Review: Griff’s Place by Riley Hart
SYNOPSIS:
GRIFFIN
I always felt I wasn’t wired like my peers, but when my brother, Kellan, gave me three terms—ace, aromantic, and demi—I had possible names for it. Those three words have been on my mind ever since, as has my brother’s best friend, Josh Westbrook. It’s been cool getting to know him and spending time together, just us. He makes me feel something I never thought I’d be able to feel. When we end up alone in a cabin with only one bed, all my crossed wires finally connect and point toward being demi and wanting him.
JOSH
Griff and I were never supposed to be more than friends, but I like him more and more. I like being the reason he smiles, and…yeah, I enjoy making him writhe with pleasure too. But Griff doesn’t hook up casually, and I swore off love a long time ago. Still, we keep finding ourselves drawn together, a shared loneliness and a deep want guiding us. Kellan’s afraid I’ll hurt Griff. Frankly, I am too. My past is still an open wound that keeps me from getting too close.
One thing is becoming clear, though—my Grumpy Griff is making me break my own rules. He says he’s never known his place in the world, but I do. It’s with me. The only way for us to move forward is for me to stop looking back…before I lose sight of him for good.
REVIEW:
I liked this story but I didn’t love it, the pacing and focal points felt off throughout the story. The whole story is centered around this friends-with-benefits relationship between Griff and Josh but its pretty clear Josh has a whole lot of hidden baggage. And both are catching the feels so the majority of the story is them in denial.
I think what I didn’t like was the pacing of Josh’s own journey. For about 40% of the story you hear the inner dialogue about how Josh likes/loves Griff but he can’t get over his past. And what is strange to me is the Griff and Kellan’s father was a therapist and not at one point throughout the entire story does someone suggest that maybe Josh should get help to work through his insurmountable grief. Even after he quickly (IMO) gets over things with one simple visit, he still seems to be clinging to parts of his past. I just didn’t like it and all it did was add a layer of annoyance and drama.
Outside of Josh, we have Griff’s sexual identity crisis which I liked the representation but it felt repetitive at some points. Almost like he was repeating the same inner dialog over and over again throughout the story. And Kellan was a massive hypocrite, it was okay for him to fall for his brother’s best friend, but not the other way around? Get over yourself. The only saving grace was all the cameos from past characters and seeing them all thriving in their respective relationships.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
