I cannot believe I waited so long to read this book. Picking it up should have been my Plan A all along! 4+ stars.
Danny Marshal is a confident, sexy, I cannot believe I waited so long to read this book. Picking it up should have been my Plan A all along! 4+ stars.
Danny Marshal is a confident, sexy, gender-bending, beast of a man. Unique in his style and take-no-prisoners in his attitude, he refuses to apologize for the choices he makes or the way he lives his life. The fact that he insists on being exactly who he is captures Lance Lenard from the start -- the football-playing jock may be unsure of his sexuality, but he is bowled over by Danny from the second that he sees him.
So Danny and Lance start hooking up in private, which suits both of them just fine. Danny is a busy theater nerd, and Lance has his eyes on the NFL. Eventually, though, their friends-with-benefits relationship takes a deeper turn, and it becomes clear that both of them are falling hard for the other. Neither of them, though, was the other's Plan A: Danny had no intention of falling for a closeted, experimenting, "straight" jock, and Lance was entirely focused on on his football career, which did not include the image of a boyfriend on his arm. When they started their relationship, neither had a clue that a life with each other might be a wonderful Plan B.
I have to say, this was a fabulous book, and I read it within the space of a few hours. Danny's voice is young, bold, and a lot of fun, and though we aren't sitting inside Lance's head, it was sweet watching him come to terms with his feelings for Danny. There are frustrations, too, in the way that both of them choose to react to various stressors, but ultimately, that is fine. This is a story about two kids who fall in love when they are incredibly young, so their silly mistakes and over-the-top reactions are allowed, even when they could have been avoided (or pain could have been mitigated) with an honest conversation. The pacing is brisk, and though I could see where things were headed, I never got bored. Plan B is a timely reminder of the fact that sometimes, the choices we are inclined to reject might be the ones that send our lives in the direction where they ought to go.
This was an absolutely wonderful book, with well-developed characters, believable motivations, and a love story that was authentic and true. I have onThis was an absolutely wonderful book, with well-developed characters, believable motivations, and a love story that was authentic and true. I have only one critique, and it is a BIG one that fans of NCAA and NBA basketball should be wary of:
(view spoiler)[I'm not sure if Amy Lane understands the game. There is one plot-critical decision in the book that rang false because it NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE (and serious fans will know this). During one scene, the protagonists (who are both playing for the Sacramento Kings) are caught kissing in the locker room by their deeply homophobic, bigoted coach. The next day, one half of the couple is traded to the Denver Nuggets. This narrative decision was batshit crazy -- as she described the two protagonists, they were basically the equivalent of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at their height, and because they were so good, the Kings were in contention for a championship ring. In real life, the coach might have been thoroughly disgusted and utterly contemptuous, but the owners would not have broken up their well-oiled combination. There was too much pride at stake (EVERYONE wants a ring, and those two guys were on track to winning one for the team) and too much money at stake to break up their winning on-court combo over something that could have been kept a secret. Unfortunately, this contrivance is the key event that generates the rest of the plot.
Don't get me wrong, I adored this novel. Nonetheless, I wish that the dramatic tension had been created in a way that was more plausible. I had already suspended disbelief when I accepted the fact that both of them were starting players, not only for an elite NCAA program like UNC, but also for their hometown NBA team, the Kings. Asking me to do so, as well, on how the owners would have handled the locker room situation was just a bridge too far. (hide spoiler)]
Still, people should read the book. If you can get past the need to suspend disbelief on an epic scale (or if you just don't understand the way that NCAA and/or NBA basketball work), the story is divine. The fact that I gave it 5 stars, despite the -- frankly, ridiculous -- direction of the MCs' careers in both the NCAA and the NBA, is a testament to the fact that when it comes to writing a love story, Amy Lane is a friggin' goddess. ...more
Salsera1974
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