Loving the Legend is the spectacular debut novel from new author on the MM scene, Kit Grey and I urge you all to acquire it immediately. It is everything you want from a sports love story, and a whole bunch more. It tells the story of two closeted queer basketball players who form a fierce friendship which develops into a passionate and serious relationship that they must continue to keep hidden for the sake of both their careers. There is a HEA, but it is definitely hard won.
Grey’s intelligent and thoughtful prose immerses the reader in Ty and Sid’s emotionally fraught journey. Their relationship is haunted and sometimes overshadowed by their past experiences of grief and trauma. Those experiences have a huge effect on the way these troubled but wonderful men are able to love each other (and themselves). Their pasts also shape their hopes and dreams for the future.
The two main characters were beautifully developed and felt like fully-formed people, with flaws and qualities unique to them. As such, I felt emotionally invested in them from start to finish. The supporting roles in the book are similarly well-developed and serve much more than to simply move the plot along. The balance of sport and romance is achieved perfectly, which is a difficult feat to manage. I know very little about basketball, but I didn’t feel the need to skip the scenes on the court, and found them interesting and relevant to the story as a whole.
I mentioned that the happy ending is not delivered quickly or easily, but this only adds to the beauty of the novel. In the vein of authors like C P Harris and RIley Hart, Grey tears your heart to pieces then expertly repairs it for you. Be warned, this is an emotional read! But the reward is getting to know these truly marvellous men. It’s not all sobbing and snot though, fear not! Loving the Legend is filled with humour, flowing realistic dialogue and a healthy dose of very steamy scenes.
At nearly five hundred pages, it’s on the long side for a contemporary romance novel, but believe me, it doesn't drag, feel overly wordy or filled with unnecessary plotlines. The novel is, in fact, exactly the length it needs to be. Sid and Ty have taken up residence in my brain, and I see them renting that headspace on a permanent basis.
Allow me to depart from the review for a moment, while I try to comment on race in romance, while attempting to stay in my lane as a white person.
It shouldn’t be a big deal that this is a gay romance novel in which both main characters are POC. But it is. It shouldn’t be an even bigger deal that they are both young black men from the US. But it is. In my opinion, there is nowhere near enough racial diversity in MM romance, and I am always pleased when I find some. Especially when I find it in a book as well-written as this one.
MM romance novels feature predominantly cis, white men as the main protagonists, so when a novel such as Loving the Legend appears, featuring two black main characters, my interest is immediately piqued.
Obviously, it is a complex matter, and as a white, British woman, I really can’t postulate any kind of hypothesis to explain the lack of POC main characters in gay romance. I can lament the lack of diversity in this genre however, and continue to seek out novels showcasing non-white characters, which I will do.
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