Ever since I "met" Doug in the previous book of this series, I was curious about his story. There were only a few things I knew for sure before I started reading: Doug is a passionate soccer player, he is best friends with Chris, the soccer team captain and his roommate, and Doug is utterly confused about his sexuality. Oh yes, he also quickly gets angry and he tends to act before he thinks. Hence his insane jealousy when Chris falls in love and the stupidity of kissing him full-out just to see what happens. I suspected that ‘Back Off! That’s My Jock’ was going to be full of drama and angst – and I was right. But it also shows the issues a bisexual man can encounter, not just within himself, but also from his family and friends. The result is an emotional roller coaster full of more questions than answers, some great insights into what defining your sexuality can mean, and a wonderful slow-burn love story.

Doug is confused before this story even starts, and it doesn’t get better in a hurry. He has seen his best friend fall in love – with a guy, has found out that his coach is married to a guy, and managed to kiss two guys himself. Admittedly, one was a sort-of angry kiss and involved his best friend, Chris, who has since forgiven him. As for the other kiss – Doug honestly thought he was kissing a girl, only to find out that Sam is a boy and had only dressed up as a girl for fun. Doug has been dating girls for a while, so why is he suddenly attracted to a boy? I can only imagine his confusion, but because most people think of themselves (and by extension everyone else) in a binary way – as either man or woman, gay or straight – I could also understand why it took Doug so long to understand himself.

Sam has just transferred into the same college as Doug, also plays soccer, but has an entirely different set of issues than Doug. He knows he is gay but his tyrant of a father “will not allow it”. He has used pressure and even violence to drill one thing into Sam’s head: he cannot be gay and awful things will happen if he isn’t “normal” and falls in love with a girl. Sam has learned to suppress his attraction to boys all his life and has become so good at it that he is beginning to believe he is straight after all. But then he meets Doug, Doug kisses him, and Sam realizes he is in trouble. Even dating a girl doesn’t make his growing feelings for Doug go away, and since they keep running into each other when playing soccer, it isn’t as though Sam can just stay away.

Sometimes figuring out who you are, whom you want to spend your life with, and how to get rid of preconceptions your parents taught you can be tough. Both Sam and Doug struggle, and as a result their relationship, such as it is in the beginning, suffers more than one setback. But as disappointing as these repeated one-step-ahead-two-steps-back events were for me when I read this novel, I don’t think this story would have been realistic without them. I was glad that Wade took the time to have both main characters work through their issues in a way that made sense, and the resulting love story was all the more emotionally satisfying for it.

If you like stories about two jocks falling for each other with neither of them knowing what to do about it, if you want to find out more about what it feels like to be bisexual and to realize you don’t fit into any of the binary either/or boxes people are familiar with, and if you’re looking for a read that has more than one twist and turn on the road to happiness, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )