Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.
With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.
But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.
Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.
Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.
Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing.
Buy Links
The first of a new LGBTQ series from Samhain Publishing, OFF CAMPUS is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, iBooks, and on the Samhain website.
Off Campus is the up close and personal story of Tom Worthington -- how he finds himself and regains his self respect in the aftermath of his father's crimes. All Tom wants to do is work, finish school and make his own way but he doesn't count on his roommate to shake up his life the way Reese Anders does.
After a very contentious start, Tom and Reese develop feelings other than anger toward each other, and I loved that it took a little while before they found their way into bed together. There's an emotional relationship developing here along with a scorching hot physical relationship.
Reese has some things he's dealing with too, and I loved how Tom was incredibly considerate of the things that triggered Reese. But when Reese wants to take their relationship public, Tom isn't comfortable with that and it threatens their relationship in a big way. I love how Reese knew exactly who he was and what he wanted from this relationship.
For some this book might seem slow, but for me, I loved getting inside Tom's head. It was great to see how he worked through some of his issues, with and without Reese's help. This book was rich in emotions and introspection, and I liked that very much about this story. Even though Tom's reactions were sometimes hard to take, it was evident that he had some things to work through on his own.
There were a few technical issues that kept me from rating this higher. I don't like when one character poses a question and then the other goes into pages of internal monologue before answering the question. This takes me out of the story and I often have to go back to see what the question was when it finally gets answered. Some of the transitions between scenes weren't as smooth or easily identified as different scenes and that too took me out of the story a bit.
Overall, I really liked this story and give it a solid 4 star rating. It's not just a coming-out sort of story, but a story of determining what you are really made of. When all was said and done in the book, I loved Tom's journey and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.
About the Author
Amy Jo Cousins writes contemporary romance and erotica about smart people finding their own best kind of smexy. She lives in Chicago with her son, where she tweets too much, sometimes runs really far, and waits for the Cubs to win the World Series.
https://twitter.com/_AJCousins
https://www.facebook.com/AmyJoCousins
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/259275.Amy_Jo_Cousins
http://amyjocousins.com/
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