Title: The Perfect Shine
Author: J.K. Hogan
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: March 18, 2019
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 81600
Genre: Contemporary New Adult, LGBT, contemporary, new adult, romance, friends to lovers
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Synopsis
Jackson Meade was a shy, awkward kid just trying to survive a high school with too many bullies and too few friends. Now that he’s in college, his eyes have been opened to a whole world of possibilities, especially those regarding love and sexuality. However, he can’t enjoy any of it since he’s been separated from his best friend.
Blake Renault has been in love with his best friend almost since they first met. After escaping a bad family situation, he lived with Jackson and his mom for the last two years of high school, which made it much harder to keep his feelings a secret. Graduation brings lots of changes for the boys, including Blake moving to a different city to apprentice with a tattoo artist and Jackson going off to college.
Being forced apart after high school leads them to new revelations about themselves and their relationship. While Jackson questions whether his attachment to Blake is normal for best friends, Blake decides to risk everything and tell Jackson the truth. Jackson and Blake must figure out what they want from each other while the future of their deep friendship hangs in the balance. Will they find love, or lose everything?
Excerpt
The Perfect ShineJ.K. Hogan © 2019
All Rights Reserved
Jackson
Savannah, Georgia—2014
The foam ball made a blunt thud as it bounced off the drop-ceiling tiles above me. My dorm room was like an acoustic black hole—it pulled everything outside into it, then trapped it here. Every sound I made inside was muffled and dull, and every sound from outside came right to my ears, clear as a bell. It was maddening as hell, and not very conducive to productivity, but perfect for brooding.
It was my first week at Arden College. My first week alone… It had only been a few days since my best friend Blake dropped me off. He’d somberly helped me haul my crates of crap up the stairs to my brand new-old room. The elevators had been shut down because maintenance had believed the strain of carrying all the belongings of all the residents up and down in one day would cause them to break. So up and down we all had walked…grudgingly. Repeatedly.
Blake leaving had felt like my right arm being torn from my body. We were that close. We’d only known each other for a fraction of our lives, but Blake had lived with my mom and me during the last two years of high school, so we were rarely ever apart. And then graduation happened. And college.
I wasn’t going to go alone; I’d told him I wouldn’t. He’d begged me, and finally resorted to threats. Said he’d disappear and never come back, so I’d be staying for no reason anyway. I knew he wouldn’t do it, but it let me know how serious he was about me not fucking up my future for his sake. He could be stubbornly paternal sometimes, when it came to stuff like that—we’re working on it. So we’d packed my meager possessions into my too-janky-to-be-real pick-up truck and driven to Arden.
When we’d finally finished, and it was time for Blake to leave, because the school didn’t allow overnight guests during the first semester of a student’s freshman year. I struggled not to cry at first, but he’d just pulled me into one of his patented giant bear hugs and held me close while I sobbed all over his favorite Saints jersey. He was the only one in the world besides my mom who was allowed so close to me, who was able to touch me like that. And he was leaving. What would I do now?
Letting the stupid ball fall to the floor, I dashed my hands across my wet cheeks and cursed a blue streak that was promptly absorbed by the cinderblock walls. How the hell was I going to do this by myself, without my other half? I felt like I was slowly dissolving, becoming a shell of myself that drifted through life, waiting to be blown away by a stiff breeze.
Suddenly the thick walls of the tiny room felt like they were closing in on me. My chest constricted with claustrophobia, and I knew I had to get out of there before I went crazy. My data structures and algorithms class started in about an hour, so I could just leave early. I dressed quickly and threw on a light jacket before grabbing my backpack and bolting out the door. The thought of being inside the elevator made my skin clammy from imagined claustrophobia, so I took the stairs two at a time.
I practically spilled out the front door of my dorm, and it was all I could do not to roll around in the grass because I was so happy to be outside. I’d always had anxiety, but the claustrophobia was newer. I walked through the Arden quad, alone in a sea of students streaming down the sidewalks on their way to class. It was a different kind of invisible than I’d been in high school. Back then, I was invisible because of who I was, or more accurately, who I wasn’t, and how I just didn’t rank on the high school scale of importance—although I’d never quite figured out the criteria for that system. No, being invisible on a college campus, where everyone was doing their own thing, worrying about their own lives instead of what people were wearing or where they lived or who they were friends with, was wonderfully freeing. It was like I could finally breathe after being strangled for four years.
But I was still unbearably lonely without Blake. I wasn’t putting my whole self into this college-life thing because all I really wanted was to drive to Atlanta and camp out on Blake’s couch. The saner part of my brain knew I had to be responsible and shit, get an education so I could do what I wanted with my life. The childish part of my brain made me want to stomp my feet and cry. Either way, I wasn’t meeting people or going partying, all the things people expected to do at college, because I was spending all my time wishing I was somewhere else.
Lost in thought, I rounded the corner of the comp-sci building on my way to the front door, and I ran smack into someone. I fell hard on my ass and was showered with books and papers, presumably from whomever I hit. On the grass in front of me was a pretty Asian girl with shoulder-length, wavy, dark hair and a severe slash of bangs across her forehead.
