Dual Threat Love by Lola Noire

I really don’t like to write bad reviews, but this book was just not my cup of tea at all. The story sounded like something I’d love; a second-chance m/m sports romance. But unfortunately the extremely unlikable main character and his toxic masculinity bordering to abuse made it impossible for me to enjoy this book.

To be fair, the author has included this warning at the beginning:

“Interracial M/M Sports novel with explicit sex scenes between two males and intended for adults only. Please note that underage sexual acts, as well as mention of gang activities, violence and murder will be depicted in this book.”

So I probably shouldn’t have started reading the book after that. I didn’t understand from this warning though that there would be a toxic relationship and events bordering to abuse, so maybe that should be added to the warning.

But anyhow, the book is about Ace and Pat who met and became friends when they were teenagers. Ace was the billionaire son in the house where Pat’s mother worked and they were immediately drawn to each other. Their childhood friendship soon turned into something more, but after a specific event in combination with miscommunication, they went their separate ways hurt and heartbroken. Years later, when Pat has become a star football player, they met again and this time Ace didn’t let anything stop him from getting the love of his life back.

I really did like Pat, who was such a lovely and sweet character. Ace on the other hand was selfish, bratty and unemphatic. I could never understand why Pat would even want to be with Ace, not when they were teenagers, nor later on, so the romance between them didn’t work for me at all. Ace was extremely jealous and possessive (bordering to stalking). And even though he was supposed to be in love with a guy, he came across as quite homophobic. It was so much focus on all the girls he’d banged and how he’d never been into men before, and how he always had to be the dominating one (just the idea of bottoming totally freaked him out). There was one important scene where his actions were so toxic it was bordering to abuse and made me feel utterly uncomfortable. And on top of that, the book ended on a very strange cliffhanger, which felt completely abrupt and out of the blue.

The writing itself wasn’t bad though and had a nice flow, and the story as such had great potential. So I can definitely see Lola Noire writing books that I’d enjoy in the future, even though this book wasn’t for me.

Rating:
2 stars

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Author info:
Lola Noire