Book 1,002: Out in the Open (Browerton University #1) – A.J. Truman

I have no clue where this Kindle Unlimited book came from. I’m not sure if I saw the author on Instagram or someone else’s blog or (most likely) I randomly scrolled through Kindle Unlimited and saw it and thought oh university/college campus sure why not.

Out in the Open is the story of Ethan and Greg. Ethan is a second-year student with an itch to prove himself taking advanced classes and bee-lining his way to law school. In one of the classes he worked hardest to get into he meets Greg, a frat boy who is only attending the class because his dad is forcing him to. Needless to say, they don’t get along at first.

I’m at least a week out from reading this and I’ve forgotten most of the story. I know there was coming out of shells, a lot of public sex, and, on a couple of occasions, some questionable consent between Greg and Ethan.

People with double lives were never happy; they were too exhausted covering their tracks. (Loc 2, 896)

The scenes when Greg and Ethan were getting off were decent enough, but I failed to identify with either character on an emotional level. Greg was too aloof and so far in the closet that it was just painful to read his chapters, and Ethan was so idealistic and all for puppy love that it went too far in the other direction for me.

Ethan wanted a boyfriend so badly that in addition to Greg, he made a couple of questionable choices. His friends bully him and to realize this he has to break out of his shell. One of his bad choices leads to him being sexually assaulted and Greg having to save the day. Forcing Greg out of the closet, wasn’t a bad thing, but seemed incredibly forced and trite upon further reflection.

Recommendation: This was an okay novel. It wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t that bad. Turner leaned too much on the public sex between Greg and Ethan to amp up the steam content, and I think struggled quite a bit with the emotional connection between the two. It did get better toward the end of the novel, but it was a slog to get to that point. I don’t recall it being as much of an issue in this first novel, but as I read through the series the number of basic typos and mistakes (easily corrected with spell check/Grammarly or a cursory Google search and verification) got worse, and worse.

Opening Line: “It wasn’t even nine on a Saturday morning, and Ethan Follett found himself surrounded in a sea of lime green.”

Closing Line: “His ravenous self—his fresher self—pounded at the door, demanding to be let in. ‘Isn’t there a study room behind the kitchen?'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Out in the Open
“Oh, I know. Ethan and I fought through throngs of fraternisluts and sorostitutes to get here.” (Loc. 148)

“Ethan nodded, but it didn’t sit right with him. Technically—very technically—he had a boyfriend. Maybe. Or not. He and Greg had never made anything official, but they’d said they were falling for each other and they’d had sex. Not dirty, drunk, party, fucking sex. Soul-connecting, making-love sex, which had to count for something. They were something resembling a potential couple. Only they couldn’t be together in public without a friend buffer. He didn’t know how to explain it to June, to Lorna, to himself.” (Loc. 2,747)