A.J. Ridges

I received Just A Game from the author through the Goodreads M/M Romance Groups Don’t Buy My Love program. This story is told in first person through the eyes of Bryan.



This story takes place over what seems like a couple months at least. I’m not quite sure, but the time is very condensed. The MC, Bryan, gets asked by his neighbor Ben, if he can come over to Bryan’s and watch the hockey game on TV with him because Ben’s cable isn’t working properly and Bryan agrees. Bryan has a gay roommate Tim, who is quite loud during sex. Unbeknownst to Bryan, Tim was home with a lover when Bryan invited Ben over to watch the game. Embarrassment erupts when Tim gets very vocal and Bryan tries to pretend it’s not happening. When Ben finally mentions Tim’s loudness, Bryan is surprised Ben doesn’t leave when Bryan tells him Tim is gay. They try to drown out the sound by raising the TV volume and later watching gay porn, which surprisingly has an effect on Ben. Over the weeks Ben visits Bryan to watch the games and they get to know each other and Bryan finds out they have much in common even though Bryan originally placed Ben as a blue collar worker who didn’t fit into the white collar apartment building and it’s crowd.

Bryan is drawn to Ben but doesn’t know if that means he’s gay or not. When Bryan goes with Tim to a gay club for Tim’s birthday he’s surprised when he sees Ben there and gets jealous over the attention Ben is receiving from another man. Ben sees Bryan and after a little action they leave the club together. I was a bit surprised with the fact that they went bareback, but the author explained it away enough for me to suspend belief since this was a short story. The sex was hot but I was surprised that they seemed pretty experienced with gay sex considering they were virgins.

The author used Bryan to express the unnecessary use of labels. But I’d place Ben as either bi or bi-curious because he seemed able to get it up for another man other than Bryan, but it was Bryan he was attracted to. Bryan on the other hand was probably more GFY since Ben was the only one he was interested in.This story ends up with a strong HFN.

There are a few things I didn’t like about this book. Ben and Bryan. I’d suggest not making both main characters names start with the same letter next time. I had a hard time keeping these two straight because of the name similarities. The other thing was that the formatting was off in my epub. The chapter titles started way at the bottom of the page and then the story would start on the next page. So the formatting for the epub version at least, needs to be fixed. I know this was meant to be a short story, but I think with just a bit more time given to it, I wouldn’t have felt as if I was lurched through the story time-wise. It was a tad too choppy in that way for me.

Just A Game is a very fast, cute read and I enjoyed it. But at the same time the formatting errors annoyed me and the choppiness of the time crunch in order to fit it into a short story I think would have benefited from being just a bit longer. I’m giving this 3.5 Stars but because Goodreads doesn’t give half-star ratings I’m going to have to give this 3 Stars As much as I had fun reading this, the parts that bothered me keep me from giving this story four stars. I would however, recommend this to others to read because it’s a cute read.


… (altro)

Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

A.J. Ridges is a fairly new acquaintance as an author to me, but one whose books I'm likely to explore more of. She has a knack for writing sexy and angsty stories with great banter between the characters.

Revealed story takes place on Noval, a planet where gay sex is forbidden even when the majority of other planets allows it. But on Noval the focus is on repopulating the planet, and Krial is one of the candidates for becoming the Chosen One. The Chosen One gets to mate with a female, and on a planet where the ratio between females and males is 1:100000, the competition is tough. What makes it even harder for Krial is the fact that he's gay and has absolutely no interest in a female mate. His trainer, Dax, on the other hand... Krial has lusted over Dax since he first set eyes on him but he thinks Dax is straight. Well, he thinks wrong. As much as Krial wants Dax, Dax wants Krial. Once the little mix-up in orieantations is cleared up, hot smexy times ensue.

Through a couple more puddles on the road, Krial and Dax get their HFN. But that's not all of it: the tide is changing on Noval, and the new president plans to change the legislation to allow for gay relationships. Progress!

I'm a contemporary kind of girl through and through, but every now and then it's good to throw something a little different into the mix. You know, to keep it fresh. Released is a sci-fi story, so definitely something different for me. As the story is on the short side, there's not much world-building but the basics are clear enough, though I would have liked a little more. In fact, I would welcome a sequel. For the hot sex, but also for Noval. How are things going to change and how are those changes perceived by the general public?… (altro)