He Didn’t Have to Be was written for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s 2014 Love’s Landscapes event. It’s told in third person through the eyes of the MC’s, Toby and Griffin, best friends from grade school.

Toby and Griffin have been best friends since they were little. They’ve never had any romantic feelings between them. Toby is gay, and Griffin is straight with a girlfriend. Griffin has always defended Toby from the bullies even now that they are in college. When Toby and Griffin were helping to set up at a music event, Griffin’s basketball team mates harassed Toby. To get them to leave Toby alone and to mock one of the bullies, Griffin kisses Toby. From that point on, things change between them. A few events take place between the kiss and the ending but I won’t go into that.

This story was an easy, fast read mostly filled with dialogue which I liked, since I prefer dialogue over vast amounts of monologue and descriptions. The author divided up ‘time’ during the chapters. The advancement of time could be one day or a week, but the author made it pretty clear how much time had transpired. I like the way that time was divided per chapter.

This is a HEA, GFY story. A fast, pleasant, low angst read, I give this 3 Stars.
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