Early Book Review: Out of Character by Annabeth Albert

Out of Character by Annabeth Albert is the second book in the True Colors series and is scheduled for release on July 6 2021. You do not have to have read the previous book in order to enjoy this one, but knowing the characters and some history does make it even more enjoyable. 

Milo Lionetti is not a gamer. Not even close. But when a stupid bet costs him his brother's prized cards, he'll do anything to replace them before anyone notices they're gone. To do that, he'll need a little help from the best gamer he knows, who also happens to hate him. Jasper Quigley is known for moonlighting on a popular gaming blog, but he's eager to stop playing the sidekick. The last thing he wants is to help out Milo and dredge up feelings he'd rather forget. But helping Milo comes with some perks, including getting his help running a cosplay event at the local children's hospital. All that forced proximity was not supposed to come with kissing, and definitely not falling in love.

Out of Character is an enemies to lovers romance that hit just the right notes for me. I like that both Milo and Jasper grew in the story- it was not all Milo's changing after not being the greatest guy in the past. They both had to come to terms with their past, their present, and what they wanted from the future. Sometimes in these enemy to lovers stories only one of the characters needs to change for things to work, and I simply loved that growth was seen on all sides. I also adore the depth the author gives to secondary characters- everyone is well fleshed out even if they do not seem to have a big role to play in this story. It makes me want to know even more about them and hope that some might have a role to play in future book in this series- or maybe in one of the author's other series (which I badly need to catch up on). 

Out of Character is exactly what I wanted from this read. It is a must read for fans of the author and series, and a good read for just about everyone else.