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la_mia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.75
crystaldbudy's review against another edition
5.0
**2024 reread**
Omg I forgot how brutal this book was. It is still so good, though. My favorite messy boys. ❤
This book was just...omg. Where do I even start? Brutal. Raw. Beautiful.
In this long-awaited continuation of The First Quarto series, Theo and Auggie are trying to navigate life and a tentative relationship when everything gets sidelined by Wroxall's athletic director manipulating Theo into tracking down the school's missing football coach.
If you're looking for a wild ride that's as vicious as it is sweet, with a twisty mystery and a sweet love story, you need to check it out. Although this book can, for the most part, stand alone, I would highly recommend reading the first two books first.
Everything Gregory Ashe writes is brilliant in its own way. He doesn't mind if you hate his characters a little, even the MCs, because they're imperfectly perfect and that makes them more human. Because guess what? Humans are horrible, flawed creatures. We make mistakes, we say stupid stuff, and sometimes we hurt the people we love. But the defining characteristic, the difference between hero and villain, is whether we then learn from it when the dust settles.
There was so much growth in this book for the characters. Auggie is still very much a twenty-year-old college student, which is never more evident than when he's arguing with his roommates or his older brother, but he's matured so much from the kid we met in They Told Me I Was Everything.
And Theo has been through more trauma and grief than any one person should have to be, especially at his age, and his fear of losing Auggie puts a bit of a strain on their relationship, as always, when he tries to keep Auggie out of it.
As with most Gregory Ashe stories, the mystery is twisty, turny, and full of danger and familiar faces that will put our favorites in peril. But what shines through the best is the characters. These characters in all their flawed, beautiful glory. Nobody writes mental health breakdowns and trauma recovery quite like Gregory Ashe, and it's one of the things that gives his characters so much nuance and realism.
Also, can I just say that Gregory's ability to weave Theo's dissertation subject into the storylines has made me want to go pick up a Shakespeare book for the first time in twenty years?
The love story between these crazy boys blooms so gorgeously. These two are some of my favorites, and I cannot wait until the next one. <3
Omg I forgot how brutal this book was. It is still so good, though. My favorite messy boys. ❤
This book was just...omg. Where do I even start? Brutal. Raw. Beautiful.
In this long-awaited continuation of The First Quarto series, Theo and Auggie are trying to navigate life and a tentative relationship when everything gets sidelined by Wroxall's athletic director manipulating Theo into tracking down the school's missing football coach.
If you're looking for a wild ride that's as vicious as it is sweet, with a twisty mystery and a sweet love story, you need to check it out. Although this book can, for the most part, stand alone, I would highly recommend reading the first two books first.
Everything Gregory Ashe writes is brilliant in its own way. He doesn't mind if you hate his characters a little, even the MCs, because they're imperfectly perfect and that makes them more human. Because guess what? Humans are horrible, flawed creatures. We make mistakes, we say stupid stuff, and sometimes we hurt the people we love. But the defining characteristic, the difference between hero and villain, is whether we then learn from it when the dust settles.
There was so much growth in this book for the characters. Auggie is still very much a twenty-year-old college student, which is never more evident than when he's arguing with his roommates or his older brother, but he's matured so much from the kid we met in They Told Me I Was Everything.
And Theo has been through more trauma and grief than any one person should have to be, especially at his age, and his fear of losing Auggie puts a bit of a strain on their relationship, as always, when he tries to keep Auggie out of it.
As with most Gregory Ashe stories, the mystery is twisty, turny, and full of danger and familiar faces that will put our favorites in peril. But what shines through the best is the characters. These characters in all their flawed, beautiful glory. Nobody writes mental health breakdowns and trauma recovery quite like Gregory Ashe, and it's one of the things that gives his characters so much nuance and realism.
Also, can I just say that Gregory's ability to weave Theo's dissertation subject into the storylines has made me want to go pick up a Shakespeare book for the first time in twenty years?
