Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Gender Fluid, Gay, Trans
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
Blake
No romantic relationship could ever compete with my dream job. Sure, it gets lonely, but that’s what occasional hookups are for. Work-life balance? Who cares? I certainly don’t. Until chest pains bring me to my knees and land me in the emergency room.
It’s a wake-up call I can’t afford to ignore.
When my well-meaning family encourages me to make some major life changes, like hiring a meditation and physiotherapist, whatever that is, I’m worried enough to agree.
Imagine my surprise when my practitioner turns out to be the hookup I haven’t been able to forget.
Stef
What’s a fabulous genderfluid beauty to do when stress is high and Prince Charmings aren’t lined up at their door? Drastic times call for drastic measures, so I head to the club to recharge my sparkle on the dance floor. I have no intention of hooking up with anyone. Hookups are not my thing. I may be sassy, but I keep it classy. Usually. But then I see the slightly older hottie in the Tom Ford suit, and all my self-restraint goes up in a blast of glitter. When it turns out he’s my new meditation client and my friend’s older brother, I know the universe is messing with me.
Because Blake and I have incredible chemistry, and he’s made his interest abundantly clear. But mixing business with pleasure is a huge no. So why does my heart keep shouting yes? Free Me is a low-angst, opposites attract, worlds collide, LGBTQ romance about a genderfluid cutie, a slightly older hottie, and a hookup gone right. It contains no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA.
The Review
The hardest thing about reading this book was trying to find some uninterrupted time to finish it, because once I started it, I did not want to put it down. Previously, I had read Choose Me, which the third in the Love in the Pacific Northwest series. Sometimes, the second book you read by an author leaves you disappointed because it doesn’t quite match the expectations you had after the initial story. That was absolutely not the case here.
Free Me was as well-written as Choose Me. There are reoccurring characters and the timelines are slightly overlapping. Grey does a fabulous job with the continuity of the characters and the interwoven plots – they are beautifully flawed and realistic, with all the foibles and insecurities you’d expect in a real life friend, which makes them immensely relatable. Part of the charm of these stories is that it’s like getting all the details from your best friend on the goings on of your friend group.
And it would be an amazing group of friends to have. The characters are charming, and snarky, and relatable. They’re also diverse, but in a natural, casual way that doesn’t feel as if the author threw a dart at the diversity chart and wrote whatever they hit.
Stef is gender fluid, and literally wakes up each morning and chooses whatever pronouns feel best for that day. They’re a physiotherapist with their own business and a close knit group of friends who comprise an amazing found family.
Blake is older, wealthy, and runs his own publishing company. He has a stepmother and brother whom he adores, and a group of friends which overlaps Steph’s. And he does an excellent job of figuring out how to honor Steph’s gender expression without coming off like a patronizing jerk.
Free Me is a wonderfully well-written novel that takes us along as Steph and Blake build a relationship together. It is very low-angst and has a satisfying HEA. It is part of a series, but it reads great as a standalone.
However, I practically guarantee that if this is your first Beck Grey novel, you’ll go looking for the other books in this series, and probably the entire backlist by this author. I would highly recommend that you set aside a chunk of time to read this excellent book uninterrupted, to avoid being grumpy until you can get back to the story!
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.
