Book 687: Connection Error (#gaymers #3) – Annabeth Albert

This year may just end up being the year of a million questionable romance novels. They’re so escapist, so wistful, and in general I really like Albert’s writing style and characters.

This is the third book in the #gaymers series after Status Update and Beta Test, and it was just as adorkable. I won’t even pretend I remember the other two. I mean I remember bits and pieces, the good and bad, but mostly I just remember they made me smile and I was able to recognize the characters when they made brief appearances in this book of the series.

This book appears to be a crossover with Albert’s Out of Uniform military inspired MM Romance series, similar to how Save The Date tied Out of Uniform to Wendy Quall’s Heart of the South series. There are numerous mentions in this book, and the follow up (Level Up) of characters I have a feeling will reappear when (not if) I read Out of Uniform.

One of the best aspects of Albert’s storytelling and character creation are the diversity of her characters. This book features Josiah, a young ADHD team manager at Space Villager (same company three of the four previous protagonists work at) and Ryan a recently disabled military officer going through physical therapy.

They encounter each other on a transcontinental flight from California to DC that gets rerouted to Missouri because of a bad snow storm. And of course one steamy night together after some hurt feelings and miscommunication equals a slow burning page turning romance.

“Josiah made him laugh. Made him feel important. Made him feel hopelessly tender and brutally strong at the same time. Turned him on like crazy. And wound him up more than was healthy.” (Loc. 1,636)

The biggest critique other people had about this book was the lack of steamy sex scenes. Personally, I didn’t mind it. I like a slow burning low heat romance novel that builds the characters and the ways they learn to interact with each other and learn to love each other. Plus Albert’s humor is great (even if, or maybe specifically because, it is nerdy as hell)!

“And this is why I don’t do relationships. They tear your heart out and you have to pretend everything is still okay and like they didn’t just gut you with a grapefruit spoon.” (Loc. 759)

“Josiah struggled with social cues on the best of days—trying to read Ryan’s mind was an impossibility. He’d take this unexpected return to sexytown over the detour to awkwardville though.” (Loc. 878)

“Sure you can hook your joystick to my USB port anytime you’d like. 😉 Just message me when you’re on.” (Loc. 1,111)

The drama point in this one was a bit meh in that it very much fixated on the fact that Ryan is a control freak and is slowly losing control of his professional world, and Josiah isn’t a great organizer or manager but is slowly coming into his own thanks to Ryan’s coaching and his own confidence building. The final “get back together” scene was adorable and made me a little bit misty-eyed.

Recommendation: Read it if you like this genre, like most of the MM romance novels I read it was a fun quick read. I like that Albert makes sure to include characters of various sexual minorities, even just in passing—it makes the books feel more real. Albert balanced the Ryan’s trauma and Josiah’s mental health conditions realistically and in a way that didn’t take over the story line.

Opening Line: “Somewhere between the third newsstand and the fourth moving sidewalk in LAX, Josiah regretted not joining his friend Ravi in training for a 10k charity race.”

Closing Line: “From their first tentative tries at the words to now, where they couldn’t hold them back, Josiah wouldn’t trade this journey for anything.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Connection Error
“Hot damn. Gorgeous, muscled, single, gamer, and gay. He ticked every last one of Josiah’s “perfect man” boxes. And if the gods were kind at all, Josiah could keep it together long enough to make a lasting impression.” (Loc. 194)

“Ryan winked at him, and the whole no-pointless-crushes rule got a lot harder to remember. Nice guys who remembered Josiah’s preferences weren’t exactly falling off trees.” (Loc. 732)

“His dick gave a valiant jump, but nothing much was happening down there for a while. This wasn’t about that, though—this was simply two humans kissing in the dark because they couldn’t possibly do anything else. Soft kisses. Exploring kisses. Tasting. Teasing. They made out slow and lazy for what felt like hours. Ryan hadn’t kissed like this since he was sixteen and Teddy Romero had confirmed everything Ryan had thought about guys and how his own body worked. That had been a lifetime ago, but here was Josiah, making everything old new again, reinventing everything Ryan thought he had figured out.” (Loc. 1,695)

“There had been a moment when their eyes had met and Josiah had been sure that they were on the same wavelength—hell, it had felt like they shared the same data port, like their thoughts and hearts were syncing up. But then Ryan had seemed to pull back after sex, and now Josiah had no clue where things stood.” (Loc. 2,351)

“There was Josiah’s answer. A project—that was all he’d ever be for someone like Ryan. He’d heard rumbles from his friends that that was what he was—like he was some fixer upper of a house waiting to be scrubbed and buffed up to market value. Like he’d be work for someone.” (Loc. 2,827)