This fifth volume set in the world of the TAG frat boys was just as funny yet touching as the first four. It is the story of Jock, Tank’s little brother who got kicked off his hockey team when someone outed him, and Toby, a grad student who was a secondary character in some of the previous books. The two of them certainly have their issues cut out for them, both individually and as a couple. Add the setting of the sometimes hilariously ridiculous world that is TAG, and complications and drama are bound to ensue. Interestingly, there was just as much internal agonizing and touching romance as fun and games in this book, making for an interesting combination of emotions that kept me on my toes.

Jock, quite honestly, is a bit of an idiot at the beginning. Granted, he is only nineteen, is still trying to deal with recently having been outed, and just wants to have fun. His lack of sensitivity toward Toby adds to his internal issues and he spends a long time agonizing over what it means for him to be gay. As a result he has more neuroses and issues than some people twice his age. His learning curve is slow and steady initially, until he finally gets it—gets himself and what he really wants—and then look out, Toby!

Toby may be only a few years older than the frat boys he ends up supervising, no, advising, in France, but he is a whole lot more mature. For one thing, even though he doesn’t really want to admit it, he is looking for a permanent partner. He wants to be part of a couple, just like all his friends, and he was hoping Jock might be the right man for him. For another, his worries are around his thesis and what to do after college, where “the frat boys” are worried about someone blackmailing them over beer. And that leads to a whole other and very imaginative plot twist which had me laughing and worried in turn. But Toby is a nice guy and very patient, and while I loved watching him struggle to figure out Jock, I also rooted for him to be successful.

If you enjoy the world of the frat boys and all their confusion about how to be “sensitive” toward their gay brothers, if you’re curious how a pretty mature grad student deals with falling for one of those frat boys, and if you’re looking for a read that is as entertaining (and sometimes sarcastic) as it is sweet, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Riptide Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
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The fifth in the Theta Alpha Gamma (TAG) fraternity series is a delicious romp with the frat boys in France, taking classes and causing hilarious concern as they forget the problems back home Calapooya College where their frat house burned down.

TAG member Tank's brother Jock, a gifted hockey player, was outed at his former college when a photo of him and another guy in a compromising position was sent to Jock's coach. Afterward the coach kicked Jock off the team, ostensibly for partying which broke school rules, but really for being gay.

Consequently, Tank convinced Jock to transfer to Calapooya and the fraternity which had adopted a gay-friendly membership policy. While the pro hockey teams that had been courting him and other groups want to make a poster boy of Jock, he adamantly refuses to do so, mainly because he's just recently admitted to himself and his family that he's gay. Straight Tank introduces his brother to Brad, who clues Jock into what it's like to be gay and have sex with another guy. Brad also introduces Jock to history grad student Toby, who's had a lot of lovers at the campus. Toby, however, is having problems with his master's thesis and is about to be kicked out of school, so while he's attracted to Jock and feels a special pull to him, Toby's trying to get himself together so he can graduate.

When Jock decides to go to the Provence campus for the end of the spring semester to get away from the media attention his outing has caused and Toby agrees to chaperone the TAG members in order to get some writing on his thesis done, the stage is set for frat boy fun while inexperienced Jock gets together with very experienced Toby.

This is the best of the Theta Alpha Gamma series, primarily because both Jock and Toby are such likeable characters and the problems they are wrestling with are so immediate and important.

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=10134 ( )

2.5 ( )