4 stars!
I very much enjoyed this. It was sweet but not too sweet, ya know?
I think my favorite part was the dialogue of Alex, June, and Nora, as well as the narration which kept Alex's voice. I loved the way it was written with a lot of full stops, "like"s, and colloquialisms. It was basically, like, the way I would speak--if I were more witty and adorable.

Some details to get out of the way first:
POV: 3rd person, single POV (Alex)
Tense: Present
HEA?:

Spoiler

Yes or maybe HFN

Breakups?:

Spoiler

An unofficial breakup around 60%, no contact for a week

Strict Top/Bottom?:

Spoiler

Yes

Bigger Top or Bottom?:

Spoiler

Bottom is taller

Angst: 2/5
Spice Frequency: 1/5 (it's hard to nail this down because sometimes the spice was just casually implied)
Spice Level: 0.5/5 (It's not exactly FTB because the scenes don't always cut away... But it'll be hinting at what's happening and telling the thoughts and feelings going on at the time instead of the physical part)

Thoughts on the Main Characters:
Alex:
- Stupid. So, so stupid (and I mean that with affection). But, like, smart, ya know?

Spoiler

You're telling me this kid grew up in a Dem household and was fooling around with boys and fantasizing about boys, and never realized he wasn't straight? I could understand it if he had been repressed, but he wasn't.

- His personality was adorable--and we got to see a lot of it since the book is centered on him--but I also found him so frustrating. He was pretty emotionally stunted. But I guess that's realistic enough.
Henry:
- Definitely the sweeter one.
- 'Twas frustrating how he

Spoiler

kept running away and ghosting Alex,

but it's not without reason.
- I love when we get to see his musical and poetic sides. He's really so sweeet to Alex

Spoiler

in the emails.

Some other thoughts I had:
- Lol "WASPy Hunter"... just the name makes me chuckle. I love that we got to see him one last time at the end.
- Normally in MM books, I don't like the female side characters. But in this book, I was treated to not 1, not 2, but 5 ( ! ) female side characters that I loved: Amy, Bea, June, Nora, and (President) Ellen.
- I don't like Zahra as she is kinda the same overbearing female side character that so many books have. But being overbearing was pretty much her job, so she gets half a pass on that. And she came through for our boys when it counted. I really didn't like how she kept walking into Alex's rooms at the hotel or the residence. Like, maybe that's realistic for the position Zahra has over Alex, but it's weird and gross to me to barge into an adult's bedroom.
-

Spoiler

I really did NOT like the part with Henry pretending to date June, and Alex pretending to date Nora. I can totally see this happening if this situation existed in real life, so this isn't a criticism of the book; nevertheless, I didn't like reading it--it made me feel icky.

Milestones (thar be spoilers!):
First Kiss:

Spoiler

25% : Chapter 4 / Page 107

First Sex (oral):

Spoiler

32% : Chapter 6 / Page 142

First Penetration:

Spoiler

45% : Chapter 7 / Page 198

Spoiler

Henry Leaves / Early Breakup:
60% : Chapter 9 / Page 263

First L Word - A to H:

Spoiler

62% : Chapter 10 / Page 271

First L Word - H to A (implied):

Spoiler

62% : Chapter 10 / Page 271

Spoiler

Public Outing:
73% : Chapter 12 / Page 321

Some Favorite Quotes:
Alex keeps drinking, keeps alternating between thinking about it and forcing himself not to think about it, disappears into the crowd and dances with pretty European heiresses about it.

"As your mother, I can appreciate that maybe this isn't your fault, but as the president, all I want is to have the CIA fake your death and ride the dead-kid sympathy into a second term."

"I'd rather be waterboarded," Henry says, smiling back. The camera snaps nearby. His eyes are big and soft and blue, and he desperately needs to be punched in one of them. "Your country could probably arrange that."

He feels like a dog that has to be taken on walks to get his energy out. Especially when June says, "You're like a dog that has to be taken on walks to get his energy out."

He's maybe a little bit in awe of how Henry arches up off the mattress, at hearing his sweet, posh voice reciting a litany of profanities to the ceiling.

Henry returns the favor happily, hungrily, and Alex doesn't know or care what sounds or words come out of his mouth. He thinks one of them is "sweetheart" and another is "motherfucker." Henry is one talented bastard, a man of many hidden gifts, Alex muses half-hysterically. A true prodigy. God save the Queen.

He rolls onto his side and listens, trails the back of his hand across the pillow next to him and imagines Henry lying opposite in his own bed, two parentheses enclosing 3,700 miles.

He wants to match the new freckles across Henry's nose to the stars above them and make him name the constellations.

This was a stunning book full of hurt, healing, and love (and basketball). It was honestly so SO good. I fully intend to add this to my comfort re-reads rotation.

