Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Published by Forever, Grand Central Publishing on 6 May 2014
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, New Adult, Romance
Pages: 256
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
For the love of the game.
Brandon Chase has always defined himself by one thing: football. Tough and athletic, he is a great college player who enjoys the hard hits and the sweaty grind of the gridiron. But when Brandon is injured, only one person can help him get back on track-a forbidden love he's desperately tried to put behind him.
Alec Andrews has never quite forgiven Brandon for walking away when their friendship turned into something more. But he can't deny help to one of his closest friends. As the two spend the long, hot summer working together, their old attraction comes flooding back.
Now as Alec thinks about coming out to his conservative family and Brandon considers revealing he's a gay football player, the two men must be strong to fight for a love that could be the greatest rush of their lives.
*I received a free ARC of Rush from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Rush is a very apt new adult romance about two boys who have been in love for ages, but both of them are scared about coming out. Brandon is afraid he won’t be able to play college football if his team-mates know he’s gay, and Alec has been listening to his dad’s gay-slurs for as long he can remember. Even if they haven’t seen each other in a long time, they are both really attached to each other, and when Charlotte, Alec’s best friend, calls him to let him know Brandon has been seriously hurt in an accident a while back, he packs his bags to go and see him.
Their attraction is still there, but the only two people who know they are both gay are Charlotte and Nate. Nate is Brandon’s brother, and his love and the way he treats Brandon hasn’t changed at all since he found out about him. However, Brandon feels like he is two different people – the real him when he’s with Alec, and the football him when he’s at school or with his team-mates. He has even tried to go out with a few girls, but none of them really did anything for him. And having his friends pushing girls his way all the time, and also having girls line up to date the college quarter-back is not making life any easier for him. Alec has another friend who is gay, though, and Logan would like to be much more than friends, even if Alec is still hung up on Brandon.
When summer starts, Brandon decides to go back to Lake Village, where he first met Alec during a summer vacation. Charlotte and Nate are there, too, and even if Alec is not too happy to see him at first, they both realize they could have one last summer together. As the story in Rush continues, it is easy to see why both the guys are so reluctant to come out. Alec would do it, though, he would do anything to be with Brandon. The one person Alec is the most afraid of coming out to is his father, whereas Brandon thinks his family would deal with it OK, but that the rest of the world might not.
As Rush continues, Brandon and Alec spend all their time together, training, hanging out and falling in love all over again. There are some beautiful intimate scenes, that really show how much they love each other. When summer comes towards an end, they decide together that Alec could move to Ohio to be closer to Brandon, they could pretend to just be room-mates. Before they go, Brandon wants to come out to his parents, who really take their news beautifully! They will support both Brandon and Alec, and this is when I cried happy tears for these two characters.
Rush made me cry some angry tears, too, though, because Alec’s father is so homophobic he seems like he can’t even continue to love his son after he finds out he is gay. There are some more complications after this, because Alec has trouble dealing with his parents’ rejection, and for a while, I was afraid they would not be able to start a new life together. I think Rush describes coming out, and being a gay sports-man very realistically, and the writing is really good, too. I felt connected to both Brandon and Alec, even if I don’t have anything in common with them. I also think it describes a gay relationship in an awesome way, and hopefully, it will help with acceptance from people who may be a little bit on the fence when it comes to romance between two people of the same sex.
We’ve only ever had the summer for those first three years and then a few weeks together the last summer. And a month ago, just a weekend, but still, every time I saw him, even seeing him for the first time after a year and a half, it felt right. I always felt right, happy.
If we’d been inside, he would have pulled me to him. Those first few summers we spent together the touches were less frequent, more nervous. But at the end, when we managed to sneak away so it was only the two of us, we weren’t afraid to put our hands on each other.
We’ve talked about everything and nothing too. Nothing big, and everything small but the conversation has hardly stopped the whole time. We’ve always been like that. I wonder if it’s because we keep one of the most important pieces of ourselves quiet form the world, so we can’t help but want to talk about everything when we’re together.
Do I know in my heart that there’s nothing wrong with being gay? Hell yeah.
It’s not long until Nate reaches over and grabs Charlie’s hand. Sometimes I wonder if people realize how lucky they are to be able to do things like that. It’s easy to take for granted that it’s not that simple for everyone.
The older I got I knew that wasn’t true. I couldn’t keep lying about myself and I didn’t want to. It’s just love, right? No one should have to be scared of who they are or be hated for it.
I would cry angry tears too. It’s so hard to hear or read of a family member not accepting someone for being gay. I’m not sure this one is for me only because of the tangle of angst and bad family members. That really gets me going. I will say the cover is hot. Great review, Lexxie! I hope you have a great rest of the week!
Robyn, even with the angry tears and all, there are a lot of truly awesome moments, too! Very enjoyable read 🙂 I totally get why it might be too much for you, though – both with the angst of coming out and family members who are too dense to understand nothing has changed with their child.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
This sounds awesome, angry tears and all. I’ll definitely be getting it when it’s released 😉
You definitely should, Jessica, it’s very well written, and I could totally get where the two main characters heads’ were at.
Thanks for stopping by.
Ooh, Lexxie, this sounds soo good. I can imagine many young, gay football playing men having to endure the same sorts of things. Especially here in the South where football and being a ‘man’ rule. Prejudices run deep. I’m looking forward to reading this.
Lovely review, Lexxie! Happy Wednesday! I know you’re getting ready for your trip. 🙂 I hope you’re enjoying time with all your family together. **BIG HUGS**
I could totally picture that while I was reading, too, Brandee. And it must be really hard to be living with that extra pressure on top of many other things. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Rush a lot!
Thanks for stopping by, my dear. I’m not actually getting ready yet… we are going to pack very light and shop very much 😀 We are all enjoying the fact that everybody is around this week, yes. It’s awesome 🙂 *BIG HUGS*
This actually sounds like a great, emotional read. I can see why you cried some angry tears, and from your review this appears to be a very well written story. So pleased you loved it and I’m definitely intrigued by this book!
It is both emotional and great, Silvia! I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!
Thanks for stopping by.
Aww, the more I hear about Rush the more I want to read it! I rarely cry over books but have a feeling this is going to make me tear up… Can’t wait~
Rush is very well written, Cayce, and it goes pretty far when it shows how difficult coming out can be.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Not something I would normally read but I am glad you enjoyed it! Plus I heard a lot of amazing things about the author so I bet this was emotional 😉
Yeah, Nyrae Dawn is very good at writing emotional stories 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Lily.