3.5 Cute story ( )

Absolutely hilarious, extremely funny and with a very tongue-in-cheek lesson about the long-term benefits of being slutty and materialistic, this story had me somewhere between smiling and laughing out loud the entire time. Jamie, the first-person narrator of this story, is one of those college students who is very open to experiments, and Roger is the exact opposite. The fact that Roger is an art student and somewhat more conservative than most people would expect makes this all the funnier.

Jamie has a very peculiar philosophy about helping men to realize they are gay and about ‘widening the horizons of straight guys’, as he put is. He almost thinks of himself as delivering a service to the community and that made me laugh. In essence, he gets to have sex with a wide variety of guys, but he pretends it is for their benefit. I loved the lesson he learns in the end: that is not all there is under the sun, and as soon as he finds ‘the one’, he is just as smitten as Roger. Not that Jamie would ever admit that. He remains true to himself to the very end, and his voice remains his own.

Roger is a bit of a riddle, as we only see him through Jamie’s eyes. I loved the eventual discovery of what he is all about, but won’t go into detail here. It would spoil the surprise.

Some people are sure to misunderstand this story, but I loved its sarcastic tone and snarkiness. It certainly makes this book stand out, and I love authors who give their characters individual voices. There is nothing wrong with being different, and voices like this authors’ are a refreshing breath of diversity in a genre where the ‘standard’ is very defined and ‘disturbed’ by few. If you like humor in your m/m romances, if you’re looking for something different and are open to reading about an interesting yet possibly somewhat abrasive character, and if you don’t mind a lot of very explicit encounters, you will like this story as much as I did.




NOTE: This book was provided by Amber Allure for the purpose of a review on QMO Books. ( )

2 stars. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't really warm up to Jamie. He was so slutty and then was pretty surprised that he had a 'reputation'. (of course you do, you sleep with everyone!) Writing was fine, but the story line just wasn't my thing. ( )

Originally posted at Romance Around the Corner

I became familiar with Lou Harper’s work after reading the Winter Warmers anthology
. I loved her novella and I've been enjoying her stories ever since. Academic Pursuits is another charming and fun novella that made me smile when I read it.

Our main protagonist is Jamie Brennan. He is enjoying college life immensely and his main pastime is seducing straight boys, in fact, he is so good at it, that straight guys actually approach him to find out if they are going through an identity crisis, or just want to experiment and get it out of their systems.

Because everyone seem to like him, Jamie is surprised when ruggedly handsome and lumberjack impersonator, Roger Hunt, gives him the evil eye every time they cross paths. Jamie feels attracted to Roger, but he's also annoyed and angry at him, so he does his best to avoid him. But there’s more to Roger than meets the eye, thus the question is will they be able to see past their preconceived notions and prejudices and actually get to know who they really are? Will Jamie be able to settle down?


This was a light and fun novella and I was surprised by how much I liked it considering that the romance isn’t really its main focus. It’s the story of a young man enjoying life as a college student, misbehaving and trying to push some boundaries. He comes from a rich family and he’s trying to be a bit of a rebel. Most of the story is about his sexcapades and Roger is a romantic interest but not really a main character. Jamie has a blasé take on sex and when he says that he can separate sex from love, he actually means it and does it. This is not a tortured guy who uses sex as an escape from his troubled soul. He enjoys sex and doesn’t make excuses about it.

Another pleasant surprise was Jamie’s best friend, Jo. It’s unusual to find female characters with such prominent roles in m/m romance, and especially those portrayed under a positive light, so I was glad that she was one of the main characters. They have a tight relationship full of trust and banter and it was an accurate representation of friendship. She does end up falling under the sidekick label, she helps him find love and is a bit clumsy in the love department, but overall I liked her.

The romance was a bit lacking, but there are some romantic moments and a happy ending that’s more of a happy beginning than anything else. I admit that I don’t know if these characters will grow old together, but I’m sure that regardless of how long their relationship last, they will have fun and will be happy with each other.

If you read this book thinking that you will get the greatest romance story ever written, then you will be disappointed. If you read it thinking that you will spend a couple of fun and light moments in company of a very likeable character, then you will love it.

Source: we received a copy of the book from the author for review purposes. ( )

An entertaining enough read about Jamie, who is a rich, good looking man whore college student and Roger, a fellow student and sculptor. There was plenty of sex, but most of it was Jamie with other people (not Roger) and the two main characters took too long to get together IMO.The end was abrupt and I really needed a few more pages to seal the deal. I wasn't actually sure they were in a relationship by the end. And, Jamie spent so much of the book catting around, I wasn't sure that he could manage a relationship successfully anyway. Roger, yes. But Jamie? Not so sure about that one. Still, I enjoyed the author's voice so I will watch out for more from her. ( )