I am of two minds about this book. Part of me enjoyed it and part feels absolutely let down. I found it difficult to connect with Ryan or James. Never having been remotely attracted to my best friend made it hard to feel what James did. Ryan aggravated the crap out of me with his wishy washy attitude. That aside, I was cheering for the two of them to wind up together. ( )

Not my fave installment! I get it, the title of this series is pretty unambiguous, but some of these straight guys are freaking extreme. Stringing someone along, playing with their feelings, unable to give them what they need but also unable to let them go because of selfishness? Taking them for granted? I don’t know about you, but for me this sounds a lot like book 3...

I’m somehow still enjoying these, though? ( )

This was just a bit weaker than the rest of this series. But I loved it anyway. ( )

So so

A bit of a depressing read. I should have paid more attention to previous reviews. A very one sided love affair for the majority of the book. I wanted chemistry and blazing heat. I got damp wood and no fire. ( )

Unlike some of the other works containing grooming or rape or assault. I am proud to say this Hazard book is free of rape-to-love or grooming to love content and more full of two confused adults who can't understand their feelings.

Hazard fails at writing them as kids in the beginning, it really is worth skipping because the star of their friendship reads badly written. Then there is the whole James is "royalty" angle was utterly un-utilized and stupid. Arthur is a hypocrite and a dumb jerk, and that whole plot line of royal bloodlines and regal-ness is just chucked into the book for seemingly no reason besides to explain wealth -and poorly explain at that.

James and Ryan are endearing characters, and their relationship is a mess because Ryan is darker than he comes off. Luckily, despite the hints of them pushing lines, consent is relatively intact. James doesn't do anything unallowed and Ryan is in control until he loses control.

There is a lot of gray areas of consent, or lack of any real non-consent in places and a lot of heavy implications that Ryan is only getting off because he's thinking really messed up pseudo-incestual thoughts while fucking James, but otherwise it barely delves into any terrible territory that would make it another mess of man-forcing-man to do things they don't want which is a huge LGBT book trend.

The writing was brisk, it felt lackluster in spots, and the fact this series is called "Straight Guys" will always rub me wrong, but for the read, A Bit Confusing isn't bad, there's bound to be better out there though. ( )