Rookie Mistake

First-abominably long. A lot of conflicting thoughts on this one.

I didn't buy Julien's “falling in love with Isaac” experience. I don't know. It felt incredibly fast for someone with his history. Even without full knowledge of his history, it seemed exceptionally out of character, even with the limited information we had on his personality at that point.

On the flip side, Isaac was so well written. His constant anxiety, eagerness to please and second guessing was exactly what you'd expect from someone that's falling in love with their idol that they've been secretly crushing on for years.

And yet he was the more hesitant one. While Julien, with all his trauma, was more “jump first, ask questions later”.The discordance in their behavior vs their personalities was so jarring. For Julien to be the way he was so soon with Isaac, both emotionally and sexually, especially given his past was not very believable to me.

Let's not forget the sexual dynamics between these two. It was very shocking that they were that way. It makes no narrative sense whatsoever. But I guess there's no one size fits all behavior for those situations.

To be fair, them getting together after a mature adult conversation 15% in should have been the first clue that something wild was going on. This never happens in books