Review - Red Ruby Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger by Lexi Ander

Red Ruby Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger

by Lexi Ander

My rating:

Heat level:

Volume 1 of ION

Tags: Fantasy Contemporary

Posted in Book Reviews on March 8, 2026

Diego has “known” things since he was a young boy, and his grandmother encouraged it along with telling him stories of vampires, witches, and werewolves. But when Diego was 12, his older brother got involved in a dangerous gang and disappeared. Diego turned his back on his fantasies and took up parkour with his best friend, Denise. He goes to college, meets Beck, who becomes his best friend, and leaves the Los Angeles neighborhood where gangs dominate. Years later, Diego and Beck are still roommates, but Diego wants to be more than friends. He resolves to discuss his feelings, but Beck’s work keeps getting in the way.

The fantasy angle of this slow-burn romance takes a while to come to the surface. For the most part, this is a contemporary friends-to-lovers tale set in Southern California communities with gang problems. This was originally a much shorter book that’s been reworked into the start of a new series.

The story is told entirely from Diego’s point of view. Although the story doesn’t use the words, I think Diego was what people often describe as a “sensitive” boy. After the disappearance of his older brother, the young man buries that side of him, yet he remains fiercely loyal to those he considers family.

We only get to know Beck through Diego’s eyes. Beck is Diego’s opposite physically, and that’s probably part of the reason they’re attracted to each other. We don’t get to know Beck as well as we might like. That’s likely intentional as part of the plot line. However, it’s also indicative of a slight choppiness in the storytelling, which might be the result of reworking a short story into a novel-length work. It doesn’t completely distract from the story, but the book lacks the polish of other works by the author.

“Red Ruby Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger” is available from Smashwords.