Opening up your heart and mind can lead to clarity and acceptance in your relationships and life.

Mark Cooper was forced to leave his home in Australia to follow his Mom and her new husband to Pennsylvania. He now has to rush a local fraternity, and he’s not happy about it. Deacon Holt happens to belong to the fraternity next door, but he isn’t going to let a little rivalry keep him from hanging out with Mark. Now these two need to see if they have enough of a connection to build a real relationship.

Mark Cooper is such an angry person at the beginning of the story, as he’s trying so hard to please so many other people. He does it in a way that certainly doesn’t make him appear spineless, but I did feel sorry for him. He has no idea what he really wants out of life yet.

Deacon is the level-headed guy that always seems to know exactly what to say and what to do. He knows what he wants out of life, and he’s determined to get it. He has to deal with his Mom who has some serious OCD issues, including constantly imagining the worst case scenario. He did a great job trying to help her deal with her issues, while at the same time realizing that he could never solve her problems for her.

It was really interesting watching these two characters learn about themselves and make a conscious effort to accept certain traits while trying to bring about change in other aspects. Watching Mark realize that his attitude was triggering some of the problems with other people was really eye-opening. He slowly realized it wasn’t really him against the world. He was simply getting his own attitude reflected back at him. Seeing Deacon accept that he likes being the guy that provides support to others was also interesting.

These two together were smoking hot. The sex scenes were off the charts, although the fisting scene was a bit too realistically painful to read. I really liked both Mark and Deacon at the beginning of the story, but I loved them by the end. This was a decent length novel, and yet I still wanted more. The ending was wonderful, but I would also love at least another glimpse into their lives.

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.

BLURB

Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad’s dubious advice and rush Prescott College’s biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant Mark as Pennsylvania’s snowstorms and bear sightings. So, when the fraternity extends Mark a bid, Mark vows to get himself kicked out by the end of pledge period. But then he’s drawn into Alpha Delt’s feud with a neighboring fraternity.

Studious Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark’s pledging Alpha Delt, his fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa’s sworn enemy. Mark is too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon’s not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies.

Mark and Deacon’s affair heats up as the war between their fraternities escalates. They explore kinks they didn’t know they had while keeping their liaison a secret from their brothers. But what Romeo and Juliet didn’t teach these star-crossed lovers is how to move beyond sex and into a place where they share more than a bed. That’s something they’ll have to figure out on their own-if the friction between their houses, and between Mark and America, doesn’t tear them apart.