Don´t You Dare by C.E. Ricci Series: Reckless Games #1
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Buy Links:Buy on Amazon
It was never meant to be more than a dare.
A party game. A dare. A single kiss.
That’s all it took to flip my world upside down.I’ve always classified myself as straight, and as far as I can tell, so has he.
I didn’t think one kiss would change that, but I was so wrong.
Now, I can’t stop thinking about him. In all the ways I shouldn’t.My best friend.
Aspen.His taste is branded in my memory, his touch seared in my skin.
And I want more.This simmering attraction I feel only grows with passing time.
Which is why I start tossing out new dares.
Riskier ones that toe lines we never thought we’d cross.I’m gambling with our friendship, knowing it could ruin us.
But there’s so much more at stake here.
Like my heart.*Don't You Dare is a new adult college romance featuring two best friends, too many baseball puns, scorching dirty talk, and a whole lot of bi-curious exploration. Not suitable for anyone under 18 years of age.*
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Before anything else, I like to say that C.E. Ricci wrote one of the best books I’ve ever read — Head Above Water — and that alone makes me more demanding when it comes to anything else by this author.
This story begins with two childhood best friends, Keene Waters and Aspen Kohl (Kee and Pen), who have lived next door to each other since they were little and became even closer after both lost their parents (their mothers are also best friends). One day, at a high school party, they’re forced to kiss during a dare game and for Kee, everything changes from that moment on. He realizes his feelings for Pen go far beyond friendship, and even after two years, he’s still torn between these emotions and his sexual identity.
For Pen, however, that kiss was nothing more than a silly dare, and he never suspected Kee might feel something more. But then, by coincidence, another dare comes along and everything shifts again.
Unfortunately, I found this book a bit slow-paced, with many repetitive scenes that didn’t add much to the story. A large part of the book is basically Kee feeling way more than Pen, and Pen’s lack of honesty is hidden behind his “emotionally closed-off” personality, which became quite frustrating.
Aspen sets all the terms in their relationship, even though he knows Kee is all heart, and the chances of him getting hurt are huge. That’s why I don’t think Pen was a good friend to Kee and that bothered me a lot. Aspen is possessive, selfish, and makes Kee suffer in so many ways. I truly felt bad for him several times.
Okay, they’re 21-year-old boys who clearly lack emotional maturity but even so, some of their actions were hard to justify.
I felt like the book dragged on for too long, only for the ending to be rushed with time jumps. The emotional aftermath of the plot twist wasn’t really explored, and everything was resolved way too quickly. I enjoy seeing characters’ emotions in both joy and sorrow and we didn’t get much of that here, which was a shame.
Even in the epilogue, I wasn’t entirely sure Aspen deserved to end up with Kee after everything he put him through… but in the end, I did like how it wrapped up.
FINAL RATING : 3.5 stars!
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About C.E. Ricci
CE Ricci is a USA Today and international best-selling author who enjoys plenty of things in her free time, but writing about herself in the third person isn’t one of them. She believes home isn’t a place, but a feeling, and it’s one she gets when she’s chilling lakeside or on hiking trails with her dogs, camera in hand. She’s addicted to all things photography, plants, peaks, puppies, and paperbacks, though not necessarily in that order. Music is her love language, and traveling the country (and world) is the way she chooses to find most of her inspiration for whatever epic love story she will tell next!
