Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend.NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, … father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.
When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay.
It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.
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*Loved*
I love Harmon’s writing style, it’s just really easy to read with lots of humor, both obvious and dry wit. I really enjoyed this book. A fun twist on the friends to lovers, not quite as straight as he thought jock.
Kelly and Blue had some great chemistry, although it was light on steamy scenes. With the tension and build up I expected more emotions and hotness, but it was very lackluster. But they had awesome banter, that is my weakness. Some good angst that wasn’t what I thought it would be about.
When I originally finished I was a bit disappointed in the ending, it just felt abrupt and unfinished. But now I’ve heard there will be a second one, which paints it in a whole new light. It left me wanting more, and so I’m eagerly anticipating the next.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader’s copy.
I’ve listened to this book 3 times and it’s just as funny each time. GFY is one of my favorite troupes. Such a good book. Bit of a slow burn but it’s totally worth it. Narration is top notch! Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden are amazing!!
A TOUCHDOWN READ!!!
An endearing Friends to Lovers GFY delight.
My favorite trope is brought to life in a perfect, from childhood friendship.
I loved the sarcastic and witty banter between them.
A delicious escape I can’t wait to continue.
Highly Recommended!!!
RATING 4.5 STARS
The Blueprint is book one in the Rules of Possession duet by S.E. Harmon. This is my very first book by this author and I am pretty much bowled over. It’s witty and fun, sexy, sweet with not too much angst. Not to mention that I fell totally in love with these two. This is a M/M, sports, bi-awakening romance.
Kelly Cannon is a twenty nine year old physics professor who is openly gay. I loved that on the outside, Kelly is an argyle sock, cardigan sweater wearing, neatly dressed college professor. But underneath he is a tattooed, pierced man who is proud of who he is and hides nothing. Well, there is one thing he does hide, the way he REALLY feels about his best friend since the second grade, Blue.
Britton “Blue” Montgomery is an NFL tight end for the Aventura Outlaws. Blue is thirty years old and has been dubbed the “Blueprint” or prototype of a perfect tight end. Blue’s life has always been about football. Without it he has no idea who he is. He and Kelly and been best friends since the beginning. They are as different as night and day, Blue’s life revolving around sports and Kelly who doesn’t like to break a sweat. But somehow, it has always worked. Until it didn’t.
“In the tapestry of our life, our threads were so interwoven we’d have to unravel the whole blanket to pull them apart.”
Blue and Kelly are so close, it’s like a marriage without the sex. Only for some time Blue has noticed things about Kelly a straight man shouldn’t. And he is oddly possessive of him, like when anyone else looks at him or touches him or speaks to him. When a little alcohol loosens his inhibitions, a little experimenting happens which changes everything. Especially when Kelly finally admits that he’s in love with Blue, has always been in love with him. And now it’s time for Blue to decide what he really wants.
What did I love about this book? Just about everything. These two were so perfect for each other. I loved the way they were just two halves of a whole. My only problem is that when I love characters this much, I feel protective of them. And I didn’t like that Kelly had to feel pain while keeping his true feelings hidden and finally forcing Blue to decide what he really wanted.
These two made me smile so much and sigh, both out of frustration and when they were happy. I can’t wait to finish their story in the second part of this duet, A Deeper Blue.
I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I’m normally not a big fan of sport books, but I took a chance on this one and I’m so glad I did. Blue and Kelly were amazing characters. Their banter, sarcasm, and general sassiness had me grinning and laughing. The characters were nothing like I expected when I first read the blurb – they were so much better and way more dynamic and interesting. The plot was the standard best-friends-getting-together with a heavy dose of Gay-For-You and Coming-Out tropes. Those tropes can get pretty boring, but S.E. Harmon did such a wonderful job with creating her characters, that I never got bored. I was completely delighted by this book. I can’t wait to read the sequel now.
A good read
Thoroughly enjoyed it!
I loved these two MCs. You can really feel how much they love each other.
I enjoyed the writing and characters very much, but, I’m a very traditional romance reader and having the *spoiler alert stop now if you don’t want to know!!!* graphic descriptions of one of the heroes having sex with a secondary character before the two MCs fully get together ruined it for me and I stopped reading. I didn’t need to “see” that. There is already a strong emotional connection bt the two heroes at that point, and having to “sit through” sex w/ the wrong guy was just…yuck. No thanks. Not my romantic fantasy.
I would rate this 4.25 stars.
Kelly Cannon is having a very bad night. This book throws you in the deep end immediately. But sometimes you can’t ignore things anymore and Kelly is in love with his best friend, NFL player Britton “Blue” Montgomery. With Blue under so much pressure in his career, to have to worry about losing his best friend too is not helping. I can say I liked Kelly right away. I loved the use of humor. It took me longer to warm up to Blue, but then he does get less time on page at the beginning. After being in their heads, I can say these two deserve each other. The most difficult part of this book is being in Blue’s head, how does he not know?! Oh course, it’s obvious why. But, there comes a point when he can’t lie to himself anymore either. Turning a 17 year friendship into a relationship is not without its ups and downs.
