Title: The Walls Have Ears by Erica Pike
College Fun and Gays Series Book Three
Publisher: No Boundaries Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, M/M, Romance
Length: 37 pages/Word count: 16,300
Book Rating: C+
Review Copy Obtained from Author
Summary:
Short and scrawny college student Harley Santos has a strange relationship with the guy on the other side of his bedroom wall. For weeks, the two have been masturbating to each other’s voices, but they have never met in person. In fact, Harley doesn’t know which one of the two roommates next door is his wall-mate, but he does know that he’s in love.
When Harley’s roommate Ryan is asked on a date by one of his neighbors, Harley is devastated that his wall-mate mistook Harley for his super-sexy roommate. To help him through his heartache is Tasha Novokov, the other neighbor, who is tall, dark, and impossibly handsome.
When Harley’s affections shift to Tasha, his heartache hits an all time high because Tasha is straight.
The Walls Have Ears is the third of five in a series of short stories. Each story is independent of the others and each covers a deep issue. The Walls Have Ears focuses on the insecurities when taking the first steps into the world of dating.
The Review:
The Walls Have Ears, Erica Pike’s third installment of her College Fun and Gays series, explores the awkwardness and insecurities that often accompany the dreaded first foray into the uncertain dating scene. It is a cute story about a misunderstanding about who exactly Harley Santos has been sharing some very intimate moments with.
I really enjoyed the premise of The Walls Have Ears. While I am not a big fan of stories where the characters have abysmal communication, this plot device works very well with this particular story. I think it gave the protagonists the opportunity to get to know one another as friends before they take their relationship in a more romantic direction.
The two main characters are Harley and Tasha Novokov and for a short story, Ms. Pike does an excellent job with their development. I liked Harley in the beginning but it did not take long for his insecurities and his melodramatic reactions to become more irritating than endearing. He is also overly emotional, immature and extremely prickly. While I understood why he behaved the way he did, I just wanted to shake some sense into him.
What saved the story for me is Tasha Novokov. Although Tasha is the more experienced of the two men, the way the plot plays out, certain events make him hesitant to act on his feelings. His patience with Harley completely won me over.
While the story flowed pretty well, there were a couple of inconsistencies in the plot. Nothing too horrible, but there were some things mentioned early on that were contradicted later in the book. There are also a few minor editing errors, but nothing too serious.
All in all, The Walls Have Ears is a quick and steamy read. I really enjoy Erica Pike’s writing style and her character development is always superb. Of the three books in the College Fun and Gays series, this one is the most light-hearted. I definitely recommend the entire series and I am looking forward to the next story in the series, Little Stalker.
Click HERE to read my reviews of the other books in the College Fun and Gays series.
Thanks Kathy!