Odd Man Rush

Welp. I was a huge fan of the first book in this continuity, [b:Blindside Hit 50492071 Blindside Hit (Toronto Wolverines #1) Michaela Grey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579060491l/50492071.SY75.jpg 75466312], and had high hopes for this - especially since it contained familiar characters. Unfortunately, most of what I loved about its predecessor was absent here.Noemi and Eli spend far too much time failing to communicate, only to have the actual communication come out rushed and feeling too convenient to be believable when it finally happens. They're married and apparently never bothered to tell each other that one is asexual and the other gay, which makes their entire relationship feel a bit farcical. (Going into this, I'd wrongly assumed that perhaps they had come out to each other pre-wedding and it just hadn't been covered in the first book because that was Adam and Etienne's love story.) While their love and acceptance of each other felt nice, they had so much emotional turmoil leading to that point that it was just exhausting and made me question the authenticity of the warm-fuzzy feelings.That's a shame, because I quite enjoy polyships. In other circumstances - such as Rune coming into a relationship where the husband and wife were already aware of each other's sexualities and already open to bringing in another partner - I'd have gobbled this up like the good candy at Halloween. Their dynamic as a triad was cute, the chemistry between them believable, the way Rune slotted into the family wonderful... But, as is, this is the disappointing candy at the bottom of the bowl: it all just didn't feel right due to the prior lack of communication and the rushed nature of being in a novella.And the melodrama... Dear lord, the fucking melodrama. So much crying. So much angst over secrets only kept because of lacking communication skills. Maybe it would fit in a full length novel, but here it felt like emotional whiplash. I'm sorry, but I'm not believing that people who were just crying like the world had ended are now happily becoming a thrupple a few pages later. I'm not believing that a guy can go from believing in monogamy to accepting an invitation into his crush's marriage on the drop of a dime.The epilogue doesn't help any, either. In fact, it took this from “cute under other circumstances” to “makes me uneasy” because of a new dynamic introduced to the three-way relationship.See, I can't bring myself to accept that Noemi is okay with Rune and Eli hooking up - with Rune being part of the marriage as an add-on - when she doesn't want to even be in the same house (where the three of them live together!) when the men are having sex. How am I supposed to believe she's the one pushing them to hook up, supporting the idea, being so incredibly open-minded... when she retreats at the first sign of it actually happening and Eli still refers to it as if it's something shameful which must be done in secret? "I'm not going to ravish you with [my wife] down the hall, much as I want to," reads more like something from a gross cheating plot than part of a healthy, consensual polyamorous relationship. So seeing the text keep insisting it's all with Noemi's blessing and encouragement basically just feels like being told a lie.And on top of all that, Noemi's best friend, Juliet, is terrible and drags this book down significantly every time she appears because not only does Noemi deserve a better friend but Eli deserves a wife who doesn't force such a horrible person into his life. Juliet frequently calls her best friend “bitch,” nonconsensually psychoanalyzes people she knows don't want to be assessed, and ignores boundaries. All she does is judge people she allegedly cares about and treat Noemi like an idiotic child instead of another adult. It's gross, and I hated how Noemi and even Eli, who hates having her around, kept trying to insist Juliet was a good person. It felt more like the author trying to convince readers, and I didn't believe the hype.Which... actually, come to think of it, that's basically the theme of this book, for me. A constant struggle between what's told and what's shown, where the two paint vastly different pictures of the circumstances.I feel disappointed, but I'll probably keep reading in this universe because I know how good it can be and I suspect part of the problem here is that this was a collaboration. But, man, this one stings because I'd loved Noemi in the first book and had been looking forward to reading about her again.