This just feels natural. I love their interactions. Even during sex, they are themselves with humor and banter. Just when I thought they couldn’t be mature about things, they proved me wrong. The reminiscing about childhood events really works in this story as they both think about how much their relationship means to them. Kelly’s family adds so much to this story, I can’t imagine it without them but, it makes Blue’s family a glaring omission. I would have liked to see them too, even though his dad doesn’t sound pleasant. There is nothing about his brother. Still, they have made an impact on who Blue is and it would have added another layer.
There were small issues I had, like how accepting everyone is, which is less realistic than the rest of the book. There is also the timing of Kelly basically giving Blue an ultimatum–while I understood his feelings and why, the particular moment had me more sympathetic with Blue than Kelly. Maybe that’s on purpose though, and I just didn’t realize it. For anyone who likes friends to lovers, the nerd and the jock theme, and bisexual for you, as well as a coming out story, this is your book. Because there is a full range of emotions here, and it’s realistic without being overly dramatic, it doesn’t feel like a list of tropes.
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted the audio file of this book. Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden narrate.
This is a dual narration and it’s the first one I’ve listened to, that is dual narrated, in the male/male genre. I’m struggling to split my review into one for the book and one for the narration, like I usually do, so this is gonna all run into one!
For the most part, I enjoyed the story of Kelly, and his best friend, Blue. Kelly fell in love with Blue a long time ago, and finally admits to Blue how he really feels. Blue is then pushed to make a decision that might ruin his football career.
Had I READ this, I would have found it a nice easy read, told in the first person from both Kelly and Blue’s point of view.
But this is an AUDIO review, and here’s what I thought of the narration.
Cendese narrates Kelly’s chapters. I haven’t listened to him before and, while always willing to try new narrators, I’m also a little wary. Cendese nails his narration, though! His voice for Kelly is a little higher, but I didn’t mind that (crappy hearing issues!) and his voice is clear and even and he got over all the emotions and feelings very well. I didn’t have to struggle to hear what was being said.
Crisden narrates Blue’s chapters. I have listened to his work before, and didn’t have any trouble with those pieces but here? I found Blue’s voice low, like really REALLY low and in some places it dipped way below my hearing range. Not for long, just odd sentences here and there, but enough for me to miss a few things that Blue thought about. I did manage to pick them up as the book moved along but I might not have been able to. So I struggled a bit when Blue had his voice, and it did spoil it slightly for me. I won’t write Crisden off, just yet though!
Overall, an enjoyable listen, but I think I might have enjoyed it more reading, rather than listening.
4 stars for the book
4 stars for the narration (but 5 for Cendese and 3 for Crisden)
*8same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Angie –
I really enjoyed this story. Kelly was a hoot. Kelly and Blue have been best friends forever and they are always together. When Kelly’s boyfriend asks him to marry him on the jumbotron, Kelly realizes what he really wants – Blue. Blue was sweet but by the time we got to the good parts of the story I wanted to smack him. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. These two have such great chemistry right from the start and they do act like an old married couple. I shed a few tears because I hated how hurt Kelly was. I am glad he finally stood his ground, I was so proud of him. There wasn’t a lot of angst in this book, but there were several steamy love scenes and, like I said, the chemistry was off the charts with these two. The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars was because of the ending. It ended kind of abruptly and I wanted to know what happened after Blue made up his mind and what people thought and how it all played out.
Sarah –
Geeky physics professor Kelly knows that at some point he’s going to have to get over the feelings he has for his straight best friend Blue, an NFL star. But Blue’s mixed messages and possessive behaviour make it hard for Kelly to cut his losses and move on.
I loved this story and I really fell hard for both these men. Their lifelong friendship is inspiring and despite Blue’s celebrity job, he feels real and grounded. His fame is a non-issue in the book with the focus more on the gruelling physical and emotional demands of his job. I love the way their disparate friendship groups mix – Blue with Kelly’s academic friends and Kelly with Blue’s teammates. I wanted to hate Blue for leading Kelly on unfairly, but I couldn’t. At times his internal conflict is tortuous, and it is Kelly’s clarity and personal freedom that is enviable. This is as much a story about Blue taking control of his life as it is a romance.
The angst in this story is heartbreaking at times, but I love that the conflict between these two stays low key – they are believable lifelong friends who continue to care for each other even when the relationship is impossibly difficult for them both emotionally. When these two finally add sex to their friendship, the chemistry between them is combustible and the intimacy of their relationship is pretty crazy special.
Beyond the romance, this is a beautifully written story. I love the subtlety and nuance in the character development. I love the multifaceted characters and their complex relationships. I love the dialogue that feels real and the tiny observational details that bring the story to life.
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Blueprint by S.E. Harmon to read and review.