The love story between these crazy boys blooms so gorgeously. These two are some of my favorites, and I cannot wait until the next one. <3
emilyexmas's review against another edition
4.0
Oh man, my university experience was so tame in comparison, lol. Every year Auggie ends up in the hospital, poor kid. I loved this, but I'm reticent to give it 5* immediately. There were several times I got really frustrated with the mystery as it did seem like this one had several unnecessary misdirects. And honestly, after the second year of awful events I was ready for Theo and Auggie to have a bit of a break. They deserved it. And now I know I'm about to jump into yet another book in which they will be traumatised... but at least I can hope that this one will have a proper happy ending and a promise of several years of boring safety for these two.
samnreader's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
No doubt, completely official--this is my least favorite Ashe series thus far. It's my least favorite couple (Hazard + Somerset lite but less, far less, convincing and a little on the edge of taboo for me) If possible, they get their asses kicked more. And what are they even doing anyway? Their motivations fail a little (not totally, I get it, but also, I don't) in most of these, whereas H+S and the others make a lot of sense to me.
I have one to go and I really wouldn't be reading these but the Iron on Iron series makes me want context.
Does Ashe still write better (for me) than most authors? Yes, yes, absolutely. I still want to cry every .45 seconds. I still like the complexity and grit. I die for the settings. HE's nailing the college campus.
They are funny and witty.
I just had to say all this. Now back to the next...
I have one to go and I really wouldn't be reading these but the Iron on Iron series makes me want context.
Does Ashe still write better (for me) than most authors? Yes, yes, absolutely. I still want to cry every .45 seconds. I still like the complexity and grit. I die for the settings. HE's nailing the college campus.
They are funny and witty.
I just had to say all this. Now back to the next...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
bookish_notes's review against another edition
5.0
We’re back for Auggie’s junior year at Wroxall! It starts the fall semester of 2015. This is somehow even darker than the previous books in the series?? But good news, if you were waiting for SOMETHING to finally happen between Theo and Auggie, becoming boyfriends even(!), you are in luck. This story is a balance where you finally see your faves get together for REAL, and there’s a super dark mystery that Theo and Auggie get dragged into solving.
Content notes include homomisa, internalized homomisa, mentions of drug abuse and drug addiction, date rape drugs, alleged incest, graphic sexual assault, detailed mentions of rape, violence, blackmail, attempted murder, death, car accidents, suicidal ideation, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, and depression.
This is the first book in the series where I got an ARC to read before the newsletter serial started up, so it’s my first book in the series where I was able to read it all at once. And I am so happy I did because these chapters had some jaw-dropping cliffhangers! There are so many tense moments in this book, and I felt like this story in particular was more cohesive than the last two books with the way the story was told. Like, it didn’t have the fanfic/serial feel where every chapter was JUST a cliffhanger for the next installment, you know? It’s not a bad thing and I don’t hate that format at all, it’s just a different reading experience.
The story starts off in a slightly different intro than the previous books. Auggie arrives for the fall semester without his older brother, Fer, helping him move in. Auggie is rooming with Orlando again like freshman year, but unlike freshman year, they don’t have to share a room together, and there’s a new roommate to contend with. Ethan is in the same fraternity as Auggie and Orlando, but he is super annoying and I hated him this entire book (yes, even when a thing happened to him later on, I just thought “that’s karma for you”). Ethan is SUCH a nuisance. Where book 2 showed us Auggie and Theo’s own boyfriends were TERRIBLE people and helped show why Theo and Auggie should be together with each other instead, this book shows why Auggie needs to just move in with Theo. This college roommate situation is not it. Also, Fer is paying a ridiculous amount for Auggie’s housing and I’m sure he would not like to see that Ethan and Orlando are screwing Auggie over in their living arrangement, right? Basically, Auggie gets the last and worst choice of rooms and didn’t even get to choose an apartment together with the guys that would be…fairer? I just feel bad for Fer’s bank account and Auggie for the unfairness of it all.
Theo is still a graduate student and he essentially gets blackmailed by his department chair and Wroxall’s Athletic Director into looking into the disappearance of their school’s football coach. The explanation is that Coach Harley might have some proprietary football data and he’s disappeared. It’s cause for great concern, even if, as Theo points out, Wroxall is a D3 school so what does it matter?
What I like about this book is that it has a lot more ~football atmosphere~ to the story than I see even from some sports romances these days. So that was fun. Even when the entire football team and alumni club have a LOT to answer for. I would like to specify I like the sport aspect of this book, but I do not condone the actions of what a football culture can represents, and does here in this book. It can be insidious and so incredibly toxic.
