Name: Off Campus
ISBN: 9781503071568

Amy Jo Cousins

With his father's ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he's ready to do just that.

Off Campus

Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide. With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and driving a pirate taxi for cash, he’s ready to do just that. But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed. Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging. Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break. Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 23.9px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 16.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #444444; -webkit-text-stroke: #444444} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} THIS EDITION IS A RE-RELEASE OF A PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED VERSION. MINOR CHANGES ONLY HAVE BEEN MADE.

sophia n

*2.5 stars

hmm. i feel lukewarm about this. it started really strong and then just ... sauntered vaguely downwards. while i actually loved tom from the first moment, i had a hard time really getting into reese's character, like, at all, which started okay but got more and more frustrating as the book went on. maybe it was because of the narration being only from tom's pov? it's also a LOT slower and a LOT angstier than i expected. at first i thought i'd rec this as a good m/m read, but then i ranted about what i didn't like about it on twitter, and also realized i wouldn't really care to read it again, so idk.

a little over a month later - i've rounded this down to 2 stars, and honestly am thinking about putting it at 1, because for the life of me i can't even remember now what i liked about this book at all. (view spoiler)[a love interest pushing the mc to come out when they're not ready, especially when they are compromising and trying already, to the point where the love interest puts out an ultimatum abt coming out publicly and THEY ACTUALLY BREAK UP OVER IT? i hate it. it makes me angry just to remember that that happened in this book. bleh. (hide spoiler)]

(actual rating: 3.5)

This is my first book by Amy Jo Cousins, but I'm very sure it won't be the last. Even though there were some things in int, I didn't like so much.

Overall this novel is very sweet and flows nicely. I like how slow-building the friendship is. Such things don't happen over night, you know? I liked both Tom and Reese as well, as they are interesting characters and felt real.

But there were some things I didn't enjoy that much. For one I found the voyeur parts in this story a little bit strange. Or rather their reactions to it.

And the other thing bothering me is the sex. It was just too much and too often. I would have liked more plot way better, that's for sure.

I'm still very interested in the side character's stories, so I'll read the next installments in this series as well (and hope for less sex...).

Kate

did not expect this to be set at a clear homage to my college (except with cis dudes) and for the author to be an alum! it was kinda weird bc the setting should have felt super real to me but bc it was essentially different any recognizable detail threw me