Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.

“Living in the closet for thirty years can make it damned hard to trust your heart to another person, especially when the first man you gave it to handed it back. Don’t give up, Zee.”

3.5 stars rounded up
This is another one of those books that are really difficult to rate and review, because I know that objectively it’s really good, it just wasn’t right for me personally. There is no doubt that Jay Hogan can write a good book and characters with a lot of depth, but the tropes in this and the constant push and pull/back and forth really frustrated me.

I’d watched the man I’d been in love with fall for another man and then watched my arsehole father turn his back on me. I wasn’t sure I could take another hit so soon.

I likely wouldn’t have picked it up if I realized what the tropes were, because I generally don’t enjoy them much, and that is in no way the author’s fault. In spite of all of this though, it *is* well written, and there were several side characters I really enjoyed getting to know, as well as the MCs. The book also made me very emotional at times. I had a pretty strong connection with Zach after what happened in book 1, and that definitely continued in this book.

Of course, he’d skedaddled. The man was harder to pin down than a stray cat.

I would have to be made of stone to not notice the scorching chemistry, though. I may have wondered why the hell the MCs were even trying to be together a couple times, but there was no denying that they set the sheets (and walls!) on fire with their combustible chemistry.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Hurt/comfort
Enemies to lovers
Dog trainer/shepherd
Pilot
Small town
Friends with benefits
Push and pull
Age gap

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Grief
Mentions of the death of MCs child (past)
Medical emergency (stroke, side character)
Explicit sexual content
Mentions of excessive drinking (past)

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: Luke goes for a drink with someone else. Nothing happens. Before MCs get together.
Third-act breakup: Yes
POV: 1st person, single POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile

This was Luke. Luke would find a way to top from the bottom if he was the bloody Titanic.

He was also beautiful in that way men had when they had no idea how truly lovely they were.

Crushing on the best mate of my ex-husband’s new man was way too fucking complicated even for me.