Please take the time to review the content notes for this book I have tried to capture and list here with this review because the mystery part of this is VERY dark and very fucked up.
The only things I’ll point out with the football part of this book and that Wroxall being a D3 school (and I’ve only attended games at D1 and D2 schools in the south so maybe it works differently where football is THE name of the game here), is that I did find the book mentioning Theo and Auggie having to sit in the nosebleed sections of the football stadium and every seat had been sold out very weird. Even for a homecoming game. Because 1) did they not get student tickets to the games and could sit in the student sections for homecoming? and 2) when does a D3 stadium even have nosebleed sections when D2 schools don’t even have them? D3 stadiums are, like, sometimes smaller than 5A/6A high school football stadiums so I did get confused about that but of the book. These are minor things overall in the text, but I thought I’d point it out.
A change in this book from previous books is that Theo complains about his bad leg less? Is his leg getting better or are we just done pointing it out? This book was published after a Hazard and Somerset book called Final Orders was published, where Theo and Auggie appear in the book in 2020 and I don’t recall mentions of his bad leg in that? So maybe he’s getting better? Or I’m just looking way too deeply into this (which I very well could be). We also don’t see much of Theo’s daughter Lana in this book either. I wonder if by the last book in this series, we’ll see Lana improved enough where Theo and Auggie actually get to take Lana home and she won’t need to be in the care center anymore.
Theo has started attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. That’s…still a work in progress. But we actively see Theo trying work things out for himself. It’ll just take more than a few meetings to undo all the unaddressed trauma he’s lived through and the crutch he’s been using since to numb the pain.
As for Theo and Auggie…the relationship between them actually took me by surprise in this one. There’s an almost 10 years age difference between them (I keep losing count, but I THINK it’s either 9 or 10 years) but there’s times where they feel like a whole lifetime apart since Auggie can sometimes still seem like just a frat boy college student, and Theo has been through so much that he’s feels even more mature than his age. But then Auggie has been through so much in his life too and he’s had to grow up where he’s really not like the other kids his age? Between his home life dealing with his mother and middle brother Chuy, he and Fer have had to look after their household on their own for years and years now. I do LIKE that this series put a pause on Theo and Auggie’s relationship from book 1 because Theo WAS his teacher (a graduate TA even if not a professor) and Auggie was only 18 then. But now we’re finally getting to see the characters older and, I don’t know, see the relationship as less…problematic?
And since really only a kiss has happened between Theo and Auggie in all this time, I momentarily forgot Gregory Ashe writes open door romances. I was taken by surprise by the sex scenes. Not a bad thing at all, I just didn’t expect it?? So, yes, there are a few intimate moments in this book. Let’s not forget though what Auggie went through with his trash boyfriend in the last book and Auggie hasn’t entirely acknowledged up to this point. This book does start addressing that and consent very much is a thing shown positively here between Theo and Auggie.
The only thing I feel like the ARC I read (could’ve changed in the final version) didn’t address very much is what happened to certain someone or someones involved in a certain murder at the end. Like, it was solved but I want to know if court and prison time will happen or just what the consequences will happen, but it all kind of gets brushed aside? There is a lot going on though by the end of the book. We do see Somers make an appearance in this story. I know these books are written after the Hazard and Somerset books started but Hazard did get in trouble with folks because they thought he was the one bringing in the weird murders and mysteries into town for him and Somers to solve when that’s just not the case. It seems like what had really happened is that Theo and Auggie were solving all of them while Somers and his then partner, Upchurch, did next to nothing. It just makes me laugh. Lender is also involved in this book but it seemed his involvement was unnecessary since I’m still not entirely sure what his connection was with the bigger picture in this book.
Fer is one of my favorite characters in this series and I only hope he gets his own HEA at some point! HE DESERVES IT. His foul-mouthed self needs a sunshiny (or as much as Gregory Ashe can have a sunshiny character) to balance him out and give him the world. His youngest (brother) is doing well for himself and doesn’t have to rely on him for everything anymore. I hope the best for Chuy too, but I’m scared if he’ll even make it out of this series alive. I am very worried for him.
