Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson (In Focus #1)
Released: March 17, 2015
New Adult M/M Romance
Intermix

Reviewed by Mandi

I’m always on the lookout for a well done new adult book and now I can add Megan Erickson to the list. Actually, who cares if it’s even new adult – a well done romance is a well done romance and Trust the Focus gave me all kinds of swoony romance feelings. Plus – the romance takes place on a road trip, in an RV across the country. This makes me happy.

Justin and Landry have been good friends through high school and college, and now find themselves on graduation day getting ready to spend the summer driving across the country, just the two of them. As friends, Landry is gay and out. Justin is gay….but no one knows. Not his mother. Not his baseball teammates, and especially not his best friend in the entire world, Landry. There are a few reasons for this. Justin started realizing he had an eye for guys in  high school and at that time, he became deeply attracted to Landry which honestly frightened him. He then won a baseball scholarship to school, and was scared that if he came out, he would jeopardize his scholarship or his place on the team. His mother has high political ambitions and is a conservative, and puts an extreme amount of pressure on Landry to play the political game with her. While Landry would love to take after his late father and go into photography, he feels pressure to please his mom, and so he promises her to work for her campaign in the fall…after he goes on this trip with Landry. Justin’s father passed away suddenly, and Justin wants to honor him by traveling across the country and spreading his ashes at twelve different sites where his father took beautiful photographs. Driving in “Sally,” the RV his father left to him, Justin asks his best friend Landry to go with him, and of course Landry says yes.

Landry is gay and has been lusting after Justin for as long as he can remember, but truly believes Justin is straight as Justin has gone out of his way to pretend to date girls.  Landry had a bad experience in a gay club not too long ago, so his dating scene has been pretty quiet. Everything changes though when Justin and Landry are forced to spend the summer in an RV together. Hidden emotions bubble to the surface and they have to face a new future together – which is a hard transition.

There is a lot to love about this book. First, Justin and Landry are such kind, warm people. The author does a great job at letting us see into their friendship and making them truly good friends. They support each other, and give each other a hard time. And with Justin’s dad dying, you can feel the amount of support Landry has given to Justin. At the same time, being inside Justin’s head, you know he has it bad for Landry. Oh the tension in the first few weeks of the trip as Justin is in such close quarters with Landry is so intense. He wants so very badly to just be with him, but he has hidden his feelings so deep for so long, it’s almost impossible for him to be honest about that part of his life. When it finally comes out – almost in a rush of hot words, it’s hot and sexy. Landry can barely believe it and they have a very passionate night.

But then reality settles in.

And this is what I really liked. Landry gets angry for the lies Justin has been holding on to for so long. For as much as Landry has been there for him, Justin hasn’t been honest and that hurts Landry deeply. Once that gets sorted, there is this push and pull for Justin to be all the way out. He wants to be with Landry and he wants people to know it – but it’s been years and years of suppressing it that it’s hard for him to feel comfortable in public. Landry kind of pushes him too fast – and it felt realistic and something a couple like this would definitely struggle  with. So there is angst with that, and pressure from his mother, and Justin is still grieving his father. It’s an emotional journey that these two guys go on in one summer and it made me smile.

And the sex is really hot.

Can we please have more RV romances?? Forced to live together in close quarters with a tiny bed?? And in this book, it’s not only hot sex but emotional hot sex. There were happy tears during sex once. Happy tears RV sex. I’m swooning off my chair as I type this.

Highly recommend this one. Sweet and sexy with a good dose of angst thrown in. Give me more, Megan Erickson.

Rating: B+

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