Title: Burnt Orange: Sooner or Later
Author: Dallas Coleman
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Length: 10,000 words (55 pages)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
Summary Review
An engaging friends to lovers romance which will appeal to fans of American Football.
THE BLURB
Andy McBride and Warren Brower have been friends since grade school. They’ve argued about football just as long. Andy’s a Longhorn’s fan for life, while Warren’s a Sooner. Their best-friend rivalry lasts until they graduate from high school and Warren leaves Texas to attend school in Oklahoma. Unable to confess his true feelings for his best friend, Andy has no choice but to watch Warren leave.
Life goes on, and Andy’s on the way to becoming an actual Longhorn when an accident puts him out of commission for good on the football field, and maybe for life. Can Andy put his life back together and let Warren know how he really feels before they’re both old and gray?
THE REVIEW
I’ve a fondness for friends to lovers stories and so when I saw the blurb to this book I was hoping it would be something I would like. It was.
The story follows the friendship between Andy and Warren from their first meeting as boys through the inevitable separation as life gets in the way. The narrative is from Andy’s third person point of view, and is concentrated on several highs and lows in his life, over the span of about 20 years, as he lives and breathes American Football. Intertwined with that is his feelings for Warren, but there’s a subtlety about this which fits in with Andy’s very macho character. I liked Andy, and although I didn’t always agree with some of his actions, he remained true to his character. In fact the most rewarding part of the story was seeing the way Andy dealt with some of the demons in his life. Andy also has a very distinctive ‘voice’ in the story as it’s written in his strong Texan accent. I quite liked this, as it brought a flavour to Andy’s character, but if you’re the sort of reader who finds accents annoying then you may be put off by the narrative.
As we only see Warren from Andy’s point of view he is inevitably less well rounded. We get little snippets about Warren’s life and what happens to him whilst he is apart from Andy, which is enough to get the idea of his own highs and lows. What worked best though was in the camaraderie between the men, the joking and even the quiet moments of friendship. It was obvious that they had a strong bond, and a thorough knowledge of each other’s strengths and weak spots. I winced a few times when hurtful comments were exchanged, and rejoiced when the friendship was renewed and strengthened. The shift from friends to lovers takes a long time, but was ultimately rewarding and I was very happy with the way things worked out for these men.
If I have any niggles about the book it was due to my own woeful ignorance about American Football. There’s a lot of jokes about various football teams which went over my head – mostly about rivalries between teams that fans will get, but I didn’t. The names also confused me because I didn’t know who the ‘Aggies’ were, or the ‘Raiders’, or the ‘Sooners’. As I read the book whilst out and about I didn’t have my trusty Google with me to look up the names. There were also quite a lot of initials used such as OU (which in the UK stands for ‘Open University’ but probably means something else entirely in the USA) & UT (which I think stood for University of Texas) which puzzled me and I had to break away from the narrative to try and work them out. However, these were my problems as a ‘foreigner’ trying to read the book and those from the US, especially football fans will not have the same problems I did.
If you’re a fan of American Football or friend to lovers stories and you’re looking for something to fill an hour or so, then you can go wrong with this story. It’s got a great mix of humour and drama, a sympathetic narrator in Andy and an interesting story structure. I enjoyed it and I think this will be a story I will read again.
Hmm. I’d have to look up some of the same things re: college football teams, so… Not really calling my name.
Honestly, Chris, I was clueless about the football but I still enjoyed the story. I understand though, for non football fans it may not wholly appeal.
Jen
You do know I feel you ‘stole’ this book from me don’t you? LOL I so wanted to review Burnt Orange (being a sports and football fan) but I was swayed by the fact that my TBR was already high enough.
Great review Jen. As you said, the story was ultimately about Andy and Warren – football was only incidental, although guys would not agree with that comment because in these parts football is a religion. 🙂
I’m halfway through the book BTW (after my rant last night) and I absolutely love it and the guys.
Hee hee! I’m glad I managed to steal this one from under your nose because it was a good read. Hope you enjoy the rest of the book – I certainly found the end satisfying.
This sounds interesting even though I know nothing about American football (or any other type of football, ha, ha!). Great review, Jen!
Thanks Val, it was an interesting book :).
I have this one in my TBR and generally I enjoy this author’s work so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this. I do like football, in university I had season tickets to the professional Canadian football team in my city. It was cheap and fun and my cousin still works for the team doing statistics an my kid follows with her Dad, so football is pretty familiar to me, not the US college teams, but the idea. I’m lookign forward to it.
Hi Tam
I’ve read a few shorts in anthologies by this author and always enjoyed them – another reason why I picked up this book. If you like football, especially all the rivalry that goes with it, then you should dig this out of your TBR pile :).
Oh man, so the whole world really doesn’t care about the Oklahoma / Texas rivalry? Good to know. As a born and raised okie but not really a football fan (which is sacrilege here) I’m glad that there is some perspective in the world!
-Cole
Hi Cole
Oh that makes more sense now! Warren is originally from Oklahoma but moves to Texas as a child. I can see why there was all the leg-pulling about that now.
I feel the same way about soccer (or football in the UK). There’s this huge rivalry between Leeds United and Manchester United fans (or at least there was until Leeds sank down the league tables) which I never could get interested in :).
Jen, you really make me want to read this. I love sports themed books and friends to lovers stories. Great review!
Oh good, TJ. You are sure to like this one if you like sports themes in books.
I actually just bought this story last night and haven’t read it yet.
As you know, Jen, I live here in the U.S., but just like you, I have no clue about football OR the team names/colleges/rivalries involved.
My plan, when I read this, is to simply assume that it’s happening in an alternate universe, similar to but not identical to our own. That should keep me from wondering whether I’m really supposed to know the teams and such in question. LOL
It sounds like a fun read, from your review. I’m looking forward to it even more now! 😀
~Tis
Hi Tis
to simply assume that it’s happening in an alternate universe, similar to but not identical to our own
That sounds like a very good plan! My thoughts were ‘oh it’s just those crazy Americans’ 😉 and so I decided to concentrate on the relationship instead and ignore all the football stuff.
As a Born and Blue Jayhawk, it would be absolutely impossible for me to read a book which glorified anyone foolish to be a Sooner or Longhorn fan. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Go KU!
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it sounds like an interesting book–I might just have to smuggle this one through! Thanks, Jen!
Hi Buda
I’ve absolutely no clue what you’ve just said :).
You should try this though, even if you aren’t a fan of the Longhorns, as you’ll probably be able to identify with the football mad Andy and the rest of his obsessed family :).