Narrated by Alexander Cendese and Sean Crisden
Note: There will be spoilers for the previous book in the Rules of Possession series in this review.
A Deeper Blue is the sequel to The Blueprint, an enjoyable friends-to-lovers, gay/bi-for-you story about hip young physics professor Kelly Cannon and his dearest friend, NFL star player Britton (Blue) Montgomery. Kelly had been in love with Blue for years, but believed Blue was straight and they were destined only to be friends… until Blue sensed his friend trying to distance himself from him and realised that whatever he felt for Kelly, it was something way beyond friendship.
Working their way through various trials, tribulations and misunderstandings, Kelly and Blue are a couple by the end of The Blueprint, although the intensely homophobic culture that prevails in professional sports, plus the media circus certain to ensue whenever Blue comes out as bisexual and in a relationship with a guy causes Kelly to suggest that Blue doesn’t do it right away. Blue was already planning how to break the news – he’d have to tell his coach, his team, his agent, his publicist so they can control the narrative – but Kelly freaked a bit, hating the idea of stepping straight into the spotlight without their actually having time to adjust to being a couple first.
Six months later, Kelly and Blue are almost-but-not-quite living together at Kelly’s place when Blue isn’t away at games, practices or other work-related events. They haven’t gone public about their relationship, and in this, A Deeper Blue takes a slightly different path to other romances in which one partner wants or needs to stay closeted for some reason, because it’s Kelly who puts the brakes on whenever Blue suggests they move in together for real, and Kelly who seems unwilling to commit – because he worries that maybe Blue isn’t all in and will come to realise he’s made a mistake, that being with him was just some sort of phase. (Of course, he doesn’t say any of this to Blue). BUT… Kelly is also frustrated because he can’t be with Blue openly; when he asks Blue if he can come to a prestigious conference at which he’s been invited to speak and Blue can’t because of a team commitment to a charity event, Kelly gets upset and reminds him that other team members have been allowed to excuse themselves if family members or spouses need them to be elsewhere – at which Blue calmly points out that as far as the world knows, Kelly is neither of those things. I like Kelly as a character, but I didn’t like the way he wanted to have it both ways. He was obviously uncomfortable about Blue coming out but then got pissed off when Blue couldn’t treat him like his boyfriend in public. And this contradicts the synopsis which implies this issue is all down to Blue not wanting to come out yet, when – and I checked the ending of The Blueprint to make sure – that isn’t the whole story.
There’s not a lot of plot here other than a snowballing sequence of miscommunication and misunderstandings. With Kelly continually turning down Blue’s request to move in together, Blue then starts wondering if Kelly is having second thoughts about them as a couple – which in turn causes him to start wondering if it’s worth coming out, and the whole vicious cycle of assumption and misconception is perpetrated. Blue and Kelly spend quite a lot of time apart – never a good thing in a romance – and there’s an underdeveloped subplot concerning Blue’s mother, who abandoned him when he was a kid and is trying to reconnect with him. There are moments of tenderness and affection between the protagonists, but although the fact that we get more time in Blue’s head in this story and are able to see just how much he loves Kelly does help, I really wasn’t feeling the chemistry between them that was so apparent in the previous book.
On the plus side, there’s a lot of humour in the novel and I continued to enjoy Kelly’s clever brand of snark, excellently realised by Alexander Cendese who once again completely nails the character’s energy and spark. His performance of the opening paragraphs, about the contradiction of loving someone while simultaneously being infuriated when he never cleans up after himself, always leaves the milk out and spends a fortune on shoes, is perfectly judged and made me snort with laughter a couple of times. As before, he does a good job with Blue’s dialogue as well, lowering the pitch of his voice and slowing down his delivery a little, and differentiates effectively between the other secondary characters, most often via pitch and tone. I’ve also said before that his female voices can be a bit iffy, although they do work for me on some level and in certain contexts. They can be a bit caricature-ish – especially when he’s performing the clingy girlfriend, for instance – but the comedic quality he can bring to characters like Kelly’s mother does work; it’s an acquired taste and your reaction to this aspect of his performances will depend on whether or not the rest of what he does works for you or not. I’ve listened to him quite a few times now and he generally works for me, but I’ve listened to him exclusively in m/m stories, so I can’t say how well or otherwise he performs female characters in m/f romances.
Sean Crisden is a favourite narrator, and his rich, smooth tones and more measured delivery contrast really well with Mr. Cendese’s brasher tone and faster tempo. We get more of Blue’s PoV in this story than in the last one, which is a bonus, and all the things I expect of such an experienced and talented performer are delivered; the characters are well differentiated (he changes it up to perform Kelly’s dialogue really well), he generally hits the right emotional notes and his pacing is just about right. But that said, there was something slightly off about his performance I can’t quite put my finger on; all I can say is that there were a few times I felt he was on auto-pilot.
If you enjoyed The Blueprint and want to find out what happens next for Kelly and Blue, then you might consider picking up A Deeper Blue, but I’m not sure it actually adds much to their story other than a shedload of unnecessary and avoidable miscommunication. The narration is enjoyable despite my criticisms, and Kelly, as portrayed by Alexander Cendese, cracked me up a few times, which is never a bad thing.
Caz
Buy A Deeper Blue by S.E. Harmon on Amazon
