Title: Clueless Romeo (Guys Next Door #3)
Author: Baylin Crow
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Amazon/Self
Heat: 3 Flames
Rating: 3.5 Hearts
Synopsis Via GoodReads:
RomanโI’m not your typical matchmaker. For one, I’m a man who’s covered in tattoos.
Despite my appearance, there’s a reason ninety-five percent of my clients seek out my services based on referrals. I’m good at what I do. But lately I’ve grown bored with the same daily routine.
Then an unexpected request piques my interest.
CJ, the former college basketball star who recently rented the office suite next to mine, isn’t looking to place a ring on someone’s finger any time soon. He’s interested in something else entirely.
It’s a challenge. Something new.
He wants to date casually and explore his curiosity in other menโbut that’s not my end goal. I specialize in forevers, and I’m determined to find him the perfect guy.
There’s an unforeseen problem with my plan. After spending time with him, I find myself a little curious too.
I’ve never been with a man.
I’ve never been annoyed to see my strategy working.
And I’ve never deliberately set a client up for failure.
Review: Clueless Romeo is book three in the Guys Next Door series. It’s a steamy story about two guys who are bi-curious…or maybe it’s more than that.
Baylin Crow is a new to me author who has been on the scene for a bit. She has a couple other series going right now. It appears that she sticks to the M/M genre at this time.
I enjoyed this one. It’s a cute double bi-curious story. This series is all about men who are a door away from each other in some way. In this setup, Roman owns the other half of what was described as a duplex sort of building with the business below the apartments the men lived in. The author stated that these are interconnected standalones, which I agree. I never felt that I was missing something as I read this one. In fact, she gave just enough info as to not retell the story of a previous couple, but to get me intrigued enough to read about them. Archer and Phoenix from book one are cameos in this one, and I plan to read their story next. I enjoyed the little tidbits that she dropped about them.
Romeo and CJ are neighbors in this one. CJ, and his twin brother, Caleb, have recently graduated from college. With the help of their father, they have bought the place next door to open a sports memorabilia shop. Romeo and CJ just click right off the bat and strike up a friendship. They meet for drinks on occasion and shoot hoops, as both brothers are former college basketball players. Romeo has a feeling that there is something different about CJ, but can’t really put his finger on it initially.
CJ likes Romeo immediately. He feels comfortable around him in the way he rarely does with new people. Given what Romeo does for a living, he ends up sharing that he is curious about men but that he’s never been with one over drinks one night. The idea plants in Romeo’s mind, and he is unable to let it go making himself question his own sexuality. He struggles with it. On one had is knows that he is attracted to CJ, on the other, he doesn’t feel comfortable enough in his own skin yet to reveal that about himself, to anyone.
When he ends up pairing CJ up with another man on a date through his matchmaking business, he realizes that he’s willing to risk the high success rate he prides himself on to see the date fail because he wants CJ for himself. We really see Romeo’s fallibility here because he makes a lot of mistakes when it comes to CJ. A lot. He struggles to come to terms with what other people will think of him as a bisexual man. CJ’s nervous, but he handles it a little better. Likely because it’s something that he has known about himself for a long time, whereas Romeo was completely blindsided by his attraction to CJ. He does make a few mistakes too though. He isn’t entirely blameless.
I’ll let you discover the rest of their HEA. They do get one, and it’s a sweet story with some good steam. Ms Crow’s dirty talk is on point. I enjoyed reading about them. Like I said, I plan to catch up with Archer & Phoenix as well. Archer is the twins best friend, Phoenix is a former stripper turned songwriter.
If I have any criticisms, it’s that the story’s pacing was a bit fast for me once the attraction came out. We didn’t really get to see them settle into the relationship. We time jumped into the epilogue after one year. It didn’t really lessen my enjoyment of the story though. It was more of a brow raise and okay then, carry on type of moment. Some minor suspension of disbelief there, but like I said, I still liked the story. It was a quick read for me. I recommend it if you’re looking for some sweetness to pass a few hours.
This title is part of the KU library, but I was gifted this as an ARC from the author and Gay Romance Reviews. A positive review was not promised in return.
Purchase link | Amazon