This was utterly fantastic; the story was so interesting!
I really enjoyed the character development for Connor, and I loved how snuggly and affectionate Adonis was. I also thought it was really cool that the mer-anatomy was described (I’m not trying to be creepy, but I mean it was a unique and well thought-out part of the book), as well as the different sounds and behaviors of Adonis (he wasn’t just acting like a human with a tail). What a great book! I’ll definitely re-read.

3.25 stars

Hmm. This book didn't really do it for me, but it wasn't objectively bad. I'm probably going to rant. I'm sorry in advance. Consider everything from this point on a spoiler.
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- Poor Noah. His parents suck and then Jase catfishes him.
- Poor Noah again. After finding out a second account was Jase, he'd never be able to trust anyone and date online again, lol
- Early is cool! I thought we were gonna have a situation where Early said he was in love with Jase, but thankfully that didn't happen. Poor dude though. I hope he was ok during his 4 month absence.
- Yes, this book includes intercrural sex (that's thigh-f*cking), and it was .... ok. Idk.
- This book was supposed to be angsty and I just didn't feel that. I'm pretty sensitive to angst and I don't necessarily like angst, so I wasn't upset that I didn't find it in this book... but the reason that I think I didn't feel the angst? It was because I didn't feel very connected to the characters or feel their emotions develop. It started at the beginning (the whole first 50% of the book maybe?). I did not feel any spice or connection in the online convos that were included in the book. It's not enough for the character/narrator to say that they'd been having dirty conversations and getting very close - I feel like we didn't actually see any of that on-page (Show me, don't tell me!). Maybe I missed something? Noah is barely in the first half of the book, aside from one short chapter from his POV. And when he's in it, in the Jase chapters of the first half, he's just kinda beige (personality-wise). He's a doormat for his awful parents and hardly pushes back. Bleh.
- We were done a disservice by not having much of Noah's POV in the first half of the book. Because once he changed his mind about Jase, it was very jarring and didn't feel believable that all of a sudden he wanted Jase. This gets kinda back-explained (I don't think that's a real term but whatever) later in the book, but it was too late by that point.
- My impression of Jase: take a Cora Rose obsessive character, but make him less quirky and more unlikeable, and you have Jase.
- How is Keith a principal without believing dyslexia is a valid thing? Maybe that's a type of person/principal that exists in real life, but without having any backstory on him, it felt unbelievable. Like, if he was so awful, how would Noah be so oblivious to that? Why would he not have been reported to the Superintendent (or however schools work, idk)
- There were long periods of narration breaking up very short bits of dialogue so it made it easy to forget what was the last thing said (e.g., scene in Keith's office)

Some Details:
Pairing: MM, Jase & Noah
POV: 1st Person Dual, but it's skewed to have more of Jase's POV (especially in the first half)
Tense: Past
HEA?:

Spoiler

Yes

Breakups?:

Spoiler

No

Strict Top/Bottom?: Yes
Is Top or Bottom Bigger: Top is Taller
Angst: 2/5
Spice Frequency: 2/5
Spice Level: 3/5

Tropes/Tags:
- Brothers (adopted)
- Age Gap (9 Years)
- Mistaken Identity
- Virgin
- Obsession

TWs/CWs:
- Dub-Con sexting (mostly off-page, I think, unless I missed something)
- Homophobia
- Religion
- MC is with another person (not cheating)
- Stalking
- Abuse by Parental Figure

Milestones:
The Big Reveal:

Spoiler

30% : Chapter 8 / Page 87

First L Word - J to N:

Spoiler

32% : Chapter 8 / Page 90

First Kiss:

Spoiler

47% : Chapter 13 / Page 134

First Oral Sex:

Spoiler

53% : Chapter 13 / Page 150

First Frot:

Spoiler

60% : Chapter 14 / Page 170

Misunderstanding:

Spoiler

67% : Chapter 15 / Page 190/

First L Word- N to J:

Spoiler

80% : Chapter 20 / Page 228

First Penetration:

Spoiler

87% : Chapter 20 / Page 247

This is a very spicy novella, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface as well. It's not pure smut for smut's sake, although-yes-the spice is delicious.

The main characters are Luca and Thorn, who are both underwear models. Luca is world famous and excels at harnessing his raw sexuality in front of the camera; Thorn, on the other hand, makes use of his his serious nature for photoshoots, but flounders when he needs to act overtly sexy (especially around Luca). With the director losing his patience when Thorn keeps clamming up, the stoic model has one night to learn everything he can from Luca, or risk losing the job.

Luca and Thorn lock themselves in the studio overnight (we love a forced proximity trope, don't we, folks?), and Luca focuses on trying to train Thorn how to emote in front of the camera. And what better way to draw out someone's passion than to rub up on them?