roller coastersRating: 4 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


It’s been nine months since Will broke up with Molly, and getting over her has been a slow process. Finally, Will’s brother Adam has dragged him out to a bar in hopes of helping him move on. There Will sees Davey, and is immediately drawn to him. That surprises Will, because aside from the boyfriends, he has always been into women. But there is an androgyny about Davey that draws Will in, and they strike up a conversation.

Will is a guy who likes relationships, but he knows he is not ready for one now, and makes that clear to Davey, who agrees. Davey is genderqueer and doesn’t have much experience dating. He hasn’t told too many people how he identifies, and some of those he has told have rejected him. So he is very uncertain at times about intimacy with Will and has a hard time expressing himself. But even though Will doesn’t know much about what it means to be genderqueer, he is totally cool with Davey and finds him to be engaging and hot. Will knows what it is like to have desires you are anxious about sharing, and does his best to make Davey feel at ease. Things seem to be going well between the guys, until they are not.

When things fall apart for Will once again, he turns to the boyfriends for support. As always, Truman and Hugh are there for him. But this time Hugh needs Will in return. Hugh wants to ask Truman to marry him, and he knows Truman will say yes, but Hugh is still having a crisis of confidence. Now it is Will’s turn to be there for Truman and Hugh and help them make sure they get their happy ending.

Roller Coasters is the fifth book in Kris Ripper’s engaging Scientific Method series (or sixth if you read Catalysts as two separate books). I got hooked on this series after a reading the Lead Me Into Darkness anthology, which has a short story featuring this guys. I have been slowly making my way through the whole series over the past year. Just to recap the basics for anyone new to the series, we start off with Will and Hugh. Will is a young guy who is coming into his kink and needs help both expressing those desires and learning more about BDSM. He goes to Hugh, who is a Dom, for some guidance and training. Although Will had never been interested in guys, he ends up having a sexual relationship with Hugh along with the BDSM elements, and expands that sexual connection to include Truman, Hugh’s eventual love interest. Hugh and Truman are a couple engaged in their own romantic and sexual relationship, but at the same time, they have a sexual and emotional relationship with Will as well. He doesn’t live nearby, but visits regularly, and there is clearly love among all three of them. However, this isn’t a traditional menage in that this is not a three-way partnership. I would say it is closer to polyamory, but again, Will is only a part-time partner and has other relationships outside of the boyfriends.

Ok, so back to the story. This book focuses on two different relationships. First off, we have Davey and Will. While Will has never really been attracted to guys (other than Hugh and Truman), he is immediately drawn to Davey and doesn’t really question it. Will isn’t particularly interested in labeling his sexual orientation and jumps right into things with Davey when he sees him at the bar. There is an interesting dynamic here, because in many ways, Davey is where Will was some years ago when he first met Hugh. At that time, Will had a lot of trouble accepting his own desires, as well as articulating what he wanted in terms of kink. His years with Hugh have really helped him accept that his interests are ok, and to ask for what he wants. So now we see him in a bit of a role reversal as Davey is very insecure about advocating for his own needs and worries a lot about Will rejecting him, as other men have done in the past. Will is patient and kind and very much goes with the flow in terms of what works for Davey. But these guys are in different places emotionally and it ultimately impacts their relationship.

As with the rest of the series, while there are side storylines, the real focus is on the relationship between Will, Truman, and Hugh. I love these guys and enjoy watching the dynamics of their connection grow and change throughout the series. The love and commitment they have to one another is strong, and Will wants nothing more than for happiness for Truman and Hugh. This isn’t the first time we have seen Will step in to help these guys negotiate some issues in their own relationship, and here Will ends up being the support Hugh needs during his own anxieties about taking the next step with Truman. As always, we get some hot kink scenes between them (including some daddy kink), as well as some great tender moments that really highlight how important these men are to one another. I love way these guys work together, and that despite being somewhat nontraditional, there is no question about their love and commitment to each other.

So this story was another really enjoyable installment in this series. I think you really need to start from the beginning to get the most out of this, as it helps to see the relationship grow over the course of the books. But if you aren’t ready to jump into it all, my summary should be enough to get you going here if you don’t mind a few details going past you as you read. I definitely an enjoying this series and would recommend it, especially for readers who are interested in some polyamory and non-traditional relationships.

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