Book Review: The Blueprint by S.E. Harmon

Reviewed by Ami

Title: The Blueprint
Author: S.E. Harmon
Series: The Game #1
Heroes: Kelly/Blue
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 270 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: March 13, 2018
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend.

NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.

When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay.

It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.

Review: As much as I love friends-to-lovers trope, nothing frustrates me more than when the story focuses on hot-and-cold attitudes, especially when it comes to two adult men. While there are books with such plots that can satisfy me – always depends on how the author works on the plot device — The Blueprint, unfortunately, is not one of them.

Kelly and Blue have been best friends for years. Kelly is gay. Blue is not (or he thinks he is not). Kelly is a professor, Blue is an athlete. Kelly has been sabotaging his relationships because of his feelings for Blue. Blue wants Kelly to be in his life forever, over the course of this book, and starts to get jealous when Kelly wants to ‘move on’.

Basically, Blue acts like a jerk and totally wishy washy – oh you know, he’s an athlete in a masculine sport; he is not “gay” or at least “bisexual” blah blah blah. Don’t get him wrong, Blue doesn’t have problem if other people are gay. And Kelly … sometimes I wish Kelly would stand up for himself.

And then there are plot devices that are so cliché – at least for me who has been reading this genre for years – I wanted to throw my Kindle at the wall. Namely: jealousy, drunken proposal/act, AND injury.

I think the only highlight of this book for me was when Kelly tells his parents that he’s gay. Their reaction is ENTERTAINING. I don’t think I’ve encountered such ascene before *laugh*.

Bottom line, the only reason I finished this is because I received the ARC. I have no patience for how these two men behave. Interestingly, I recently read a similar friends-to-lovers situation from a young adult book, and they behave WAY more mature than these two “adults”.

Overall Impression: It was okay, but not good

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*