Theory Unproven

2stars

I went into this one with high hopes. The premise of it was interesting but it just didn't live up to my expectations. As far as slow burns go this was agonisingly slow. There was talk of clever flirtatious banter in the first half of the book but I never got that with Tyann's more than obvious rebuffs to Eric's advances. Also, the idea of the strong silent type being compared to rude bugged me. Almost like Eric had zero concept of personal space, this whole dynamic of him talking too much versus the other guy not really responding didn't come off as clever and witty flirtations. He seemed a bit pushy. However once we got passed this and there was some real evidence of flirtation, it was fun. Entertaining, engaging, basically it was just good. That was when I started to enjoy the novel, once the main characters really began to be fleshed out I guess. Unfortunately, I was thirty percent or so into the novel when this happened. But it was definitely good enough to get me more than invested in the novel. Steamy flirtation awesome, that lead up to a delightfully fun steamy scene. Unfortunately, this was also shortlived.

After another thirty percent or so of reading a predictable thing happened which I was hoping would not happen until way close to the end of the book. Then the also predictable drama and tension and so on that these type of slow-burn romances entail happened. Even after the situation that caused the problem was resolved. I went from loving one character and relating to his situation to strongly disliking him. And as far as the plot goes there is a lot of pages left, I didn't have it in me to see how long Tyann would be stubborn, the strain this stupidity would put on his friendship and the possible deterioration of a budding relationship would take. It felt like a missed opportunity to delve into his worst fears happening and how this fear played out without the all too overused it's better if we end this plotline; coupled with 'I'm going to micromanage your life because I still want you to be with me and only me' and... I could go on. But diving deep into how this changed their relationship dynamic and how he pushed through with more panic and reverting back to clever banter and how Eric handled having to slowly open him back up again would've been a grittier, deeper and less cliche approach to the angst romance novels have.

Seriously, there has to be at least one man out there in a romance novel who doesn't end the relationship or forget to call, or pretend it's just sex and get caught joking about it with his buddies, the list is endless. With all the problems and hurdles life throws at us surely there's another way to drum up the tension than running away which was the mode for this book.

All in all, I couldn't like Tyann enough to read more pages of him micromanaging Eric's life but refusing to actually be in it, and then ruining a friendship with the one person who's actually taking care of him, so I couldn't finish this. For all I know in the next ten pages all of this might've solved itself but even still there would've been a third of the book left to go through. The assumption could be made Tyann would do something else stupid, or Eric would refuse to take him back once he came to his senses, a lot of page time to push the tension as far as humanly possible. But after not really being in it for the first third and then loving the second third a whole lot, this happening just passed the middle of the book took me out of the book and I started skimming to see when it would be resolved and it didn't look like it would happen fast enough for me.

Would I recommend this book? Yes and no. If I hadn't planned to write a review I doubt I would've made it to the parts I loved. But I did love them. And when you add up the type of drama this genre entails. Tyann's actions are textbook. Readers that are fans of romance will be all in, turning the pages with enthusiasm without overanalysing it and counting pages and making assumptions, whether right or wrong, about what could reasonably happen in that time and if they are willing to take the risk to find out. This book is definitely one of my not so good reviews that, in my opinion, hits the brief hard with the drama, tension, angst, and steam one would expect to be in this type of novel. On that end, it's not a hard sell at all. But for me, I've read so much romance that I guess I'm numb to these types of actions now especially when they happen in the middle of the book and not close to the end so I at least know it will be resolved quickly.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.