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imme_van_gorp 's review for:
Common Goal
by Rachel Reid
I didn't go into this with the highest expectations, and at first I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the dynamic. After all, I love a good age-gap romance, and especially if it’s the older guy who is pursuing and pining for the younger guy. It’s just so much better in my opinion.
“Why do you like older men?”
“I guess it has something to do with the way I feel when I’m with them. They make me feel powerful. Like I’m irresistible and they would do anything to please me. It’s a rush.”
Kyle had just described the vague fantasies that had been overwhelming Eric for months. He wanted to please Kyle. He wanted to spoil him rotten and have Kyle reward him for it however he chose to. He wanted this stunning young man to conquer him and leave Eric gasping for more.
Eric was honestly giving Kyle heart-eyes the entire time, and I couldn’t help but feel giddy about it. The way he was pining for him, adoring everything about him, thinking about him constantly, wanting him so much: it was extremely swoon-worthy.
But, I can definitely see how the ‘miscommunication’ in this can be very annoying: both men think that the other finds them either too young or too old, so they tip-toe around their romantic feelings for the entire book. They don't get over it until the very end.
I personally wasn’t bothered by it at first: I actually thought it helped create some nice angst and the possibility for longing from both sides (but mostly Eric).
However, it went on for way too long, and it really started to get on my nerves. The moment it became annoying for me was when they started hooking up. I was like: how hard can it really be to say that you’d like to actually date the person you’re regularly having sex with?? It's so dumb that it took them the whole book to just come out and say it, and even then it took them a break-up to accept it and actually get together.
I wasn't really invested in either of these characters, although I liked them well enough. I just got annoyed by their stupid situation, which made it hard for me to care.
They had quite an interesting sex dynamic with Kyle (who's younger) taking control in the bedroom while Eric obeyed. There was lots of edging involved.
I could see why Eric would like this, since he usually had to and wanted to be in control when it came to all other aspects of his life, so it might be a nice change for him to give that control up for a little bit.
However, I do think there was far too much sex in this book and it definitely took away from the relationship development. From the moment they started having sex with each other it was obvious that a lot of the tension went away, and most of their interactions revolved around hooking up with each other. It wasn’t nearly as cute or interesting.
I have to say that the whole thing simply started to feel rather repetitive.
I definitely preferred the first half of this book. I preferred it by a lot.