And she was glaring at me like she could explode my head by sheer force of will. I hastily stood and held out a hand to help her.
“I’m so sorry. I was a million miles away.”
Once she was back on her feet and brushed off, I started collecting her books and papers. Then I noticed the spilt coffee seeping into the ground from the paper cup she’d been carrying—oh, hell, coffee foul.
“Shit, I’m doubly sorry. I’ll get you a new coffee,” I said, handing the stack of books back to her and silently wondering why she didn’t use a backpack.
When she took her things, I picked up the empty coffee cup and tossed it into the recycling, then stuffed my hands in my pockets and faced her. Though she barely reached my shoulders, she was kind of intimidating somehow.
She sighed and shifted her books to her left arm. “It’s fine, no harm done except to my caffeine level.” Her bright red lips turned up in a small smile.
“I meant what I said… If you’ll tell me where the coffee shop is, I’ll get you a new one.”
She glanced at the computer science building, then back at me. “You have class here?”
“Yeah, but I’ve got a little time.”
“Okay, we can go together. It’s this way.”
I followed her obediently, happy she hadn’t punched me for slamming into her. She was actually really pretty in a kind of nerdy, eclectic way, with her cat-eye glasses and baggy sweater over leggings that looked like paintings of a galaxy.
“I’m Jackson, by the way. Jackson Meade.”
“Daisy Chen,” she tossed over her shoulder. “Nice to meet you, Jackson Meade. I think we’ll be friends…assuming I’m properly caffeinated soon.”
It was kind of presumptuous of her, considering I hadn’t felt at all like making friends since I got to school, but I got the feeling it might happen whether I liked it or not.
“What’s your major?” Daisy asked as we walked back toward the computer building from the coffee stand with lattés in hand.
“Um, comp-sci for now. I’m not entirely sure yet. You?”
“Same, minus the indecision,” she said in a censuring tone.
I ducked my head and looked away. Who said I had to have everything figured out first semester of freshman year?
“So what class are you going to now?” she asked.
“Data structures.”
“Oh, me too! With Howell?”
“Yep.” Wow, I was a stunning conversationalist.
“I guess we’re in the same class then.”
I could feel her gaze on my profile as she studied me. It made me vaguely uncomfortable, like an animal behind glass at the zoo. My sweaty hands tightened on my backpack straps.
“You’re kinda cute…” she finally said, making me choke on my coffee. “We should go on a date.”
Who was this creature and why was she so embarrassingly direct? “Um…”
“How about tomorrow night?”
I tried to drum up some enthusiasm for finally being asked out, but all I could feel was that same empty ache.
“I can’t tomorrow. I have a… Well, it’s my best friend’s night off, and since he lives in Atlanta, we always talk on the phone when he’s off… I…sorry.”
She shrugged like she hadn’t a care in the world. “That’s okay. How about Friday night? We can go to the campus movie theater. It’s really cheap.”
I couldn’t think of a good reason or a polite way to refuse. “Okay. That sounds okay.”
“Don’t die of enthusiasm or anything,” she said in a voice as dry as toast, but she didn’t sound offended.
I laughed and opened the door for her, and we headed to our class. As we made our way to the second-floor lab, I wondered how in the hell I’d ended up with my first college date.
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4 Stars
A warm, believable book that I am hoping introduces a series, and isn't just a one-off.
I'm new to this author, but I already know I want to read more from her.
This is a sweet YA tale with a couple of guys who are best friends and who end up as a couple, and it was done believably and without a whole load of sex to spoil the tale for me. I thought it powerful and also very innocent. I saw being a teenager through nerd-word Jackson's eyes and I couldn't help but like and admire this young man who didn't aspire to be part of the popular club, who didn't care what others thought about him, who loved his mother and his best friend, who had plans for a future and who knew that getting a good education was key to a better life for himself and his mother. He walked to the beat of his own drum, and I loved his sass and innocence and also his very pragmatic take on the things he couldn't change.
I can't say that I saw an out-and-out love affair with his best friend, Blake, but I did see a couple of very decent guys, a couple of outsiders who became true friends. And it was that friendship that turned into more. I do think it turned into more a lot earlier and a lot deeper in Blake than in Jackson, who in some ways was really unaware... oblivious... of certain things.
I mean, Jackson had no clue that he was being hit on by Daisy, who became one of his best friends, and when at a party, the host - one of the popular posse - handed him a doctored drink, he was clueless and could've ended up in danger. He was a blend of great intelligence (I so admired his brain) and a childlike innocence, or maybe even naivete in some ways, but he was a brilliant character. He was wholly happy and secure in himself, and I think he liked himself and was comfortable with not fitting in.
