A review by frenchpb
That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert

4.0

Plot: At first I was concerned that making Zach, the male protagonist’s character, a demisexual be too difficult to balance in letting it be a part of who the character is while using the space to educate folks on this lesser known aspect of sexuality. What I do appreciate, however, is Zach’s struggles with coming out to his loved ones about. That humanizes him a lot and shows how challenging it could be to share a part of yourself with someone who doesn’t really understand or know it’s a thing.

On a broader note, I struggled with the plot a little bit. The reader is introduced to Zach’s sexuality and how it is explained lets us know that connection is vital to sexual attraction. So it’s reasonable to assume that his actions towards Rae wouldn’t be fake behind doors based on his described development and growth. Because of that it seemed a little predictable that his actions would show his feelings.

Characters:
I really liked Rae and her struggle in defining her own ‘new life’ and her ‘old life’, with the insecurity and low self esteem. Zach reassured her a lot and spoke to how he saw her in ways that helped Rae to realize how much she’d grown.

Zach is a peculiar character. He’s direct and has a high level of emotional intelligence. I suppose that emotional intelligence is because of the development and reflection he learning about his self and his sexuality. He also seems to be the most sexually dominant of the Ravenswood men. He’s more authoritative with Rae and leads their sexual interactions.

Couple:
The struggles with each character made their relationship development and story arc more reasonable and enjoyable. The whole discernment of fake versus real while battling your internal struggles added well to the plot.
I also feel like this book had more reasonable conflict between the couple based on a lot of miscommunication. Zach jumps to conclusions and is quick to anger. Rae is more reticent and has difficulty expressing herald.

Sex scenes:
Hillbert typically has the woman give sexual consent in a myriad of ways. However in this book, Zach’s struggles with his sexuality required that he was the one to initiated and was clear about consenting to the sexual experience. This is also the first time I’ve seen Hillbert explicitly write a solo masturbation scene with both partners. I liked this twist on the sex scenes.

Ravenswood Series observations:
What I appreciate most about this series is Hillbert’s ability to portray how six different individuals build their way into three unique couples. The common threads involve using friendship as a means to building connection and intimacy whilst navigating, managing and reconciling past trauma, current fears, and insecurities. While the stories all end similarly, I feel like each journey stands on it own.

I found it interesting that all of the women protagonists were some type of writing creative. Ruth-alien comics, Hannah- blogs, and Rae- fiction.

I didn’t particularly care for the epilogue with all three couples. It seemed too neat. I think there is something to be said for finding someone without having to let it end so traditionally.