But My Boyfriend Is by K.A. Mitchell (Florida #4)
M/M Contemporary Romance
August 21, 2012
Samhain

Reviewed by Mandi

I discovered KA Mitchell this past November thanks to Dear Author’s former reviewer Sarah, who I think has reviewed all of Mitchell’s books (you can see the reviews here). I started with Collision Course, which still remains my favorite of her books. In this one, Dylan is the brother of Aaron (hero in Collision Course). Dylan is twenty-two, has sex with women, but also cruises a park that is known for gay sexual hook-ups, because he refuses to acknowledge to anyone he might be gay. After being harassed one night at this park, the next night his identical twin brother Darryl, who was just innocently cutting through the park, gets beaten really bad by gay bashers.

Mike, a total stranger to Darryl, witnesses this attack and runs over to stop the fight. The attackers flee, and Mike calls 9-1-1. Everyone ends up at the ER, where Darryl lives, but is in bad shape for awhile. He ends up going home with Aaron and his boyfriend to recover, leaving Dylan on his own. Dylan and Darryl are extremely close, but Dylan blames himself for Darryl’s beating. He is also too afraid to tell his family his part in this beating.

But let’s get to where Mike comes into the picture. Mike is gay and an athletic trainer at a nearby college. HIs parents don’t approve of him being gay, and he keeps his sexual orientation under wraps at work since he works on half naked guys in the locker room. But his roommates know, and he soon works it out that Dylan may play for his team as well. Mike has never dated a black guy, but race doesn’t play a big factor in this story.

Dylan has anger issues and that is putting it lightly. He is so in denial about having feelings for men which takes the entire book to pull him out of it. Yeah, he admits he may once in awhile enjoy getting sucked off by another man, but he would never do the sucking. In his opinion, that would make him less of a man. His father is in prison, and his mother left when he was eight. Eventually, Aaron took over guardianship and as adults, from the outside they all are a close family. But Dylan never feels worthy. He always feels like the screw-up (Darryl is going to graduate school while Dylan is a line cook). And he feels Darryl getting beat-up because of him, is just another screw-up in life.

He can’t get Mike out of his head though. Once Darryl leaves the state to recover, he finds himself knocking on Mike’s door almost every night. Just for sex of course, nothing about those silly emotions. Mike lets him get away with this for awhile. He has a lot of patience and I think realizes that it is going to take time for Dylan to admit his feelings to anyone, including himself.

Dylan’s attitude didn’t bother me in this book – I think his reluctance and ‘tough guy’ façade is well done because there is such a vulnerability below the surface. Mike knows this and slowly drags it out of him. My one complaint is that I wish we got to see the two of them in a happy place for a bit longer. The end felt a little rushed to me. I wanted to explore the ‘I am gay’ side of Dylan more.

As always, KA Mitchell gives us the most erotic sex scenes. I think she does such a great job with giving us sex scenes that forward the emotional journeys of each character, not just throwing them in there to get the book classified as erotic. In this book, each one breaks down Dylan just a little more each time.

I feel like I talked about Dylan this entire review and not much of Mike. In a way, this is Dylan’s story. It’s his story of finding himself, his relationship with both of his brothers, and the beginning of love and acceptance with Mike. Mike comes to learn about family and he is thrown into quite a crazy one, but ultimately it is Dylan’s journey.

If you are new to this author or series, I suggest starting with Collision Course and reading the series from there. You really can’t go wrong with a KA Mitchell book.

Rating: B

P.S. – I just realized I didn’t mention Joey once! My favorite KA Mitchell character!!! (boyfriend of Aaron). He has a big role in this book and I adored every scene he is in.

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