My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap!

By: Wade Kelly

Narrated by: Jason Lovett

It's easy to become cynical when life never goes your way.

Cole Reid has been a social recluse since he was 15, when he was outed by his high school baseball team. Since then, his obsessive-compulsive behavior and sarcastic nature have driven away most of the population, and everyone else hates him because he's gay. As he sees it, he's bound to repulse any prospective friends, let alone boyfriends, so why bother?

By the time Cole enters college, he's become an anal-retentive loner - but it's not a problem until his roommate graduates and the housing department assigns Ellis Montgomery to move in with Cole. Ellis is messy, gorgeous, straight, and worst of all, a jock!

During a school year filled with frat buddies, camping expeditions, and meddling parents, Cole and Ellis develop a friendship that turns Cole's glass-half-empty outlook on its head. There must be more to Ellis than a fun-loving jock - and maybe Cole's reawakening libido has rekindled his hope for more than camaraderie.

©2012 Wade Kelly (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

A Little Confusing..

This story was a little confusing because it was told from too many people's perspectivea. One minute we were listening to Ellis' thoughts, then Cole's, then Rob, then to top it off Ellis' mom's point of view. I swear I almost felt like Wade wrote this story like that just to make it longer.

Of course once you can get over all the different perspectives you tend to like the story. Cole was pretty funny and told some jokes that could seem dry but still funny at times. I loved the fact that Rob seemed almost like cupid for a little bit in the story. Wade could have made Rob into the type of friend that forced God and his beliefs down his friends' throat ;but he gave him the personality of someone kind and understanding. I absolutely loved him. Ellis' mom had to be my least favorite though. She was almost evil and smothering. I just wanted her to jump off a cliff. I'm glad the book didn't stay in her mind long. Very annoying that I wanted to scream.

The book was pretty good though. it would have been nice if they didn't reference so many jokes to celebrities because on that note I was lost and wasn't about to look up every celebrity.

Patriece

Awesome story, and Lovable characters

Where does My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap! rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would say it is high on the list

What about Jason Lovett’s performance did you like?

He does a great job separating the characters

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

This is a great book, and I would love the rest of the series to be on audible.

Just OK

This was just an OK audible book; not bad but not really good either. It starts out good as a jock/geek romance. But then it starts to falter in the execution of the story. There are plot holes and leaps that just don't make sense to me. In addition, Cole (the geek) is really annoying after a while. He is suppose to be cynical, but he is so much so, you can't help wondering why Ellis (the jock) loves him so much. I mean at one point, he even turns on Ellis and blames him for the actions of others. I can usually look past that, as it happens sometimes, but then it just got kind of silly and contrived at the end.

In addition, the narrator also does just an OK job. Although there is NO diversity in the voices of the characters, at least he seems to inject some emotion in the voices. They just all sound the same.

If you are looking for just a sweet geek/jock listen, it is probably worth a credit. If not, I'd pass.

Strange, funny, and mostly enjoyable

Wow... okay... that wasn't exactly what I expected.

Anyone else expect a really light, fun romance from the cover and the title? That's what I thought it would be. I was expecting another book like Frat Boy and Toppy but this was more serious than I expected. It had a lot of highs and a few lows. I'll break it down for all of you below ;)

First I'll talk about the narrator because the narrator can make or break an audiobook. Jason Lovett did a really nice job with the story. He sounded age-appropriate (KEY for a book about college students!) and was really easy to listen to. He had a nice, even speaking voice that had a lot of expression to it. My one complaint is that all of his characters sounded kind of the same, but other than that, I really liked his narration. (And I checked out his youtube videos and he is adorable so, bonus points!)

Now on to the story. I'll begin with what worked for me. I have a thing for gay first-timers so when I realized that I had a virgin on my hands I was like, ::booty dance, booty shake:: So, major score for me! Also, I think the whole difficulty with beginning a relationship and transitioning from friends to lovers rang true. It felt honest and funny and I liked all of the awkwardness and sexual tension there.

This book is also surprisingly religious in the way that it paints Christian characters in a really good light. The religious character of Rob was a loving, patient, understanding, intuitive friend and I actually liked seeing an example of someone who is religious but also open-minded in M/M. It wasn't heavy handed, but if you don't like any religion in your books, be forewarned.

Now what didn't work for me? Well, I'll be spoiler-tagging below so click at your own discretion.

I didn't like the POV changes, especially how they jumped from 1st to 3rd person. Some were okay, like the POV of Rob or Ellis, but the POV of Mike and Ellis's mom were just terrible. I don't mind characters that are flawed but I hated being in Mike and Ellis's mom's heads and felt like it took away from the story.

On that note, Mike's storyline was just random and sort of over-the-top, and Ellis's mom was annoying to the point that I wanted to skip over her section. I think if Ellis's mom's part was cut completely out of the book it would have been better. She was too self-centered and self-involved for my taste.

Also, I liked most of the characters but I thought that Cole veered a bit towards the whiny side. He was too complain-y and shrill for me at times.

So, yeah... this book was a mixed bag for me. Parts I really liked and parts I didn't so averaging out, this gets three stars.

**Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Love is truly unpredictable!

How a cute hunky jock can fall head over heels for the most uptight pain on campus. I guess anything really is possible after all...