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

He walks out of my closet and places his hands against my chest, looking up at me with his soft, brown puppy eyes, and I groan. I feel a shopping trip in my future.

I’m on my chaos-goblin bullshit as per usual, and had only read book 1 and 4 prior to this one. I enjoyed those books a lot though, and jumped on the chance of getting an ARC for this book. I definitely don’t regret that, as I had a lot of fun reading this. There is a lot that happens during this book, but it didn’t feel rushed or like it was too much. I thought the pacing was pretty well done. There’s a *lot* of side characters here, and I probably would’ve enjoyed it even more if I had any connection with all of them. However, I didn’t feel lost or like I was missing big pieces of the story for not having read the entire series.

“My sweet Jocelin. I utterly adore you.”

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book was the sweet and endearing romance. The cute dates, slow dancing in the kitchen, cooking food together, the casual intimacy (lots of kisses and casual touches), etc. It wasn’t all smooth sailing at all, but they both enjoyed being together, which was nice to read.

“[…] If you can’t rely on the people who love you when times are the bleakest, then what’s the point?”

I enjoyed both MCs a lot, which has been a rare thing for me lately. They were both flawed, sure, but they were still good people even if they messed up. I think this book was utterly charming at times.

I think this will be a strong 4.5 stars for me.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Fake dating
Best friend’s brother
Past trauma
French Canadian MC
Architect/lawyer
Size difference
Phone/FaceTime sex
Edging

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Anger issues
PTSD episodes
Sexual harassment
Explicit sexual content
Stabbing (side character)
Mentions of the murder of a parent
Injuries and hospitalization (side character)
Punching an inanimate object during emotional outburst

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Third-act breakup: Yes
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: No switching on page
MCs age: 32 and 33

I spend half the time explaining what things are or why someone would even want whatever it is, and the other half telling him we don’t need whatever he’s picked up and to put it back where he found it. It’s like shopping with a five-year-old.

“For all the scowling you do to strangers, and all the grumbling you do about people, you’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met. […]”