Tied to Trouble by Megan Erickson

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Title: Tied to Trouble
Author: Megan Erickson
Series: Gamers #3
Published by: Entangled: Brazen
Release Date: January 4th 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 175
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, LGBT
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Finishing the Series Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

Between love and hate, there's a whole lot of trouble…

Chad Lake only showed up at his sister's party for the free food, but when he spots an uptight nerd at the edge of the crowd, he can't resist trying to ruffle the guy's perfect bow tie and impeccable hair. The hottie's ready for him, though, and in the end, it's Chad who's left wide-eyed, his ears still ringing with the filthy things Bow Tie whispered in his ear. No one gets the upper hand on Chad. Ever.

Owen Hawkins has heard all about the cocky Adonis from Chad's sister—the same sister who holds Owen's career advancement in her hands. He has every intention of steering clear of the other man…until Chad's sexy taunts push him too far. There's something intriguing about Chad, and even though Owen knows that getting tangled up with the infuriating man is trouble, he can't seem to stay away…

**This is part of an M/F series but can be read as standalone**

My Review:

4.5 stars — Winner winner chicken dinner!!  Even though this one had a bit of a lack of communication problem, it fit with the characters and struggles more, so it didn’t bother me as much as it might have.  And Chad and Owen just totally won my heart!

Chad was actually pretty much exactly as I was expecting.  Sometimes his childishness would surprise me, but then I would think about what I know of him, and it would actually fit.  I could honestly feel his insecurities, and his fear of living down to the expectations everyone had of him…expectations that he cultivated, but still.  It’s hard to break out of that cycle, you know?  And I thought we got a great look at that with Chad.  I wanted to smack him so many times for the way he lashed out at Owen, but that didn’t mean I didn’t also feel for him and what he was struggling with.  I get paralyzed by fear a lot, so I can vibe.  I loved his snarky, smart-alecky personality.  He may have done a lot of smirking, but it suited him.

I think I got a bit of a different feel to Owen in the first book, but since we barely saw him, it was OK that he was somewhat different than I was expecting.  He struggled with his own set of insecurities, worried that his tendancy towards uptightness would prove not enough for Chad.  I couldn’t help but kind of wonder what his youth was like, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of his story.  I love that in general he didn’t let Chad walk all over him…for some reason Chad brought out a strength in him he didn’t know he had.  I also appreciated that he was struggling with overcoming his own shyness/introvertedness at work, trying to make more of a difference and get the notice he deserved.  His introvertedness felt much more authentic and natural compared to Chloe in book 2.

The two of them together were even kind of different than what I was expecting!  I didn’t expect them to have an almost adversarial vibe at the beginning.  I mean, I guess it’s sort of hinted at in the blurb, but it went on for longer than I expected.  You could really feel the opposites part of the opposites attract in this one…and it was interesting to see how they had this strong pull towards each other, but because they were so different, neither of them trusted that there could be more…it really brought out each of their insecurities in full force.  I’m not always good with so much push and pull, but it worked for Chad and Owen for some reason.  I think because we got to see these moments of hope…these moments of connection that were more.  And it doesn’t hurt that they were smoking together.

While this isn’t the last in the series, I read the last one first so it’s *my* last one.  And I ended my reading of the Gamers series very satisfied.  I felt like the nerdy aspects were well done and not gimicky like they could have been.  And I loved that in each book we got a very satisfying epilogue.  It was nice to see glimpses of our previous two couples in the background, and I was so happy with the way Owen and Chad’s story resolved.  I’m a happy girl.