Jake Carlisle is happy. He is running a successful business with his best friend since he was a kid and Sy rescued him from a bully on the playground. After school. they started a internet business making review videos for experiences. Do It or Don’t has a website, social media, and a YouTube channel, and their videos are so popular that they are starting to make some real money at the videos. They bought a house together, and they spend lots of time creating and editing the videos as well as hanging out and playing video games.
Life is good, even when Jake is almost killed by a slightly drunk Batman who tried to teach him how to drive his modified Batmobile at high speeds around a racetrack. Sy’s time driving the James Bond Aston Martin was without any problems, but Jake driving the Batmobile ended with the car on its side and Jake diving out to save himself. But at the end of the day, they were both okay, and they got some great video to use. So everything worked out for Do It or Don’t.
But when Sy is looking over the numbers for their uploads and reading through the comments, he realizes once again that their audience skews very heavily male. There is a huge part of the population that they are missing out on, so he proposes that they add another person to their videos—a woman. Jake doesn’t like the idea of change, but he agrees to try it. Just like he agreed to drive a Batmobile on a race track. Just like he agrees to most anything that Sy says. But he does have a point about their audience.
Sy and Jake put out an ad and are surprised by the hundreds of women who line up outside their house for an audition. They have set up a green screen and a fake review for laser quest, complete with Nerf guns for props. They get through dozens of interviews, only one of them ending up with a Nerf dart up Jake’s nose, and there are still many women waiting for their chance. They ask the remaining women to come back the next day, and as audition after audition goes poorly, they’re about to give up. Then Helena walks in the room.
Immediately, Helena is able to joke with both Sy and Jake. Her audition goes well, and even though they have to finish talking to the twenty or so women still waiting, they both know that Helena is the one. She can give Do It or Don’t the female perspective without taking anything away from Jake and Sy. But then, the inevitable thing happens.
Sy falls for Helena.
As the happy couple spend more time together, Jake feels left out, both in the business and in their home. But Jake has spent his life saying yes to whatever Sy wanted. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s how they started the business. Their most popular videos are all ideas that Sy had come up with and Jake had gone along with. But now, Helena has changed the balance of power, and Jake finds himself resenting her and the way she has come between him and Sy. And as they are working on a review for a cuddling event—Helena’s idea—Jake accidentally tells her how he feels.
Jake ahs to figure out how to make it right with Helena and Sy, and to do the right thing for himself. But will being completely honest about the new direction the company is taking break apart his relationship with his best friend? Will he risk his job, his company, his future, and his best friendship to be true to himself, or will he protect it all and go along with what Sy wants, once again?
Third Wheel is Nick Spalding’s latest comic novel about friendship and love and what we are willing to give up to keep the status quo. This book finds a good balance between emotional scenes and wildly comic adventures, offering lots of chances for belly laughs and perhaps too many balloon unicorns.
I liked how the bulk of Third Wheel is about the relationships between Jake and Sy and the relationship between Jake and himself. The comedic episodes add a lot of fun and enjoyment to the book, but it’s the emotional work that makes the book interesting. This is a quick read, but it’s a fun one. If you need some laughs, then definitely check out the novels of Nick Spalding.
Egalleys for Third Wheel were provided by Amazon Publishing UK through NetGalley, with many thanks.
