Susan's Reviews > Roam

I really did not like this one. The romance felt ridiculously underdeveloped and the characters had no depth to speak of.

Ethan is a 20 year old student who has always had nightmares. Very vivid nightmares. And they almost all have the same girl and the same werewolf in them.

When it looks like Ethan is starting to dream during the day as well, he asks help from an old family friend. Arthur tells him to go visit a friend of his, Dr. Grady Hunter.

When Ethan is under the impression he is in the doctor’s office to get himself examined, physical or mentally, he doesn’t get why the place looks like a new age store. And Dr. Hunter himself looks like a very eccentric kind of person.

When Grady tells Ethan he is hired, Ethan is shocked. Hired? As what? Turns out he was applying for the job of an intern in the occult business Grady runs.

Now Grady needs Ethan’s help with witches, werewolves, ghosts, vampires, and other creatures that go bump in the night….

I thought this would be a great story with a blurb like that. But I was wrong. There wasn’t a lot I actually did like in this.

What bothered me the most was the characters themselves. Ethan is this doe-eyed naïve boy with only one setting: hero worship of the amazing Grady Hunter. The whole employer/apprentice relationship felt really wrong to me. Or I should say, it felt really wrong that there would ever be anything romantic between the two.

Ethan doesn’t appear to have any other strong emotion than just this overall silly happiness. And Grady is this cynic who I didn’t like at all.

There were these little things that totally weirded me out about them too. Like Grady talks to Ethan about his relationship with vampire Dacey.

”What Dacey and I share isn’t something anyone should aspire to. It’s heartless and it’s vulgar.”

And while they talk about Grady’s sexual relationship with another man, Ethan just smiles and nods. Because yes, that’s the right response. Very romantic.

And I’m all for thinking the mother of the boy you like is a beautiful woman, but here it says that Grady found the woman very attractive. And then he flirted with her while Ethan was standing next to them feeling uncomfortable because of it. Oh, that was just so wrong.

“I mean, I want them to like each other but they almost seem to like each other too much. It’s kind of weirding me out."

I also had a major problem with the way Grady lied to Ethan. He eventually came clean, but it was no small lie. I would have kicked Grady’s ass. But no, eventually Ethan forgave him…. Ugh….

Oh, and the one sex scene is fade to black.

This book felt like a bit of a mess. I guess other people could like this, but I wasn’t feeling it.

(btw Ethan was 20 and Grady 37, for those who want to know the age gap)

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An ARC of Roam was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This review has been cross-posted at Gay Book Reviews.