Breaking In: Rainier Family Book 2, Ashton Cade

When word of his best friend from high school's divorce reaches his ears Christian takes a chance to chase after who he's always wanted and heads home to a town he was sure he'd never see again.  For Ryan it's a welcome surprise that has unintended consequences.  Their past is one of friendship and a bit more, but that extra bit is something Ryan would like to forget.  Except forgetting it is the last thing on his mind when seeing Christian all grown up does things to him that make him think there could be a real chance at a forever happiness if he relents and goes all in this time.

Christian and Ryan both started out interesting with a life beyond the one they had together as teens.  There was depth and experience hinted in their inner monologues, but as the story progressed that depth didn't exactly deepen or broaden.  The men we got in the beginning are the same ones we got in the end.  It's not like they were inadequate, boring, or insufficient as they were, they just didn't grow to be more.

And by describing them as best friends and recalling that "fact" repeatedly throughout the story I got the very obvious impression that that was just something they said.  They didn't feel like best friends at all.  As if we were to believe that they knew so much about one another and had such great times but none of that was something I actually saw or believed in the course of the story.  I saw angst over their current attraction, angst over what their teenage summer meant for them now, and a whole lot of manufactured drama that didn't really enhance their interactions or deepen their relationship.  The closeness of best friends and something in the way of being comfortable with one another was missing.

Overall it felt like they were trying too hard.  Too hard to be vacillating, dramatic, passionate...just too hard.  Though the best part was how we saw Ryan discover that peace could replace panic with perspective.  I do think they were a good match for one another, it just didn't come together in a way I was hoping for.