Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.

“You are the gradations of undiscovered colors in my soul. You are the inhale before my blank canvas, the moment before my pencil touches the page. You are the manifestation of my dreams. You are my intensity.”

“We could be amazing—” I felt his swallow, his body shudder in my arms. “Or we could break each other’s hearts.” I kissed his cheek. My lips were wet and tasted of salt. “I don’t want to break your heart. I want to fall in love with you.”

The more I like a book, the less coherent my thoughts usually are. To say my brain is empty after reading You & Me is a massive understatement. There’s only good vibes and ‘aaaaaaaaaaaah’ thoughts. There’s something truly magical about this book. The author did a top notch job of ‘show, don’t tell’ with this one, and experiencing, learning, and realizing alongside Luke (the POV character) is an amazing experience. Being able to see and feel a character falling in love instead of just being told about it is so rare for me.

There were far, far too many things to say about Landon. I could string a mile of adjectives together to describe him and never make a dent in who he really was.

Another thing I adore about this book is that the ‘you & me’ pertains to both Luke and Landon, as well as Luke and his son, Emmet. The rebuild of that relationship is incredibly heartbreaking and beautiful, and would’ve been more than worth reading about on it’s own. Landon’s son, Bowen, is also an amazing side character.

At least he didn’t have a six-pack. He had a nice, normal stomach, flat but soft. It just wouldn’t be fair if he had abs along with everything else.

Also, the spice in this is immaculate. There’s not tons of it, but there’s really no need for it. The sexual tension and chemistry between the characters could set fire to any set of sheets. If you read smutty romance, you’re probably familiar with the *tingles* or if the book is really good, the butterflies that makes you want to giggle and kick your feet. This book doesn’t even need tons of smut to achieve that. A makeout session or a massage on the couch is where it’s at.

This is the second time I read this book, and I think I appreciated how fucking good it is even more this time around. I probably won’t ever recommend anything more.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Friends to lovers
Slow burn
Single dads
Widower
Family problems
Divorced MC
Former Mormon MC
Hurt/comfort

⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Explicit sexual content
Death of a spouse (past)
Drug overdose (side character, past)
Mentions of drug use (past, side character)
Family problems
Internalized homophobia (mostly past)
Brief Mentions of suicidal thoughts (past)
Brief mentions of homophobia

⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Breakup: No
POV: 1st person, single POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
MC age: 40 and 40
Kid age: 17 and 18
Pages: 384

What did that say about someone, that their life might be better if they’d never been a part of it at all?

I usually looked like I’d crawled out of my own grave. Dejection had a way of sitting heavy on the skin.

To try and bridge the gulf between us, and maybe, maybe, be his father again? Someone Emmet trusted, even loved, and not merely a man he slung bitterness and disdain at.

Landon dropped casual touches easily, and I hadn’t been touched, other than a handshake, for three years. Landon’s shoulder squeezes and knee brushes burned me like a brand. They were moments where, for a single second, I wasn’t alone in the world. I existed. I was a person, and another person’s warmth reached me.

The pants fit close to my body. I’d never had something show off my butt like that, and I stared at myself in the mirror. Did I look like a frog that had stood up and forgotten his ass somewhere?

Hey, Google, I thought. How do you break your own heart first so someone else can’t?

Can you tell I struggled with picking a quote?