Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Leslie McAdam

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Opposites Attract, Romance, Series, Virgin

Length: 262

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

After a disastrous high school game of spin the bottle, I gave up trying to get a boyfriend and spent my time studying instead. Now I’m twenty-four, and I’m not only a virgin, I haven’t even been kissed.

When I meet Danny, a handsome legal hotshot, he catches my eye. Right before I trip on flat ground. Ugh.

He’s got a massive … reputation. He’s the most popular guy in the club, a total playboy with a new conquest every night. There’s no way he’d be interested in me.

But one night after I imbibe too much, he winds up taking care of me. And when I ask for his help with my travesty of a social life, he agrees to teach me how to be less awkward with men … if I let him document my progress so he can win a bet with his best friend.

Even though he’s just my love tutor and I’m just his apprentice, this starts to feel like more.

Too bad it can’t be anything but a high-level seminar in how to seduce someone else.

Studious is a sweet and sexy contemporary opposites-attract m/m romance about a suave attorney who’s scared to love and the shy, nerdy bookkeeper he’s teaching how to be a player. Cue makeover montage and a smoldering first kiss. These heroes most definitely are not falling in love. (Okay, heartwarming HEA guaranteed.)

Review –

One’s a playboy who never hooks up with the same guy twice. The other is a virgin who has never even been kissed. Each one had an experience in high school that made them who they are today.

First, there’s Danny. Danny was head over heels in love with Brian, his high school boyfriend. Brian decided – on prom night – to break up. This hurt Danny to the point where he swore he’d never fall in love again. And he hasn’t. That night he found another guy, lost his virginity, and never looked back.

Then there’s Alden. Forced to go to a high school party by his best friend Mason, shy and innocent Alden ends up in an uncomfortable game of spin the bottle, and then he gets humiliated by his crush and others who witness it. Mason thought he was doing the right thing, so he couldn’t be blamed for it. Even so, Alden never tried again. He’s never been kissed, never held hands, and definitely never came close to having sex.

Now it’s a decade later and Alden, a bookkeeper, has just started working at the law firm where Danny works. He sees Danny and he’s immediately attracted. Alden’s shyness kind of makes things awkward; for him anyway. Danny’s just Danny, who is well known for hooking up with as many different men as he can – but never the same guy twice.

Danny ends up swooping in to save Alden after he has a bit too much to drink during the firm’s weekly happy hour. It’s sweet really, and Danny finds himself being really protective of the new hire. The next morning there’s a lot of awkwardness on Alden’s part, but he does open up a little. One thing leads to another and somehow Danny ends up offering to teach Alden how to come out of his shell, and how to pick up guys. The problem with that is that playboy Danny isn’t liking the thought of sweet and innocent Alden even kissing a guy, much less more. Even so, he takes him to get a haircut, some new clothes, and even takes him to his tailor to get his suits fitted right. He’s not trying to change Alden. He’s just helping bring the real Alden out of his shell.

It’s after a shopping trip when they kiss the first time – for educational purposes, of course. *snort*

One kiss leads to a lot of kisses, which leads to hand jobs, and then blowjobs. At this point, though they say otherwise, neither is in it for the so-called lessons anymore. They’re falling head over heels in love with each other. They just don’t know it yet.

I enjoyed watching Alden come into his own. He went from being clumsy and stuttering around nice looking guys to confident. While I liked Danny, I wish he would’ve declared his feelings long before he did. Don’t get me wrong, he’d been showing it, just not saying it. When the declaration is made, it’s honestly one of the sweetest things ever. It got me a little misty-eyed.

It was nice seeing Charlie again, as I read his book, Ferocious, first. It was also nice seeing some of the others whose stories I haven’t gotten to yet.

As much as I liked Danny and Alden together, I felt like something was missing. They had chemistry – both sexual and otherwise – but something just seemed off. It could be because I jumped into Studious immediately after reading Ambiguous. In Ambiguous, Jules and Sam just clicked. They had a sweet, romantic love where they weren’t shy about showing their feelings. Danny and Alden, on the other hand, were busy trying not to show theirs and it kind of fell flat in some places.

Overall, I really did enjoy watching these guys as they worked toward having something together. It was sweet watching Danny, a self-professed manwhore, fall in love, knowing he’ll never want anyone other than Alden in his bed, his life, again. Another thing I loved was how both men really love and respect their mothers.

Really good book.