Book 1,004: Out of My Mind (Browerton University #3) – A.J. Truman

Like the last book, this one felt only loosely connected to the previous book. We meet the protagonist for one of the follow-ups, Out of This World, and we may see a few others from the series, but only tangentially.

Out of My Mind is the story of Mac, out and proud after a harrowing childhood, who attempts to kiss Gideon, deeply closeted with so much internalized homophobia, on their first night at campus and that doesn’t end well. Three years later, they’re set up as roommates when Gideon’s unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend.

This book was fine, but there was too much going on. You had the drama with Mac’s parents and his aunt’s health issues. Then you had the internalized homophobia Gideon put on himself and his father’s death, his mom’s overbearing nature, and his relationship with his brother. There was so much crammed into this book, the romance just felt like it took a back seat.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Gideon’s internalized homophobia. Don’t get me wrong though, I know it exists and it sucks, but for some reason Truman had it affect Gideon in such a way that it was borderline not okay for me. Unlike Greg in book one, Gideon lashed out about it, which was not cool.

The sex scenes were well done, but there was a bit too much focus on a big yellow sex toy that they just kept bringing it up repetitively throughout the book as it moved forward. I was glad to see the vers characters walk the walk, so that was a bonus.

The editing has gotten worse. These were just three of the bad typos I flagged, the first two were almost enough to put me off from continuing, and the last one toward the very end of the novel was just a final ping of “Don’t forget about the bad editing.”

‘Hi. You must be Gideon.’ Delia sat up and shook his head [sic]. (Loc. 392)

He wondered how much [sic] times that had happened over the past week. (Loc. 446)

His focused [sic] remained on his physical therapy and letting his body heal. (Loc. 3,391)

I did appreciate though, once Gideon finally accepted his sexuality he went all in for Mac and that left me with warm happy feelings. I just didn’t like how we got there.

Recommendation: Meh. I wasn’t a fan of one of the protagonists, there was too much going on in this story and it felt overdone. I’m not sure I’ll read Truman again, but I’m persevering to get through the series. 100% needs a copy editor/proofreader as the number of typos and errors appears to be increasing, which is a shame as these are all re-publishing of older stories.

Opening Line: “Things were happening. Well, possibly happening. Mac put the probability at 25 percent happening for the moment.”

Closing Line: “You loved Big Bird as a little boy, Gideon,” his mom said. “And he loves him just as much as an adult.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Out of My Mind
“He was an astronaut touching down on a new planet. Planet Gay. I can’t believe I am here, in my room, with a guy, who’s ON MY BED, and things are 100 percent about to happen.” (Loc. 167)

“Gossip was the chum that religion fed the sharks to keep them coming back.” (Loc 1, 753).

Continuity issue: “He pecked her on the cheek. As soon as he stepped inside, he was a tornado of catastrophe avoidance. He zipped around the apartment, swiping up any of Mac’s clothes and any sign of sex. That meant shoving condom wrappers deep into his trashcan and covering them with old papers. The whole thing lasted thirty seconds, but it probably was an eternity to his mom.” (Loc. 2,978)