Red+Blue (Opposites Attract) by A.B. Gayle

This is Book 23 started, book 20 finished

Red+Blue (Opposites Attract) by A.B. Gayle
Published by Dreamspinner Press, 2012

As romance novels go, this is somewhat more than the standard boy meets boy, boy does boy, they have a misunderstanding, break-up, fix it and live happily ever after.  But, it’s not much more than that.  Ben is a tall, fit 24-year old actuarial trainee starting out in a small insurance company just as the Great Recession is starting.  Jason is a slightly older, more flamboyant employee at the company and Adrian is the 35-year old son of the company’s owner.

First this appears to be a romance about Ben and Jason, but it’s not.  Then it appears to be a gay-for-you romance between Ben and Adrian, but it’s only half right.  Adrian’s gay but closeted.   The story itself is fast paced once the boy meets boy and boy does boy portion starts.  The misunderstanding part is where the story loses itself a bit.

Adrian was in a gay relationship before in Europe with a cousin but now he’s home and firmly in closet with an evil girlfriend and evil father to boot.   Until he resolves his issues that puts him in the closet, we don’t get to know what they are – so there’s this missing feeling throughout the book as to why he is who he is.  Ben has some family issues that are mentioned then later dropped from the story.  When the evil girlfriend is no longer needed (she is also Ben’s boss), she just disappears from the story.  Same with Jason; halfway into the book he gets sick and moves home to the other side of the country.

I wasn't expecting high art and the book was brain candy enough that I read and was entertained by it, but these convenient adding and subtracting of characters and information detracted from the story.

3 stars.