Book safety, content warnings and tropes down below.

“[…] Do you have a dream, Riv?” He had to, didn’t he? It was human nature to want something, to want more. He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t really think that way. Easier not to get let down if you don’t allow yourself to dream.”

Some of this was okay, but most of it wasn’t for me. The plot itself and the premise of the whole book is good and was really promising. No doubt about that. I also thought Parrish was amazing in the beginning. I didn’t like Riven much, though. He was dealt a shit hand (even more so than the others in their small town), and even though I felt sympathy for him, he wasn’t easy to like (to me anyway, for reasons). He did deserve a second chance, and I’m glad he ended up with Parrish. His love for his grandma and Parrish showed that he wasn’t a totally bad person, but I didn’t necessarily *like* him. Even the grandma managed to annoy me a little, lol

He tasted like Riven. I didn’t know how to explain it other than that—maybe broken dreams fused together by the hope I tried to feed him.

I do wish there was less focus on a certain side character, as even though she didn’t deserve all the horrible treatment she got, she was experiencing the consequences of her actions, and my unforgiving ass couldn’t help but feel annoyed when people made excuses for her. There was no need for that much of the story to be focused on her.

I wanted to be those things for him that he never had, for him to be able to depend on me, to lean on me, have someone who would always have his back and fight like hell so nothing would hurt him.

One thing I didn’t expect from this book was to dislike the smut so much. The dirty talk and wording used was very ‘dudebro’, and made me cringe while reading. Very unsexy. This is obviously massively subjective, but using ‘cummy’ as an adjective (more than once), ‘finger-banging’, and five variations of ‘busting a nut’, all unironically, is more than I can ignore, lol. I will say I ended up laughing a lot when an orgasm was described as ‘motivated’.

I enjoyed the premise, but the seriousness of it all was kinda lost on me because of the copious amount of awkward and unnatural dirty talk.

“You called me baby.” His head was leaning back against the headrest, and he turned it toward me. “No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did.”
“Shut up.”

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Ex-best friend’s brother
Small town
Ex con
Enemies to lovers
Coworkers
Forced proximity
Childhood crush

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Drug use
Mentions of drug dealing
Mentions of incarceration
Betrayal
Graphic violence
Crime
Death of a side character (on page)
Explicit sexual content
Gun violence
Graphic injury
Manslaughter

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
MCs age: 31 and 29