Overall, I thought this was a very solid book and I enjoyed reading it. It’s my favorite of all the First Quarto books. It’s been so long since I read a book by text and not with audiobook to aid me that I’m surprised with how quickly I read this! It was very hard to put down because of how compelling the story is and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Theo and Auggie!
***Thanks to the author for giving me an e-ARC to read and review!***
Content notes include homomisa, internalized homomisa, mentions of drug abuse and drug addiction, date rape drugs, alleged incest, graphic sexual assault, detailed mentions of rape, violence, blackmail, attempted murder, death, car accidents, suicidal ideation, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, and depression.
This is the first book in the series where I got an ARC to read before the newsletter serial started up, so it’s my first book in the series where I was able to read it all at once. And I am so happy I did because these chapters had some jaw-dropping cliffhangers! There are so many tense moments in this book, and I felt like this story in particular was more cohesive than the last two books with the way the story was told. Like, it didn’t have the fanfic/serial feel where every chapter was JUST a cliffhanger for the next installment, you know? It’s not a bad thing and I don’t hate that format at all, it’s just a different reading experience.
The story starts off in a slightly different intro than the previous books. Auggie arrives for the fall semester without his older brother, Fer, helping him move in. Auggie is rooming with Orlando again like freshman year, but unlike freshman year, they don’t have to share a room together, and there’s a new roommate to contend with. Ethan is in the same fraternity as Auggie and Orlando, but he is super annoying and I hated him this entire book (yes, even when a thing happened to him later on, I just thought “that’s karma for you”). Ethan is SUCH a nuisance. Where book 2 showed us Auggie and Theo’s own boyfriends were TERRIBLE people and helped show why Theo and Auggie should be together with each other instead, this book shows why Auggie needs to just move in with Theo. This college roommate situation is not it. Also, Fer is paying a ridiculous amount for Auggie’s housing and I’m sure he would not like to see that Ethan and Orlando are screwing Auggie over in their living arrangement, right? Basically, Auggie gets the last and worst choice of rooms and didn’t even get to choose an apartment together with the guys that would be…fairer? I just feel bad for Fer’s bank account and Auggie for the unfairness of it all.
Theo is still a graduate student and he essentially gets blackmailed by his department chair and Wroxall’s Athletic Director into looking into the disappearance of their school’s football coach. The explanation is that Coach Harley might have some proprietary football data and he’s disappeared. It’s cause for great concern, even if, as Theo points out, Wroxall is a D3 school so what does it matter?
What I like about this book is that it has a lot more ~football atmosphere~ to the story than I see even from some sports romances these days. So that was fun. Even when the entire football team and alumni club have a LOT to answer for. I would like to specify I like the sport aspect of this book, but I do not condone the actions of what a football culture can represents, and does here in this book. It can be insidious and so incredibly toxic.
Please take the time to review the content notes for this book I have tried to capture and list here with this review because the mystery part of this is VERY dark and very fucked up.
The only things I’ll point out with the football part of this book and that Wroxall being a D3 school (and I’ve only attended games at D1 and D2 schools in the south so maybe it works differently where football is THE name of the game here), is that I did find the book mentioning Theo and Auggie having to sit in the nosebleed sections of the football stadium and every seat had been sold out very weird. Even for a homecoming game. Because 1) did they not get student tickets to the games and could sit in the student sections for homecoming? and 2) when does a D3 stadium even have nosebleed sections when D2 schools don’t even have them? D3 stadiums are, like, sometimes smaller than 5A/6A high school football stadiums so I did get confused about that but of the book. These are minor things overall in the text, but I thought I’d point it out.
A change in this book from previous books is that Theo complains about his bad leg less? Is his leg getting better or are we just done pointing it out? This book was published after a Hazard and Somerset book called Final Orders was published, where Theo and Auggie appear in the book in 2020 and I don’t recall mentions of his bad leg in that? So maybe he’s getting better? Or I’m just looking way too deeply into this (which I very well could be). We also don’t see much of Theo’s daughter Lana in this book either. I wonder if by the last book in this series, we’ll see Lana improved enough where Theo and Auggie actually get to take Lana home and she won’t need to be in the care center anymore.
