A quick, comforting read, and generally one of those "warm blanket in book form" stories. One of the leads, on top of being in a bad place emotionally, suffers a bad fall and has to navigate taking care of his many pets with limited mobility. The other loves animals and happily volunteers to walk them, but crippling social anxiety makes human interaction very hard for him. Gradually, the two build a connection that is fulfilling and uplifting to them both. 

I felt the depiction of anxiety here was really well done. My own social anxiety has never been as extreme as Simon's, but there were so many aspects of his condition that felt super relatable, from his feelings and thoughts on his anxiety to small details like the side effects from his medication. Also, all the pets! Such a great part of the book. So many of them, and each had a floofy personality of their own! I also appreciated that Jack wasn't strictly a dog person or cat person and kept his house full of animal friends of both kinds. Another big relatability factor here! 

There were a bunch of minor hiccups for me here, such as a bunch of scenes dragging a bit and losing direction and the relationship development significantly picking up way sooner than I expected. I also couldn't always reconcile the way Jack acted around Simon with how he was with his brother or on his own. I choose to believe that Simon brought up the best in him, but I would've liked to see him carry some of that best over into his other relationships more prominently. You know, just to avoid that lingering alternate interpretation that he's presenting a front to Simon that might crumble eventually.

Overall though, it was a much smoother read than Roan Parrish's books usually are for me, and I practically inhaled the books with no real breaks. I was really craving something romantic and healing-focused, and this was exactly that story.