What was interesting is that when his friends opened his eyes to the potential that he felt more than a deep friendship and love for Blake, he was open to the idea and to exploring something he hadn't considered before - that he might not be straight, and that he might be into Blake. Not into him sexually per se, as it felt like that side of things really wasn't important to Jackson, but into him as someone he loved and might be in love with. It could have been done with lots of labels and a lot of faux dialogue and scenarios that didn't feel real, but stuff came up at a GSA meeting and it provided the perfect stage for things to be discussed, for labels to come up and for some to be discarded and for some to be set aside for further consideration. I liked that simple examples were given and that there was no faux eureka! moment, but that Jackson took his time coming to term with his thoughts.
When the boys talked about feelings, it wasn't all sorted out and they were suddenly a couple. No, they talked, were realistic, respected each other's point of view, their need for time to think and figure things out.
This wasn't a tale with a coup de foudre or even a slow-burn romance. This was a couple of friends with a really deep bond of friendship actually talking, admitting to feelings and wanting to explore those to see where it went. It all felt natural and I could see these guys together for the long term, possibly for a HEA, despite their very young ages.
At the end, a couple of characters got introduced and I suspect that the trans man character and Jackson's roommate may end up with a tale of their own. Hopefully I'm right about that, and that this is the first book in a series about this group of guys, so that I can also see Jackson and Blake being happy and building their new relationship, taking it step by step so that they both feel comfortable and are able to make choices and talk along the way. This was a really well done book and I didn't feel a need for more than what the author delivered, as she kept it real, and now their journey as a couple, not simply best friends, starts.
ARC courtesy of Ninestar Press and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
I'm new to this author, but I already know I want to read more from her.
This is a sweet YA tale with a couple of guys who are best friends and who end up as a couple, and it was done believably and without a whole load of sex to spoil the tale for me. I thought it powerful and also very innocent. I saw being a teenager through nerd-word Jackson's eyes and I couldn't help but like and admire this young man who didn't aspire to be part of the popular club, who didn't care what others thought about him, who loved his mother and his best friend, who had plans for a future and who knew that getting a good education was key to a better life for himself and his mother. He walked to the beat of his own drum, and I loved his sass and innocence and also his very pragmatic take on the things he couldn't change.
I can't say that I saw an out-and-out love affair with his best friend, Blake, but I did see a couple of very decent guys, a couple of outsiders who became true friends. And it was that friendship that turned into more. I do think it turned into more a lot earlier and a lot deeper in Blake than in Jackson, who in some ways was really unaware... oblivious... of certain things.
I mean, Jackson had no clue that he was being hit on by Daisy, who became one of his best friends, and when at a party, the host - one of the popular posse - handed him a doctored drink, he was clueless and could've ended up in danger. He was a blend of great intelligence (I so admired his brain) and a childlike innocence, or maybe even naivete in some ways, but he was a brilliant character. He was wholly happy and secure in himself, and I think he liked himself and was comfortable with not fitting in.
What was interesting is that when his friends opened his eyes to the potential that he felt more than a deep friendship and love for Blake, he was open to the idea and to exploring something he hadn't considered before - that he might not be straight, and that he might be into Blake. Not into him sexually per se, as it felt like that side of things really wasn't important to Jackson, but into him as someone he loved and might be in love with. It could have been done with lots of labels and a lot of faux dialogue and scenarios that didn't feel real, but stuff came up at a GSA meeting and it provided the perfect stage for things to be discussed, for labels to come up and for some to be discarded and for some to be set aside for further consideration. I liked that simple examples were given and that there was no faux eureka! moment, but that Jackson took his time coming to term with his thoughts.
When the boys talked about feelings, it wasn't all sorted out and they were suddenly a couple. No, they talked, were realistic, respected each other's point of view, their need for time to think and figure things out.
This wasn't a tale with a coup de foudre or even a slow-burn romance. This was a couple of friends with a really deep bond of friendship actually talking, admitting to feelings and wanting to explore those to see where it went. It all felt natural and I could see these guys together for the long term, possibly for a HEA, despite their very young ages.
At the end, a couple of characters got introduced and I suspect that the trans man character and Jackson's roommate may end up with a tale of their own. Hopefully I'm right about that, and that this is the first book in a series about this group of guys, so that I can also see Jackson and Blake being happy and building their new relationship, taking it step by step so that they both feel comfortable and are able to make choices and talk along the way. This was a really well done book and I didn't feel a need for more than what the author delivered, as she kept it real, and now their journey as a couple, not simply best friends, starts.
ARC courtesy of Ninestar Press and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
Meet the Author
J.K. Hogan has been telling stories for as long as she can remember, beginning with writing cast lists and storylines for her toys growing up. When she finally decided to put pen to paper, magic happened. She is greatly inspired by all kinds of music and often creates a “soundtrack” for her stories as she writes them. J.K. is hoping to one day have a little something for everyone, so she’s branched out from m/f paranormal romance and added m/m contemporary romance. Who knows what’s next?J.K. resides in North Carolina, where she was born and raised. A true southern girl at heart, she lives in the country with her husband and two sons, a cat, and two champion agility dogs. If she isn’t on the agility field, J.K. can often be found chasing waterfalls in the mountains with her husband, or down in front at a blues concert. In addition to writing, she enjoys training and competing in dog sports, spending time with her large southern family, camping, boating and, of course, reading!
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