The Blueprint

By: S.E. Harmon

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Sean Crisden

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don't fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don't fall in love with your best friend.

NFL standout Britton "Blue" Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides: from his father, who's only interested in Blue's football career; from his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again; from the fans; from his agent; and from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.

When Kelly admits he's in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what's really important. He doesn't want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he's willing to pay. It's a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint - it's time to draft a new set of plans.

©2018 S. E. Harmon (P)2018 Tantor

Every Gay Guys Dream

we have all been there. we have all fallen in love with our straight best friend. while this story allows the dream to seem like it's able to become reality, it still provides a sense of truth. I have been in a situation similar; however, my best friend chose not to be mine in the end. still having him in my life had proven to be better than not having him at all. I truly enjoyed the book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A rating...

My Review:
Overall: 4.5
Performance: 4.25
Story: 4.5

I pretty much loved everything about this audiobook. Both the narrators were fabulous and I could listen to them narrate a story all day long.

But what put this story ahead was the story. (And note...YES, I am a SUCKER for a good friends to lovers story.) And this is a really good one.

Blue and Kelly have been best friends forever. Kelly has always been gay and Blue's been fine with that even though he's straight. He has no idea that Kelly has romantic feelings for him, but even if he did, he still would probably be fine with it...he just wouldn't act on it...or would he?

These two guys are as close as two guys can be without being lovers. They are best friends in everything. And unfortunately, that means that Kelly has had to witness way too many of Blue's intimate moments with the random women he dates as an NFL star. But that's fine. That's just the way it is, although it kind of kills a bit of Kelly every time.

But when the roles are changed and it's Blue walking in on Kelly in an intimate moment, everything changes. Blue doesn't like it and he doesn't truly understand why. He's not gay so why is he suddenly actively cock-blocking Kelly like a jealous, spurned lover? Things are definitely screwed up between them and that only gets worse when Blue gets hurt and moves in with Kelly while he recuperates.

There is a whole lot of sexual drama happening in this one...both between the guys and in the periphery. They've both hooked up with other people, are still actively trying to hook up with other people just to ignore what's happening between them, and they are both completely confused on how to fix all this awkwardness that's never been there before.

Like I said, I completely loved this book, and was so excited to find out that there's a second book coming! YES!! Now, the hard part will be can I wait longer for the audiobook or will I have to read this one immediately? That's going to be a hard wait, so we'll see...

Regardless, I'm excited. I definitely recommend this one!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

a nice easy listen but for a few niggles

Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted the audio file of this book. Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden narrate.

This is a dual narration and it's the first one I've listened to, that is dual narrated, in the male/male genre. I'm struggling to split my review into one for the book and one for the narration, like I usually do, so this is gonna all run into one!

For the most part, I enjoyed the story of Kelly, and his best friend, Blue. Kelly fell in love with Blue a long time ago, and finally admits to Blue how he really feels. Blue is then pushed to make a decision that might ruin his football career.

Had I READ this, I would have found it a nice easy read, told in the first person from both Kelly and Blue's point of view.

But this is an AUDIO review, and here's what I thought of the narration.

Cendese narrates Kelly's chapters. I haven't listened to him before and, while always willing to try new narrators, I'm also a little wary. Cendese nails his narration, though! His voice for Kelly is a little higher, but I didn't mind that (crappy hearing issues!) and his voice is clear and even and he got over all the emotions and feelings very well. I didn't have to struggle to hear what was being said.

Crisden narrates Blue's chapters. I have listened to his work before, and didn't have any trouble with those pieces but here? I found Blue's voice low, like really REALLY low and in some places it dipped way below my hearing range. Not for long, just odd sentences here and there, but enough for me to miss a few things that Blue thought about. I did manage to pick them up as the book moved along but I might not have been able to. So I struggled a bit when Blue had his voice, and it did spoil it slightly for me. I won't write Crisden off, just yet though!

Overall, an enjoyable listen, but I think I might have enjoyed it more reading, rather than listening.

4 stars for the book
4 stars for the narration (but 5 for Cendese and 3 for Crisden)

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**

Enjoyable to listen to

I really enjoyed this audiobook.
There are a lot of layers to the stories of the characters and with every chapter you learn more about them and their relationship.
The storyline is not too predictable... what could take a rather sinple direction gets more interesting with some of the characters decisions and backgroundstories.
So even if the reality of your best straight friend suddenly turning out to be your perfect gay partner might be a bit cheesy the plot somehow balances that out perfectly.
What I liked most about the audiobook are the narrators Sean Crisden and Alexander Cendese. They each provide a unique personality to the characters. Well done!

The Blueprint

~5 Stars Overall for eBook and Audiobook~

Everything about this book worked for me, even though there were times that I was slightly irritated with the characters and their actions. I equally wanted to smack them and hug them and couldn’t decide which I wanted to do more and who I wanted to do each of those things to. But we get all kinds of tropes checked off in this book, it’s amazing how much was thrown in for it all to mesh so well together. We get the best friends to lovers. First-time gay experience. Geek and Jock, opposites attracting to each other. And I really feel like I might be missing more. But I think Kelly’s snarky, sarcastic and funny banter with Blue might be my favorite part of this book.

I also think that I liked this book more in audio format than I would have if I had just read the book instead. The two narrators for this book, Sean Crisden and Alexander Cendese, did such a great job collaborating and making sure that each man had the perfect voice for their character and personality, it really added another layer to this story for me. I was completely entertained throughout the entire book and enjoyed listening to this one in audio.

Kelly and Blue have been friends basically their entire lives. Kelly has been in love with Blue just as long. And, of course, Blue is completely and totally oblivious to his feelings… I mean how does that even happen? With most of Kelly’s actions during this book, I just don’t understand how Blue didn’t actually know how Kelly felt when it seemed pretty obvious to every single other person they knew. Blue tries hard to avoid and push away his feelings for Kelly, even though he is possessive and needy with their friendship; he doesn’t quite realize how deep his feelings are. Or does he?!? I understand how Blue and Kelly are worried about bringing their relationship into the light and how it will affect Blue's NFL career. And I get that they are worried about Blue getting hurt on the field when others find out. But what I didn’t get is when they finally figure out what they both want and need is each other, why Kelly pushes so hard to keep it a secret when he was just literally doing the opposite the entire rest of the book and wanting Blue not to deny him. Ugghh. This is why I have a love/hate relationship with these men. There was a lot of back and forth that kind of made me a little crazy, but the way this book and storyline is laid out, it just totally works. It was really great. I’m glad we get a book two because I cannot wait to see what happens next since this one ends in an HFN with no sort of epilogue in sight, we just get an abrupt sort of ending. I need to know what happens and how the rest of their time and lives together play out.

I really want to love it, however...

Where to start?
First, having Alexander Cendese is a plus seeing how he's one of my favorite VO's on Audible.
The performance was great, I have very little complaints with it.
The story on the other hand... ehh...
Alcohol being a catalyst to anything is usually dry, and unfeeling. This could be bias since I'm a hopeless romantic but it sets a pretty bad precedent for any type of sexual encounter or otherwise.
It also keeps the stigma that gay people are on a crutch as if we're not drunk we're not falling for one another. Personally I feel like their development was slow and never really finished.
Characters were one note; such as Kelly's ex which is sad since a good ex can make a story more romantic.
Humor was great though out of place in say... the last chapter for one. Realization moments do better when they are serious, especially in the romance genre.
It's not a bad book, I just don't see as much romance as I did an unhealthy relationship that teetered between aggravating at best, depressing at worst.
I'd get the book for the comedy factor, if I'm honest. And to learn more about descriptive guidelines since the character descriptions are great.
But I can't recommend it as a romantic.

Great

I love both of Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden as narrators. The story was good although Kelly kind of annoyed me.