Devin’s Den, $2.99, ISBN 978-1005040710
Contemporary Romance, 2020
Wrestling-turned-buggering is a common trope when it comes to more visual erotic entertainment aimed at folks that like to see people bump and grinding together in the name of sports. In fact, there is a whole industry dedicated to such films, which may not include actual boinking, but still please their fans because the real fetish is in the tussling, not the shagging.
I confess that I don’t really seek out such things, but if you tell me that there is going to a show in which Finn Balor and Ricochet are going to wear super tiny trunks, slather themselves with baby oil, and go all uhh and ahh in a wrestling ring, I can’t promise that I won’t be there in the front row with binoculars for good measure.
This brings me to Friendly Competition, the first entry in Devin Daniels’s Rivals series. Oh, the first chapter, here we go and…
I think I may like this one after all.
Connor is the king of the college wrestling circuit, until Ryan Dunwood shows up one fine day and oh my. Is Connor really going to be “dun” by the “wood”?
Connor twisted out of Ryan’s grip and managed to get to his feet. They came at each other again and Connor took Ryan down with a quick throw. Ryan landed on his belly with a thud and Connor stretched his body over him. This time, Connor locked his grip around Ryan’s wrists and restrained him. This was what he liked best. He held the other man down for a moment, listened to his heavy breathing, their hearts thumping together. Connor pressed his crotch against the other man’s ass, almost holding him down with it.
For a few moments both of them just lay there, not moving, their bodies fitting together. Connor felt a prickling building in his crotch and his pulse suddenly raced.
Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just here in the background with my Alison Moyet wig, swinging my hands and singing:
I want our lips to kiss and our limbs to entwine
Let our bodies be twisted but never our minds
Is this love?
Ryan gets the upper hand, of course.
Ryan stood up and patted Connor on the ass before he left. Now he was pissed. Asshole. He sat up and watched him walk off the mat, even cockier than before. Connor felt rage bubble up inside of him, his chest flushed with heat. He looked over at his coaches to see them giving him daggers and yelling at him, but all he could do was shake his head.
That’s basically the story. Guy meets guy, they become frenemies for about ten seconds before hooking up, because you know that’s how it is: when two hot guys make surly faces at one another, deep inside what they really want is to bone one another.
If the whole thing felt superficial, hey, it’s a college hook-up. How many of those things turn out to be deep and transformative? To make up for what it may lack in depths—no pun intended, honest—the author throws in lots and lots of sex scenes. Well, this shows that the author’s head and heart and whatever else are all in the right place, because I have a really fun time reading this thing.
Is it deep? No. Is it emotional and dramatic? Not, really. Is it all about hard muscled guys rubbing against one another, grabbing the other person in a choke-hold while one’s crotch presses against the other’s rear end and…
Okay, who bought the movie rights to this thing?
