Sharon’s review ~ You & Me by Tal Bauer

You & Me by Tal Bauer
Published by Independently Published on March 30, 2022
Genres: Contemporary, Family & Relationships / Dating, Family & Relationships / Love & Romance, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Gay, Friends to Lovers, LGBTQIA Romance, Romance, Seasoned Romance, Single Parent Romance, Small Town & Rural
Pages: 382
Format: eBook, Kindle Unlimited
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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A single dads, friends-to-lovers, bi awakening MM Romance.

We're a puzzle made of two pieces.

Landon Larsen is the envy of all the dads in Last Waters, Texas. He's cool, confident, and put together. He and his son—the high school's all-star quarterback—have the perfect father-son relationship. He’s such a Super Dad, it's almost sickening.

I'm not cool, or confident, and my relationship with my son couldn't be worse. He's barely speaking to me, and a year after my wife died, we're both clinging to the wreckage of our family.

Landon's son and mine are best friends and—of course—Landon is the football Team Dad. And though I know nothing about football, Landon convinces me to volunteer to be closer to my son. Volunteering might give him and me a chance to rebuild what's broken between us. Now I'm spending all my free time with the team—and with Landon—and the more we're together, the deeper our friendship grows. My son is opening up, too, little by little. I think I’m getting him back.

There's just one giant problem.

I'm head over heels for Landon.

I've never been attracted to men in my life… until him. Landon draws me in without even trying, and the harder I fight this, the deeper I fall.

Crushing on my son's best friend's father must be my biggest parenting failure ever, but I can't get enough of Landon. Falling for him puts each fragile moment I've rebuilt with my son at risk. What would he think if he knew I craved his best friend's dad? I'm playing with fire, but I can't turn off these feelings Landon has unlocked inside of me.

Of course, a guy like Landon could never fall for someone like me. It's pointless to even imagine we could be something together.

So why did I just kiss him?

***

You & Me is a single dads, friends-to-lovers, bi awakening MM romance, full of dads and their exasperating teenage sons, high school sports shenanigans, and #FoundFamily. Come for the epic love, stay for the forever feels.

You & Me is high on my list of favorite romances in 2022; a well written, feel-good, emotional story with characters than grew and learned throughout, I highly recommend this book.   ~ Sharon – Simply Love Books

It’s been a long time since a book hit me this hard with so many emotions running through me. You & Me by Tal Bauer (a new to me author) was simply wonderful on many levels. A gay/bi-awakening romance between single dads whose sons happen to be best friends and star players on their Texas high school team, I wouldn’t mention that if it wasn’t an important piece of this story. Honestly as I sit here trying to write a review that will do this book justice, I keep thinking of all the pieces of this story that gave it so much depth and such an emotional punch. From the first chapter until the last, I was swept away in this story and when it ended I was ready for a second book to appear, not because it didn’t have an amazing ending but because I absolutely loved You & Me and I wasn’t ready to leave this world.

One year following his wife’s death a letter addressed to her from the Last Waters Booster club spurs Luke Hale into going to practice and asking them to no send anymore letters addressed to her. What he doesn’t expect is to meet Landon Larsen; the man Luke deems “super dad,” and the man that turns his world more upside down than it has been.

There are a lot of parts to this story, but through it all the friendship and bond that develops between Luke, who is a somewhat downtrodden 40 year old whose life is nothing like he thought it would be during his high school and college years and Landon, a out and proud ex-Mormon lawyer with a perpetually sunny attitude was unique and entertaining.

Luke was an artist but finding out he was going to be a dad had him getting his general studies degree and a job working in insurance and it pays the bills but it isn’t something he loves. What he does love more than life itself is his son, Emmet, even though their relationship is strained and they haven’t connected since Emmet began showing great promise as a football player, a game his father knows nothing about. It was easy to see that Luke was at his wits end, he had no idea how to get through or relate to his son and while his relationship with his late wife wasn’t great (considering she had divorce papers in her purse when she died he knew nothing about), he was going through the motions of life and trying his best to not step on Emmet’s toes and provide for him as much as his son would let him. It was hard watching the animosity coming off of Emmet at the beginning of this book, but the author took such care in showing the subtle changes as they repaired their relationship and grew closer. As much as I loved the romance angle of this book, this part was especially satisfying and the book would not have been as good without it.

As this book is told from Luke’s point of view, I don’t felt as if we got to know Landon quite as well but we did get to see him from how Luke viewed him which was all very glowing. Landon was very open about realizing he was gay, the pain of losing part of his family when coming out, the break-up of his marriage, and relocating from Utah to Texas because his son Bowen wanted to play football and had dreams of playing in the NFL and Texas would give him a better opportunity. Landon was written as having his life together, a career he enjoyed, a fabulous relationship with his son, and a decent one with his ex-wife who flew in regularly for their son’s games. Yes, he still struggled with being gay and his faith and it was obvious that despite not being Mormon anymore he still practiced a lot of their beliefs. He was kind to everyone, helped any way he could in all ways, and he was a very sensitive soul. Honestly at times he was a bit “too perfect” but I think he was written that way because that was what attracted Luke. Luke from the first time they met envied Landon and it made him want to be a better person, a better man, and most of all a better father.

I loved the way their friendship began, the way they grew closer as they volunteered to support their son’s team, how easy they shared personal things with one another, and the shift to being more when Luke realized what he was feeling for Landon was more than friendship. While Landon was skeptical being that Luke had never had any bi-curious feelings before, Landon also couldn’t deny how much he enjoyed being with Luke and the closeness he felt to him.

I appreciated that there wasn’t a lot of relationship angst, that these two grown men were mature enough to realize what they were risking, were smart enough to communicate, and knew going in that what they had was something big.

I’m sure there will be people who dog this book for being too emotional, too sweet, too easy, but for me it was absolutely perfect.

You & Me is high on my list of favorite romances in 2022; a well written, feel-good, emotional story with characters than grew and learned throughout, I highly recommend this book.