This was a really well done, slow burn love story.  I enjoy slow burn stories but I feel like we rarely see them. As a result I was really excited when I started reading this and realized that’s where the story was going.  These two meet under very bad circumstances and the author takes the time for them to build a believable friendship and then a believable love story.  Both of these men have some issues that they need to work through and it’s something that they do together.  I loved that there was no magic solution……no them falling in love and then all their problems are solved.

I liked Jake’s character a lot.  He was imperfect and he made some mistakes but they were realistic ones and I sympathized with him.  Max was a little harder for me to connect with but he grew on me and I enjoyed the two of them together.  There are a host of side characters and I liked most of them and thought they added to the story.  A bonus is that the ex girlfriend and mothers were not painted as horrible shrews as so often is done in this genre.

My only complaint was that some of the plot twists felt pretty unrealistic to me.  I had to do some suspending of reality in a few places.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this.  I felt it was unique and well done and is a book that I would definitely recommend.

Cover art by Garrett Leigh:  I love the cover.  I think it’s striking and it fits the story perfectly.