Xing

Rating: 2.5 stars

So gay-for-you type of stories are one of my favorites. It reaches for my inner romantic and makes me think that real life doesn't truly suck.

Unfortunately, Rules of Engagement didn't make my inner romantic sing for joy. It kind of made me cringe. I think the biggest issue I had was Dustin. While I understand he had a painful ten year relationship with a psycho-bitch of an ex-wife, it felt like some of the problems were due to the fact that he was a pushover. A pushover for both his mother and the ex-wife. Not only that, but about 85% of the story's conflict was him wallowing in his sexual identity crisis. A sexual identity crisis isn't uncommon in these gay-for-you type stories, but he was obsessed with labels to the point that it made me cringe. It was the big elephant in the room, and caused so much unnecessary drama and conflict with his relationship with Brandon. I felt like Brandon was more in the category of a 15 year old high school boy who just discovered he liked "boys" AND girls. Not the 28 year old, ex-marine and current personal trainer hotshot.

And then there was his relationship with Brandon. They talked about past exes, played pool, talked about having gay sex. Then they had sex, a LOT (which was a redeeming element to this book). And that was pretty much it. Their relationship felt shallow, and I couldn't even feel myself invested enough to care what happened.

And then Brandon wasn't necessarily boyfriend of the year week. He did some things towards the end that made me raise my eyebrow and rip apart cute kitty calendars in a fit of reading induced rage (him AND Dustin both).

Honestly guys, what's the matter with both of you? And at the story's conclusion, I felt like there were many loose ends regarding Dustin's family that didn't get resolved.