Very powerful, sweet, good narration

I started reading this book – intending to maybe only skim it – so that I could read books 6 and 7 which I’ve been asked to review. I thought I’d get some background and leave it at that. (Don’t ask why I hadn’t read it before now – I don’t know either!)

I couldn’t put it down!

I loved all of it from start to finish!

Tom’s father disgraced the family and Tom has been hiding from the paparazzi and broke and is struggling to make his own – legit – money to finish school so he can hold his head up high and make his way in the world on his own merits. He finally scrapes together enough cash to make the payments and finds his roommate in off campus housing is a gay kid with a huge chip on his shoulder.

Reese had been told that he’d be getting a single dorm room after his last dorm-mates were involved in doing something terrible to Reese. So he’s understandably wary of a roommate, especially another jock. Little does he know that he has nothing to fear from Tom.

Tom had previous experience in being “bi-curious” but still identifies as straight, until… he overhears his roomie having sex and can’t help but be turned on.

What starts out as a love/hate relationship between these guys slowly develops into a slow burn romance. Then… just as things are warming up between the two of them sexually – their friendship ends up straining the limits as both of them are in denial of their need to seek help for their hang-ups and the other is in no position to offer mental help advice.

Luckily they have friends like Cash and Steph who help them see the light and to keep them from disintegrating as a couple.

**

This book is full of pain, real people, funny lines, lots of angst and some seriously steamy times.

I just fell in love with Tom – even though sometimes I wanted to strangle him for his near-sightedness. He’s such a big hearted guy and the perfect anchor for the more high-strung and emotional Reese.

Reese – however – is the braver of the two – and though he hides his pain in ways that are unhealthy – he doesn’t let tragedy take him away from life.

I really appreciated that though this is a solidly HEA story – the couple faces real struggles and they don’t just magically disappear because one guy said I love you to the other.

Highly recommended.

4.5 of 5 stars

Audio
Cooper North is a new to me narrator. I really like his voice quality. He definitely knows the difference between "reading" and "performing". He's great with the emotion, dialog, physical scenes and pacing. I thought his take on Reese was PERFECT. This is absolutely the best way to enjoy this story and is highly recommended!
5 of 5 stars

5 people found this helpful

Solid New Adult Romance

I have so many feelings about this book. I liked listening to it. I was rooting for the MCs. Man, Reese and Tom came with a lot of baggage. Both hurting, both coping unhealthily. I fell in love with Reese. His character is the most real to me. The trauma he suffered isn’t something easily overcome. But I love
his spirit. He’s relentless and so brave.
Tom, well he’s what we call an entitled brat who got a solid dose of reality but couldn’t deal so he became a royal mess. I felt bad for him, but his inner dialogues with all the negativity was really driving me
crazy. But I’m glad he persevered and overcame.

The pacing of the story may seem slow, but it’s the right pace. Nothing is forced and nothing was fastly tied up for HEA sake. It took time and some growth. In that sense, it makes the story so realistic.

The secondary and supporting characters are the best. Specially Reese’s father. No wonder Reese is such an awesome human being.

Cooper North did a great job with the narration.

2 people found this helpful

Exceeds Expectations Should Be Cousins' Job Title

Would you listen to Off Campus again? Why?

I will absolutely listen to Off Campus again. The intonation of the voice actor was spot on how I heard Tom and Reese in my head. Kudos to Cooper North.

What did you like best about this story?

The honesty and lyrical flow of the words building into sentences crafting paragraphs and chapters ... I can't get enough of Cousins' writing!

4 people found this helpful

Very nicely done

I very much enjoyed the direction this story took and appreciated that the MCs did have their problems and nothing was magically fixed for them. There is a nice progression of the relationship. It's really so much more than a romance....some of it could be a little reaching but overall I found it to be a good listen and North did a great job with the narration.

1 person found this helpful

ESH; DNF

Waded several chapters in. So far, I don’t like either main character or their few friends. Reece was guaranteed a single for his own safety, and that this promise is violated is enraging. But he copes with it by sexually harassing Tom & making Tom try to resolve it instead of dealing with the dean & ResLife. All 4 people we know of from the ResLife group are abusive trash and/or illegally give out private info. Maybe I lucked out, but I had a college advisor who was the “ResLife dean” equivalent and their whole office moved heaven and earth to accommodate students, particularly with safety needs. So having 4 such characters be so vile makes me angry on their behalf. It’s an immature take.

