas, who is a virgin, doesn't handle it well and he tries to explain but doesn't get it out, and Sean assumes that he's straight and is being rejected and storms out before Lucas can explain.
But then they go weeks without actually talking about what happened, which was also frustrating. But when they finally do, things are cleared up and Sean distinctly thinks something along the lines of "man they should talk more and learn to ask before assuming, because it leads to things like this" and then...for the rest of the book, Sean does not heed his own advice.
Which frustrating me, which is why I rounded down instead of up with this, because he didn't seem to learn from his mistakes! And Lucas wasn't as bad, but keeping the fact that he knew Sean for the whole time they're together until we catch up to the present that we see in the beginning was not good and frustrating too.
These two just didn't like to talk to each other - I mean, they talked in other ways, in the getting to know you ways, and all that stuff, but Sean sure liked to assume and Lucas, while not as bad, still didn't tell Sean he knew who he was from years ago. They also liked talk themselves out of telling something to each other or talking to each other.
Even at the very end, after all this assuming and miscommunication and getting things wrong, Sean still saw Lucas and Amy backing up bags and assumed Lucas was running, when if he'd just asked him what he was doing instead of getting angry off his assumption, the potential problem wouldn't have been a potential problem.
All that's not to say I disliked this, because I loved it. When these two weren't being idiots and just being together and falling in love, I loved this, absolutely loved it. And yeah, the miscommunications made for some good drama, I still hated the miscommunications, and how many times it happened! It annoyed the crap out of me.
So I couldn't round this up because of how much it annoyed me.
BUT, I still loved this, I still devoured it, it was still a page turner for me, and I didn't want to have to put it down.
These two, as frustrating as they could be, were still great together, and I enjoyed their characters and their romance. Just because I wanted to hit upside the head for being idiots, didn't mean I didn't love their characters lol. (I still hated Brett and feel he should have gotten more comeuppance. Fuck that dude.)
So overall, this was really good, with a great central romance and great characters. They could just also be idiots who didn't communicate properly, and that frustrated me. But still two thumbs up from me, and a great second installment in this series.
Overall, another win for me by this wonderful author, and in this series. This story grabbed me from the start, with our interesting two main characters, Sean and Lucas.
Sean has just recently gotten out of four year relationship where he'd been engaged, because his ex-fiance was cheating on him, and with a friend of his as well.
Brett, the ex-fiance, is an asshole, although he pretends not to be. And I thought Sean was way too nice to him for what he did. He doesn't forgive him or get back with him, but the few times we see Brett after the beginning, Sean isn't cursing his name and reading him the riot act, as he should be. He even lets Brian hug him, which...I would not have, if it were me.
From there, Sean's life seems to go to shit. He loses his fiance, his job and somewhere to live all within about a week. He's been couch surfing when Tyler, his older friend from high school, lets the manager of a complex know that his friend Sean is looking for a place to stay.
Said manager is Lucas, a 33-year-old who is raising his 8 year old niece, Amy, alone and who when he sees Sean, remembers him right away from 7 years ago. Sean, however, does not.
The first of many miscommunications in this, is Lucas not telling Sean he remembers him and why. While understandable, it's still frustrating AF.
Then, as these two get to know each other, become friends, and get closer, they kiss and they almost go further, but Lucas, who is a virgin, doesn't handle it well and he tries to explain but doesn't get it out, and Sean assumes that he's straight and is being rejected and storms out before Lucas can explain.
But then they go weeks without actually talking about what happened, which was also frustrating. But when they finally do, things are cleared up and Sean distinctly thinks something along the lines of "man they should talk more and learn to ask before assuming, because it leads to things like this" and then...for the rest of the book, Sean does not heed his own advice.
Which frustrating me, which is why I rounded down instead of up with this, because he didn't seem to learn from his mistakes! And Lucas wasn't as bad, but keeping the fact that he knew Sean for the whole time they're together until we catch up to the present that we see in the beginning was not good and frustrating too.
These two just didn't like to talk to each other - I mean, they talked in other ways, in the getting to know you ways, and all that stuff, but Sean sure liked to assume and Lucas, while not as bad, still didn't tell Sean he knew who he was from years ago. They also liked talk themselves out of telling something to each other or talking to each other.
Even at the very end, after all this assuming and miscommunication and getting things wrong, Sean still saw Lucas and Amy backing up bags and assumed Lucas was running, when if he'd just asked him what he was doing instead of getting angry off his assumption, the potential problem wouldn't have been a potential problem.
All that's not to say I disliked this, because I loved it. When these two weren't being idiots and just being together and falling in love, I loved this, absolutely loved it. And yeah, the miscommunications made for some good drama, I still hated the miscommunications, and how many times it happened! It annoyed the crap out of me.
So I couldn't round this up because of how much it annoyed me.
BUT, I still loved this, I still devoured it, it was still a page turner for me, and I didn't want to have to put it down.
These two, as frustrating as they could be, were still great together, and I enjoyed their characters and their romance. Just because I wanted to hit upside the head for being idiots, didn't mean I didn't love their characters lol. (I still hated Brett and feel he should have gotten more comeuppance. Fuck that dude.)
So overall, this was really good, with a great central romance and great characters. They could just also be idiots who didn't communicate properly, and that frustrated me. But still two thumbs up from me, and a great second installment in this series.
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