THE GUY ON THE RIGHT BY KATE STEWART

5/30/2020

Theo is such a fantastic hero! WOW! I loved him so much. Kate did a tremendous job at bringing Theo to life and I can't help but recommend this to everyone!

Rating: ★★★★
Release Date: July 25, 2019
Genre: New Adult. College Romance.
Series: The Underdogs #1 (can stand alone)
Pages: 364 pages
Format: eBook. Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited.

Strike One-My mother named me Theodore after her favorite chipmunk.

Not cool, Mom.

I‘ve spent most of my life answering to Teddy, because I couldn’t make Theo work.

Except for here. College. The place where all bets are off, and I’ve managed to redeem myself.
There’s only one problem, my new roommate, Troy, is football royalty and looks like he stepped off the set of an Abercrombie shoot.

Doesn’t matter, I cook a mean breakfast for his panty parade, and we get along well.
And anyway, this year I got the girl. And she’s perfect.

That’s right. Theodore Houseman, former band geek, now marching band rock star has finally landed the girl of his dreams.

Everything is perfect.

That is, until Troy takes a good look at her.

I’m not going down without a fight. As a matter of fact, I’m not going down at all. As glorious as these days may be for my all-star roommate, Laney is my end game.

I may not know much about play strategy, but I’ve been the good guy my whole life. I’ve been listening and I know exactly what women want. Framed in a picture standing next to me, Troy may seem like Mr. Perfect, but he’s underestimating the guy on the right.

Spoiler alert: In this story, the underdog is going to win.

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Release Date: July 25, 2019
Actual Rating: 4 stars

New Adult | College Romance | Opposites Attract

The Guy on the Right is an engaging story about two people who come together despite the major differences in their personalities. Theo absolutely stole my heart and I fell for him almost immediately. This is definitely an “underdog” love story; one where the hero is pretty insecure but has a heart of gold. I loved seeing him fall in love. GAH! I cannot even begin to describe just how much I loved his character. What a man! The insecurities he felt were so authentic too and I felt him… Honestly, it was like a kinship between him and I! Kate Stewart did an amazing job at writing his story! You may be wondering what makes him an “underdog” and I’ll write why below:

▶ His insecurities sometimes get the best of him and he never feels like he’s “enough”. This is mainly due to the guys he surrounds himself with (he compares himself to them all the time and feels inferior).

▶ His ex-girlfriend did a number on his heart when she cheated on him. What made it even worse for him was the fact that both pledged to save their virginity and she lost it to some random guy at a party when they were still together. Talk about a hurt ego!

▶ He never seems to “get the girl.” How many heroes have you read about it that do not get the girl they want right away? I honestly cannot even come up with one! He stands out not because he can’t get the girl though, but because of his heart. **SWOONS**

▶ He is NOT your typical romance hero. He plays in the school band (not sports). I know this doesn’t specifically make him an underdog, but it does play a bit of a role in his character and I think many readers will agree that it adds to the whole “underdog” vibe because most women don’t say “I want to band geek over the sports hero.” Note: I didn’t see him as a band geek at all, just pointing out assumptions and differences between this kind of love story and the others out there.

The heroine of the story is quite the spitfire and is filled with a ton of sass! She’s the perfect woman for Theo even though she is completely different. She built their relationship as an amazing friendship first and then slowly fell for him because of who he is on the inside. I loved being a part of their story and watching their love blossom. They were so much fun to see together! Also, completely HILARIOUS!

One of the things I didn’t care for was how SLOW this book felt. It may just be me but it seemed that some of the book really lagged. While I did love reading it, I wasn’t super duper excited to devour it like I do some romance books. Perhaps its because their relationship was slow burn? I don’t know for sure, but some of it really dragged for me. Another thing is that there was SO MUCH DIALOGUE. I wanted to “see” the places they were which is only possible if the author sets up the setting for us. For some reason (and I don’t know if this is how it is in all her books) most of the book took place via conversation between the characters. I found this a little strange.

Other than that, I loved Theo and Laney’s love story. It’s unique, funny, and all sorts of adorable. I look forward to reading the next on when I have some more time for older reads!