RELEASE DAY REVIEW: Mature Content (Cyberlove #4)

Mature Content (Cyberlove #4), by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell
Publish Date: June 2, 2017
Publisher: self-published
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author
Genre: adult contemporary m/m romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) My life plan is to be brutally honest all the way to the bank. Don't believe me? I run a popular YouTube channel called TrashyZane, and my claim to fame is oversharing about every aspect of my personal life. Sometimes while tipsy. Not everyone loves my style, but I have a long history of icing out people who can't handle me. I have no time for judgmental foolishness.

Except, apparently, when it comes to Beau Starr. His channel is the polar opposite of mine, and so is he. Wholesome, inspirational, and clean-cut. Everything about him should turn me off, but when we hook up following a confrontation at a convention, my world flips upside down. Not only does Beau Starr turn me on, he uses the exact combination of dirty talk and roughness needed to turn me out.

But we still hate each other. I think.

I loved Beau when I met him in Hard Wired. He was so positive and likable. He was helpful and protective of his cousin Jesse. He was everything Zane was not. 

Zane is brash and in your face and doesn't apologize for any of it. He talks openly about his sex life and about his relationship with his parents. He's not always positive, but he is always real. 

Zane and Beau each have wildly popular YouTube channels, so they know of each other, and they have formed opinions of one another based on the personas they see on their computer screens. They have decided they don't like each other. At all. 

But, both of them are screaming inside because who they're showing to the world isn't who they really are. Not many people in each of their circles really knows Zane or Beau. And one night, Beau decides to show Zane exactly who he is, and it changes everything for both of them. It's easy to hate someone you don't really know. But, once you catch a glimpse of someone's real, it's much harder.

What I loved most about Mature Content was that, even though that first night together changed a lot of things for both Beau and Zane, it still took them a long time to warm up to one another. Make no mistake - that didn't mean that they didn't recognize the crazy good sexual tension between one another. And act on it. Hate sex FTW. But, Beau and Zane had spent so long hating on each other, old habits died hard. 

In addition to their unfortunate attraction to one another, each man is dealing with his own personal baggage. Zane's family is pretty awful. They are rich and entitled and refuse to acknowledge Zane's sexuality or his job. They make him feel not good enough for them, and that has stayed with him and became the catalyst for his channel and online persona. 

And Beau is feeling an immense amount of pressure from his own family and from himself, honestly, about his career, He's been offered a big opportunity, and although it's not something he really wants, he feels like he has to take it. Even though it means further compromising who he really is. 

There are so many layers to this story. It's way more than an enemies to lovers story. It is that, but it's also about figuring out who you really are and being true to that. Megan and Santino are so good at writing these complex characters and situations. I sincerely hope that this is not the last book we see from the great Megtino.