The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project is the story of Casey, the pledge master of Alpha Tau, and Marty from book 2's supposedly straight roommate. Briar, his love interest and a new pledge, puts the grump in grumpy and the sunshiney Casey sure had his work cut out for him with bagging his man.
From the blurb:
Casey Hill has been pledge master of Alpha Tau for two years. Keeping a bunch of pledges in line is a bit like herding cats, but Casey’s got it down to a fine art.
When Briar sashays into their fraternity with eyeliner, attitude, and legs for miles, Casey is thrown for a loop—in the best possible way. Except what happens when Briar literally can’t make the grade?
Uh oh.
The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project is a lighthearted contemporary m/m romance containing college shenanigans, a pretty pledge selling candy, and a confused frat boy who discovers he's a lot more heteroflexible than he thought he was. Or something.
Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's review:
"ɪᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɴɪᴄᴇ ɪꜰ ᴡᴇ'ᴅ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴋɪꜱꜱɪɴɢ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɴᴏᴡ ɪɴꜱᴛᴇᴀᴅ ᴏꜰ ʜɪᴍ ᴇʏᴇʙᴀʟʟɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʜᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴀꜱᴋ ᴍᴇ ɪꜰ ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɢᴏ ᴏᴜᴛꜱɪᴅᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ."
A reader friend of mine said to me about this book: "There's prickly, and then there's Briar." And I have to say they were spot friggin on. Briar was really hard to warm up to. I think a big part of it was the fact that we only got Casey's POV, so we never really got an explanation for Briars actions. Knowing what Briar was thinking at the time would have been helpful for me to be more sympathetic to him for how he treated Casey on numerous occasions.
Casey, bless him, was amazing. He was so sweet and patient with Briar. Even when he knew Briar was outright lying to him, Casey was still understanding. He knew something in Briar's past had led to his prickliness, so he often made excuses for Briar, when I really felt he should have pointed out his behavior. Then again, Briar made it pretty difficult to have a heart to heart since Casey feared he'd up and run. It wasn't exactly healthy.
Please don't think I hated the book, because I really didn't. There were so many Marty moments and he literally SHINED in all of them. The addition of Charlie, whom I am thrilled is the MC for the next book, was awesome. He is such a freaking sweetheart and I liked that he and Briar became close so Briar had a friend in his corner. Briar does have some character growth as we neared the end and we also get the whole story of why he's so closed off. Getting his POV in the epilogue, actually hearing how much he really loved and appreciated Casey, was just what I needed for the solidification of their HEA.
Jacquie's review:
Still loving this series a lot, I just found it a little harder to get to grips with the characters here, but I adore the frat house so much.
First of all, though, wow, the heat between them was something else! It was pretty spicy overall, and I loved the femme boy thing going on with Briar.
Second, Marty is just adorable. He stole every scene he was in.
Briar was a cactus, he was so prickly. Getting him to open up and share his secrets was hard for Casey but when he got there, Briar was pretty sweet. They made such a lovely couple.
Miki J's review:
First thing that comes to mind with this book is that it's refreshingly honest and fair dinkum. It's a great story - college guys, grump/sunshine with bi/new awakenings .....all in a found family/friendly setting. The interaction between the characters are funny, adorable and honest ..... and that's what makes this an brilliant book. It's not just the honesty between friends and those you care about, but also in ones-self. An absolutely beautiful book and this series is just perfection !!
Rogue's Review:
- college
- low angst
- bi-awakening
This is the third in the Alpha Tau series, but can be read as a standalone. The series so far has a great cast of characters, many of whom reappear in this story too. I especially love Marty, he steals every scene that he's in, easily. However this is Casey and Briar's story, and it's great. Briar is pricklier than a cactus at the start of the story, but Casey is instantly drawn to him. This is a bi-awakening for Casey, who has never acted on an attraction to a man before, and I loved how easily he accepted that side of himself and pretty quickly came out with no fanfare.
It's clear Briar had secrets, and I had no idea what they might be, certainly not what it turned out to be. I liked the development of the relationship between the two, it was hot for sure, and I loved that Casey embraced Briar's femme side completely too. These two just fitted together, although I wasn't a fan of Briar keeping everything from Casey until everyone else found out too, I get he'd been hurt but Casey had been nothing but supportive all the way.
This is a great entry to the series, I loved seeing the previous couples too, and I'm always here for more.
This series has always made me smile with the banter these characters have with one another. That same humor and friendship shines bright in this book. Casey takes his role in his fraternity seriously, he tries to do his best to make sure everyone is having a good time and that they are okay. He wasn't prepared to be ensnared by Briar's sharp barbs and pretty smile, but he wouldn't have wanted anything different.
Briar's character is going through a lot of trauma from the incident at his own college, and how his step dad treated and how he continues to treat him. He's very closed off, keeps to himself and is very aloof with Casey. There was a lot of back and forth on this story. Briar would engage something and Casey would talk to him afterwards and Briar ends up leaving. I understand why his character did that, why he felt as though he couldn't trust Casey, it was just a lot of back and forth. I did like how supportive and encouraging Casey was of Briar, no matter what Briar did, or said, Casey was always going to have his back. Even when he found out Briar has been lying to him.
My favorite part of this story is seeing the characters from previous books in this series, it was fun getting glimpses of those characters again! I thought the candy drive scene was hilarious, especially how it described each of the men showing up flaunting the skirts they borrowed. It was a really fun scene! Overall I thought this book was great, I would say its mid-angst, high steam, and lots of the grumpy sunshine trope!!
Heather's Review:
I have loved all of the Alpha Tau books so far and Pledge Project is a great addition to the mix, but I struggled a little with Briar's character for two reasons - one, his snappish nature and two, we never get to see him fully embrace the person he claims to be... I wanted him to embrace his genderbending wardrobe and find the freedom to ditch the nonsense.. maybe an epilogue further in the future would have helped me with this, but otherwise, I loved Casey and getting to see the Marty and the rest of the crew was lovely, especially Squirrel!
I can't wait to see what's up next and I'm waiting patiently to see what happens with Scout!
The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project is currently available as an e-book and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription
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