Both characters say things like “but he’s a really good guy” about people actively doing homophobic things. It’s awful.

Then we have Tom who has struggled to get back to college pretty much hating all the course readings. I get having a gen ed credit that doesn’t delight or a difficult course, but Tom should be interested on the subject matter of his major by 2nd term junior year. Whether or not he’s “good at reading”, we shouldn’t only get negative thoughts about his hard fought schoolwork from his POV. Again with the immature takes. Then he drives for (uber/lyft) while tired enough to sleep between fares. That’s lethally dangerous.

I have yet to run into any character who wants to be where they are (except the weird jock (of an unspecified sport) friend who is at least cheerful in his casual homophobic microaggressions.

Pretty much nothing about the book is working for me. These characters are immature caricatures of campus stereotypes, with enough casual & deliberate cruelty baked in that I don’t want to spend any more time with them.

Steam: Unknown. So far, one roommate is perving on the other roommate whose details are not given but there is plenty of imagining and some self satisfaction on page. M/M

Narration: It’s ok but the first couple chapters has Tom sighing a lot. While kind of appropriate, it’s overdone and gets irritating after a while. It made me start noticing the narrator’s other breaths and plosive sounds but by then I was just irritated by everything.

1 person found this helpful

Great Story , BUT

Is there a word requirement ?? Holy cow ! - there’s a whole paragraph describing why Tom is wearing a dress shirt to drive (halfway through the book) but his 6/8 weeks self improvement gets less than a chapter . Also the writer relies TOO much on back telling . Instead of starting at the beginning of an event she brings us in at the end and THEN tells what happened .
wish I had bought the book instead of the audio so I could skim. The narrator was great ! And the story was interesting but Christ! more than once I forgot what the MC’s conversation was about because I had to hear another 10 minute internal monologue

1 person found this helpful

Good story, but too long

The premise of the story was fantastic. Two characters who have both experienced trauma in their own ways are thrown together and forced to share a dorm room. Reese is an out and proud gay man who is expecting to have a room to himself. Tom, who has experienced a complete upheaval in his life thanks to his con artist father, is coming back to school and trying to start his life over. The story itself of these two trying to overcome adversity, becoming friends, and then taking their relationship to the next level is a great premise. However, it just kept going on and on and I felt like the author kept rehashing and retelling the story, and not even from differing angles. After a while I kind of just tuned it out and if I felt like I missed even a small plot point, I rewound and listen to that point over again. Otherwise the last six chapters are completely unnecessary. It could have been resolved much sooner and much more succinctly. It may be that she just tried to make the entire book last over a school year.
I really enjoyed the supporting cast of characters including Cash and Steph, the two best friends of our main characters. They were a lot of fun. The narration was fine. No complaints.

Great story!

I loved all of the different lessons taught in this book. Tom learned so many different things from Reece, and Reece from Tom. I loved how they were forced to be together and the rest just happened. Love can help with most problems.

Great narration and compelling story

Tom has been homeless, living in his car, and driving a taxi to afford school. He shows up to his off-campus housing broke, exhausted, and relieved to have a place to sleep. Unfortunately he has an irate roommate. Reese was promised a single after violence ( trigger warning for sexual abuse) in his dorm last year. He bring a series of hook-ups back to their room to scare Tom away. Tom has no place to go and is more turned on by Reese's exploits than Reese knows. This is not a light fluffy book. Both guys are dealing with their own issues and being together just complicates things. M/M HEA/HFN

Angst and Healing

The narration for this audio version is done really well.
This story is full of angst since both main characters have a bunch of stuff that they are dealing with. Because of this they are both in atypical housing. At first they seem to almost repel each other. But they are also drawn together as well. Reese is the first to seem to reach out for a change in his life and this ultimately causes lots of trouble for their budding relationship. Tom has a lot to come to grips with but it was great to finally see him take action. There is a wonderful supportive cast to this story that help keep these two from bottoming out.