4.5
This was really good. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was but it was really sweet, emotional, and spicy. I feel like Riley Hart has such an amazing writing style and is able to write romance books really well. Almost too well where you finish a book and want to find a queer guy who is like the main characters knowing that it is easier to find a needle in a haystack. ( )

You could never find better friends than the "Fantastic Four". Riley Hart has created enticing characters with wildly different personalities who prove that chosen family is often times closer, stronger, and more important than biological family. This is book one of what is going to be a fantastic series if this was any indication.

Opposites do attract as is proven when a bar owner and a movie star, who have taken more than a decade to fall in love, finally realize that this is what they have always wanted. They, without realizing it, have morphed from strangers hooking up, to friends-with-benefits, to something more over the course of those years. The titled "Loner" is Declan, one of the four, lifelong best friends. They host a podcast about “love, sex, friends, the lifestyle, and the gay culture. Along with Declan, "The Loner", is also Corbin, "The Charmer"; Parker, "The Romantic"; and Marcus, "The Realist". I can't wait to have their stories. But back to this one.

Declan meets closeted, virgin Sebastian, an up-and-coming actor who picks him up at the bar that Declan tends. They begin to hookup several times a year for a number of years, in which time Sebastian becomes a fairly well-known movie star. He really likes that Declan doesn’t treat him any differently and doesn't seem at all impressed by his stardom. When he comes out, he is pressured by his agent and the movie studio to be the right kind of super masculine gay man. Sebastian is lonely. He doesn’t have any real friends in the studio, only acquaintances, no one he can talk to or trust. He asks Declan to be his friend and they begin to go out on a series of non-dates that feel a lot like real dates to Declan. after stressing out over the "dates" that aren't "dates" Sebastian finally admits to himself that he wants more than friendship, and Declan finds himself caring and hoping that Sebastian doesn’t walk away. But he’s not a guy who will allow himself to fall in love. He doesn’t feel very lovable and just can't trust anyone enough to let them in. This wonderful book is a great combination of romance, humor, friendship, and camaraderie. I can’t wait for the subsequent books. It’s going to be so much fun getting to know these men better as the group of four grows to be a family of eight when they’re all partnered up. Congrats to Riley Hart for another fantastic book! ( )