Out of Character (True Colors, #2)

by Annabeth Albert

[lessthelonely]

3.5/5 stars.

Sometimes you just want to read something light and the first romance you lay eyes on is the answer - that's why I ended up reading this book. At the beginning of the week, I said, OK, let me start a new book. I'm feeling romance after reading an underwhelming Thriller, so let's go.

The first one I caught was this one. It's very interesting that Romance tends to lean into those 2D drawing covers, which I do like! But I like it more when the cover does lean into what's talked about in the book. This book reads like a baby's first M/M romance. Very cute, very A Fault in Our Stars in the dialogue - by which a mean a lot of shit that's like Okay? Okay. Here's the thing, I didn't think it drew back from the book, it feels like a New Adult Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda was the point of this, so I would say Mission Accomplished.

I hate living in the timeline where Simon is a sort of blueprint for gay Achillean romance and I do like to pretend it isn't most of the time. Books like The Charm Offensive and Boyfriend Material make me believe it doesn't have to be that way.

I probably should've been a little more thorough in choosing the book to read, because this is apparently the 2nd book in a series and the first one's couple is treated as established in this one. But even though I remembered that in the middle of reading, I finished it, so here we are.

This book basically takes a pre-established enemies-to-lovers setting with childhood friends who ended up drifting apart. Even the synopsis makes that a selling point and the thing here is that the enemies part isn't really enemies? From the very first chapter, both characters seem to be acting like they want each other, which is OK, it doesn't feel insta-lovey at all. It's just, it feels like the enemies part was just added to simply be able to have enemies-to-lovers as a tagline. It's a smart move, even if a little dishonest.

This is dual POV and I would say that the book definitely makes a lot of wins thanks to this fact, but, at the same time, I feel like the POVs should've been more fleshed out. The characters do have a similar way of talking and very similar voices, and I didn't expect to find way more joy in reading Milo's POV, as he was a way more realized character. I don't mean to say Jasper isn't nice or interesting, but he read like Simon, you know? Even if the sex scenes definitely gave him some big ass points.

The sex scenes are very satisfying even if I don't think anyone would consider them that spicy? They didn't read as kinky or as wild to me as I feel is usually what most smut fans want, they read as fluff with sex, not sex with fluff, you feel me? I realized then that this flavor of smut might be what I enjoy most to read, even if it's the first time I willingly read a book knowing I would be getting sex scenes. I might've even been looking for them, for once.

Either way, I am not going to give this book a higher rating because of the problem with the POVs and, unfortunately, I can't let myself get through the fact that the pining stage was SO SHORT. It was done so well, that's why I feel the need to make a point in saying that it should've lasted a bit longer. On another note, I do hope you read this book because, despite my worst suspicions, this book understands conflict.

No one acts out of character because the book needs stakes. It's an amazing thing to see and I want all romance books to understand this. So, give this one a shot!