The Open Era – An Earnest Romantic Drama

I am a shallow man. I see a pretty Sports Romance cover, and that’s enough for me to dive in headfirst. This is Edward Schmit’s debut novel, and he’s an author I’ll be eagerly awaiting more from! This wasn’t a perfect book, but it was such a contrast to Cut & Run that it made me feel optimistic about the state of m/m Romance. This is a much more raw book than Romances usually go for: id doesn’t lay the drama on too thick and hits strong emotional beats. It’s a balance can be hard to strike, but this one really worked for me.

What Worked For Me:
Schmit’s characterization in The Open Era is top-notch. Austin carried this book on his shoulders, and he was the honest and flawed character. At no point did I see the character traits and motivations Schmit manipulated, because he felt so well-realized. The writing of anxiety is really successful, especially how Austin’s coping mechanisms succeed and fail in the middle of a match. The constant stream of voices in the back of your head, the exponential intensity when things are getting bad, and the lack of easy solutions or ‘fixes’ all made his mental state a tangible part of his identity. Bonus points because Diego doesn’t ‘cure’ his anxiety with his love, which is always a sore spot when it comes to mental health in Romance books. Austin behaves like a normal person would, which means he isn’t always logically consistent. He’s a kind person at heart, but that doesn’t stop him from snapping at the coach he dearly loves as a stress response. Nor does it keep the two of them from working through those moments, because lifelong relationships don’t fall apart when a stressed person gets snippy. It’s the type of situation another book would spin into a dramatic plotline, but Schmit just allows to exist as a testament of humanity. Austin is in a pressure cooker in this book, and Schmit found the sweet spot that kept me up until 1am reading.

Actually, the whole book feels very grounded. The Open Era doesn’t indulge in some of the cheesier Romance lines. There is no talk about how Diego is his sunrise, or how he couldn’t imagine happiness before that man entered his life. Schmit is willing to make unconventional plot decisions in a genre that revels in rigid structure and predictability. Hell, even Diego, Robbie (his coach), and Helen (his new therapist) all feel as realistic as Austin does. It’s a clear sign that a book has you hooked when you start to vibrate a bit as things get intense. You don’t get that response out of me until I forget that I’m reading a story. It only happens when I believe that things might go wrong for a character I’ve grown very attached to. For me, that comes from a sense of realism that few Romance authors are chasing. Give me realistic reasons for the characters to come into conflict, and I will be a very happy man.

Also, I think more generally this book is a great example of how authentically written queer men don’t need to be hyper-sexual, indulge in stereotypes, or reject stereotypes wholesale for the sake of it. This book can’t be separated from Austin’s queerness; the story simply wouldn’t work if it were a heterosexual romance. Austin and Diego both respond the the pressures of queerness in different ways, and this never takes over the story. Just really well handled, and I’ll be reading more by Schmit.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
I know I just spent a while raving about how well Schmit handled Austin’s characterization. However, the very first page of this book triggered one of my pet peeves in the romance genre: Austin has no friends! He’s got family – including a coach who was the best friend of his late father – but hasn’t had a single friend for the past six years. I struggle with this not because it doesn’t happen in real life, but because of its pervasiveness in Romance books. The choice is an easy way to make the love story feel more all-consuming, but it always triggers my instinct that no single relationship can be your everything. Austin doesn’t have balance, and this book never really addressed that. He needs friends! A crush on a closeted professional is not enough.

I also generally thought that the Romance elements were the weakest parts of the book. I was actually surprised with how much I was loving the story despite not really believing that Diego and Austin were falling in love with each other. The timeline is fairly rushed; most of the book takes place over a week and a half, and that choice is always difficult for me to buy into. However, Schmit’s banter could use some work, and he leans on a little more miscommunication than I’d prefer. All of these flaws were minor, far from the worst examples of these tropes. The love scenes were never bad. I enjoyed seeing go-kart racing and video games and honest conversations about their lives. But I felt like I was sometimes rooting for Austin and Diego separately, instead of as a couple.

Something that didn’t bug me, but which may bug ardent Romance fans, is that this book is tap dancing on the line between Genre Romance and Romantic Fiction. There are going to be some stricter Romance readers who see the ending as too ambiguous for a Proper Romance Book, but it really worked for me, and enhanced the feeling of realism in the story.

Conclusion: This book had a chokehold on me, but I wish I was rooting for the main couple a bit more