Theo has started attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. That’s…still a work in progress. But we actively see Theo trying work things out for himself. It’ll just take more than a few meetings to undo all the unaddressed trauma he’s lived through and the crutch he’s been using since to numb the pain.
As for Theo and Auggie…the relationship between them actually took me by surprise in this one. There’s an almost 10 years age difference between them (I keep losing count, but I THINK it’s either 9 or 10 years) but there’s times where they feel like a whole lifetime apart since Auggie can sometimes still seem like just a frat boy college student, and Theo has been through so much that he’s feels even more mature than his age. But then Auggie has been through so much in his life too and he’s had to grow up where he’s really not like the other kids his age? Between his home life dealing with his mother and middle brother Chuy, he and Fer have had to look after their household on their own for years and years now. I do LIKE that this series put a pause on Theo and Auggie’s relationship from book 1 because Theo WAS his teacher (a graduate TA even if not a professor) and Auggie was only 18 then. But now we’re finally getting to see the characters older and, I don’t know, see the relationship as less…problematic?
And since really only a kiss has happened between Theo and Auggie in all this time, I momentarily forgot Gregory Ashe writes open door romances. I was taken by surprise by the sex scenes. Not a bad thing at all, I just didn’t expect it?? So, yes, there are a few intimate moments in this book. Let’s not forget though what Auggie went through with his trash boyfriend in the last book and Auggie hasn’t entirely acknowledged up to this point. This book does start addressing that and consent very much is a thing shown positively here between Theo and Auggie.
The only thing I feel like the ARC I read (could’ve changed in the final version) didn’t address very much is what happened to certain someone or someones involved in a certain murder at the end. Like, it was solved but I want to know if court and prison time will happen or just what the consequences will happen, but it all kind of gets brushed aside? There is a lot going on though by the end of the book. We do see Somers make an appearance in this story. I know these books are written after the Hazard and Somerset books started but Hazard did get in trouble with folks because they thought he was the one bringing in the weird murders and mysteries into town for him and Somers to solve when that’s just not the case. It seems like what had really happened is that Theo and Auggie were solving all of them while Somers and his then partner, Upchurch, did next to nothing. It just makes me laugh. Lender is also involved in this book but it seemed his involvement was unnecessary since I’m still not entirely sure what his connection was with the bigger picture in this book.
Fer is one of my favorite characters in this series and I only hope he gets his own HEA at some point! HE DESERVES IT. His foul-mouthed self needs a sunshiny (or as much as Gregory Ashe can have a sunshiny character) to balance him out and give him the world. His youngest (brother) is doing well for himself and doesn’t have to rely on him for everything anymore. I hope the best for Chuy too, but I’m scared if he’ll even make it out of this series alive. I am very worried for him.
Overall, I thought this was a very solid book and I enjoyed reading it. It’s my favorite of all the First Quarto books. It’s been so long since I read a book by text and not with audiobook to aid me that I’m surprised with how quickly I read this! It was very hard to put down because of how compelling the story is and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Theo and Auggie!
***Thanks to the author for giving me an e-ARC to read and review!***
explorebooks's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
downtown_kb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
School is back after summer break and Auggie and Theo are making a go at a relationship despite everything. Theo has been coerced into finding the missing football coach and despite trying to protect Auggie they find themselves once again working together to solve the mystery.
This was a good installment in this series. I enjoyed the mystery though it turned out to be all a lot darker than I thought. Theo made some good steps towards the end of this book. Why he hadn’t been in therapy all along was beyond me. But I still really hate how poorly he treats Auggie. It’s like reverse ageism. Is that a thing? I could psychoanalyze these two forever so maybe that’s why I can’t stop reading this story. I’m addicted and it’s such good character development. I love Gregory Ashe’s ability to write flawed characters you root for even when it makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes.
This was a good installment in this series. I enjoyed the mystery though it turned out to be all a lot darker than I thought. Theo made some good steps towards the end of this book. Why he hadn’t been in therapy all along was beyond me. But I still really hate how poorly he treats Auggie. It’s like reverse ageism. Is that a thing? I could psychoanalyze these two forever so maybe that’s why I can’t stop reading this story. I’m addicted and it’s such good character development. I love Gregory Ashe’s ability to write flawed characters you root for even when it makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse
purely_romantic's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders