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.

6 of 6 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 Solid Beginning

I thoroughly enjoyed both of Harmon's works in the P.I. Guys series and was interested to see what she would do with this story. The balance between Blue and Kelly leans a little more in Kelly's favor than Blue's. As such, I have a stronger sense of who he is as a character, but both of the readers do a great job with their respective characters. The story was well done, even if it wasn't my favorite thing the author has written. With the way the story ended, I feel like there is more Harmon has planned, and I look forwards to seeing it continue.

Predictable, but pleasantly so!

Ok. Heavily tatted hipster geek twink "out" to the world falls for hunky macho "straight" football star friend who, it turns out, likes him some Mr. Goodbar... in every way. Typical gay fantasy, but fortunately isn't too overwrought to enjoy as light entertainment. Could've used a bit more conflict, but turned out to be blessedly short.

WOW!

An extremely good book! Great story, great narration. I really loved it! A must read!

Blue is a jerk and it killed the book for me

Normally I really enjoy books with that "will they or won't they" tension but this was just psychological abuse.

Blue keeps jerking Kelly around. He tells them they can't be together and they should just be friends, then two days later is crawling in bed with him.

He wants sex when he's drunk or desperate but won't either man up and be with Kelly or let him go.

I'm sure eventually Blue comes around but I'll never know. I couldn't even finish the book which is very rare for me. It was just too frustrating.

Both the narrators were great though. Blue's narrator sounds like Patrick Warburton and I've always thought he has a sexy voice.

Excellent friends to lovers story

I grabbed this one when I saw the name Alexander Cendese, I always enjoy his narration Again he did a fantastic job with his performance as Kelly, he was so sarcastic. Fo me listening to a good narrator enhances the story, Cendese did an excellent job with the delivering the subtle humor and there is so much of it weaves through this story.

I enjoyed the story overall, it did feel true, as childhood friend their relationship goes through changes - friends to more. The honesty of feelings and overcoming painful/hurtful emotions, outside influences, careers, real life stress. Very enjoyable story, wonderful narration, I just saw that book 2 is being release this month and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next

loved it

loved the story. wish there was a part 2. Kelly's parents were a riot especially his mom.

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!