Review: The Blueprint by S.E. Harmon

Title: The Blueprint

Series: The Game: Book One

Author: S.E. Harmon

Length: 270 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: I liked The Blueprint a lot and am looking forward to the second part of the story and to Kelly and Blue getting their HEA!

Reviewed By: Ky

Blurb: 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, 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.

Review: S.E. Harmon has a sarcastic, caustic way of writing her characters. They have a sense of humor and self-deprecation that works for me and whenever I’m reading one of her books, I find myself unable to hold in my laughter. The Blueprint is the same way. We get both MCs’ points of view, so we get to know both of them pretty well. Kelly was the more auto-sarcastic one, and I loved reading his thoughts. He is a university professor who’s covered in tattoos and piercings. Britton, or Blue as everyone calls him, is a professional football player who happens to be ignorant of the fact that he’s in a relationship with his male best friend. Can that be possible, you say? It sure can, when you act like a couple without even realising it!

I liked the story a lot and, as I said, I enjoyed the author’s writing style, but the story seems more like a prequel to these characters’ story. It’s about the events that led to them being together, and everything they had to go through in order for Blue to make up his mind and make some serious decisions. As I was reaching the end of the book, I kept wondering when they were going to get it together and how it would be possible to resolve everything in such a short time. It turns out it wasn’t. At the end, there were so many things up in the air that I kept looking for an indication that this was the set up for a series. I didn’t find any, but I got an ARC of The Blueprint, so I read and reviewed it about three weeks ago. At the time I didn’t know it, but apparently there is going to be a second book with the rest of Kelly and Blue’s story. So, the reason this interesting and funny story felt unfinished to me is because it was only the beginning of one. Now that I know that, I look forward to the second part of their story and to them getting their HEA!

This is basically a story of “how we became a couple,” with a lot of messy situations, complicated feelings, and huge steps in every which direction—except forward. Blue couldn’t make up his mind to save his life about what he wanted from Kelly; he just acted in the moment and thought about it later. He constantly rethinks his actions after doing them, going back and forth and putting up walls that in the next chapter, he smashed only to build them back up again on the next page. I told you it was messy. However, it didn’t bother me at all. It was understandable and realistic to be like that when their relationship was in the process of going from friends to lovers.

You can buy The Blueprint here:
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