Getting Him Back (Jaime’s Review)

Title:Getting Him Back
Author: K.A. Mitchell
Publisher: Carina Press
Release Date: 2/15/2016
Genre(s): Male/Male – New Adult
Page Count: 120 pages
Reviewed by: Jaime from Alpha Book Club and Gay Book Reviews
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 4.5 rounding up to 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

An unexpected fresh start leads to an unlikely-but-absolutely-perfect pairing in this male/male new-adult novel from bestselling gay romance author K.A. Mitchell

Ethan may have followed his high school sweetheart to college only to get dumped his first day there, but he’s not going to let that stop him from exploring all his new life has to offer. Sex-only hookups, his photography, new friends and a campus-wide game of zombies vs humans all help keep his mind off his broken heart and move him toward building a new, better life without his ex.

And then there’s Wyatt. Mysterious, grouchy…hot. And possibly not gay. But Ethan’s not going to let that stand in the way of figuring out what makes Wyatt tick. New college goal? Get Wyatt into bed and into Ethan’s life.

Step one: arrange a “tutoring” date. Step two: “accidentally” bump into Wyatt as often as possible. Step three: explore the sexy body under that ever-present hoodie. And when their friendship deepens into something neither of them expect, convince Wyatt he’s not just a pity fling or a one-time hookup, but that Ethan is in it for the long haul.

4.5 Stars Rounded Up to 5 because Wyatt and Ethan!! sigh!!

Getting Him Back is a new adult, male/male romance that tells the story of Ethan and his school and love life troubles as he makes the transition from high school graduate to college student. Ethan’s longtime boyfriend Blake has been at college for a year and Ethan has decided he will follow Blake to Coborn College so they can be together as they begin their lives together. Since they have been apart for “three weeks, two days, five Hours and twenty-nine minutes” Ethan is very eager to get to school and spend some quality time catching up both in and out of bed.

Imagine Ethan’s surprise when he finally gets to Coborn and is told by Blake:

“I still love you, but I don’t love you that way anymore”

Ethan just cannot understand why his boyfriend broke up with him, he becomes depressed and regrets following him to Coborn College. He makes it his mission to not let his parents know that this has happened (as they warned him not to follow a boy to college) and to figure out the “why” of Blake’s ending their relationship.

In his pursuit of Blake, Ethan meets his dorm roommate – Wyatt. At first Ethan tries to get information about Blake from Wyatt by acting like he wants Wyatt who is an engineering student to tutor him in calculus. Wyatt refuses to tutor him and calls Ethan on only attempting to use him for information. After much ado and persistence Ethan and Wyatt settle into a little bit of a rocky friendship, which then progresses as Wyatt confides in Ethan that he is not sure if he is gay. Their rocky friendship transitions to a friends-with-benefits relationship as Wyatt finds out he is most definitely gay and has been harboring a huge crush on Ethan even before he met him, as he used to stare at Blake’s pictures of them and know he was in love.

Overall, this is a fun story and it would have been worthy of 5 solid stars from me. However, it is not a complete story leaving the readers to wait for the continuation of Wyatt and Ethan’s story in the next few months. I am not sure if this is the start of a serial style story-line or if it will be just a set of novella’s but as it is – cliffhanger with unresolved ending. I also felt that Blake was a bit of a flat character, you never really get to see why he made the choices he did and what made him not want to be with Ethan anymore. It is just them breaking up.. and then him changing his mind all throughout the story. I would have liked to see the “why” behind his actions as the two had been together for 2 years and he just casually breaks up with Ethan.

Wyatt and Ethan have a good start to a solid relationship and the passion between them is pretty hot. One of my favorite scenes between them is as follows:

“I backed him into the wall and started kissing him again. Hard, the way he liked it. The way I liked it. When your lips feel bruised against teeth and you can’t catch your breath because there’s a tongue deep in your mouth and there’s nothing to think about but him.”