First off, kudos to the author for writing a first person, present tense book that I enjoyed. I’m not a fan of 1st person and I HATE present tense as a rule.
I loved the characters: Gabe and Dylan were true to themselves. And Jude? Gotta love Jude.
However, as much as I enjoyed the tension between the two main characters, the story lagged-a lot. I had to force myself to keep listening. That is not the mark of a great book. And yet… I really did like Gabe and Dylan, even if it didn’t end the way I’d hoped. I’d list it as ending ‘happily for now’ and not ‘happily ever after’. And strangely if the author hadn’t listed a certain box, I would have accepted it as HEA. But because of the box and the unasked question, it now sits at HFN. Which is a strange thing to do, especially with that uber long epilogue, when this is a series of different leads.
There were also some time jumps that didn’t make a lot of sense. And the whole Fletcher angle? I would have expected fireworks when that ended instead of an off-screen nothing. After all, with how badly Fletcher treated Dylan, it deserved an on-screen blowup.
I enjoyed Joel Leslie’s narration immensely. However, while Gabe and Dylan mostly had their own voices, there were many spots where I couldn’t tell them apart. Which sucked.
So it seems strange to say but, I do highly suggest this book. Just be ready for it to lag a lot.