Release Review: You & Me: Tal Bauer
Me & You
Tal Bauer
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Tal Bauer
Add to Goodreads
Buy Amazon or KU
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.
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This book just destroyed me in the best ways and it left me in a book hangover. I could not put this book down. I can’t stop thinking about these characters. Fathers. Sons. Friends. Lovers. And all of the layered relationships between them. This book brings you to the lowest of the lows and then gives you these glimpses of joy, little victories, and progressions that touch your heart and eventually unravel into this beautiful joy and sense of family, love, and comfort. The found family aspect of this story completely touched my heart and I truly believe that these guys were all meant to be together and to love and support one another. Luke, Landon, Emmet, and Bowen have carved a little niche in my heart. I hurt for them. I cried for them. And I rejoiced with them. This story is so raw, real, and honest. There are parts that made me tear up in sadness, but also sometimes just because of the mushy-gushy, sweet, swoony goodness.
The complex and layered dynamics between these characters are so intense and it feels like you’re just peeling the layers away bit by bit to get deeper into the situations. Both the father-son relationships and the awakening of Luke and Landon‘s feelings are so powerful and so raw and vulnerable. These characters just feel real. They are far from perfect. They definitely have flaws and have made mistakes and there are also secrets and miscommunications and misperceptions that have interfered in their relationships. And to see the hope, growth, awareness, progress, and just the work that they are willing to put in to make things better is amazing.
This is a new-friends-to-lovers, single dads, small-town, sports-centered romance. The relationships between the fathers and sons are just as important as the relationship between the protagonists.Tal Bauer just does an excellent job of digging into the nitty-gritty with these male characters. One father's life was sent into a tailspin and there was a lot of collateral damage including his relationship with his son. And the other father seems to set the perfect example single dad harmony. A new friendship is formed over their son's football team and the bond between these them just grows naturally. It’s a poignant, fragile, emotional, bi-awakening story where two men unexpectedly find a connection that they didn’t realize was possible but could have a ripple effect on their sons' lives.
I loved Luke and Landon's Dad's nights out that were not intended to be dates but sure felt like it, and their fumbling foray into realizing that their friendship was becoming more than it was supposed to be. I loved that even though Luke was experiencing something totally new that he was open and wanted to see what could happen despite his fears. And Landon was just such a stable, calm, and anchoring force to all of them, but deep down he had his own fears and insecurities too. There’s just so much swirling emotion under the surface with all of these characters and it just kept me reading and waiting to see how it was all going to come out. I was totally invested in this compelling and heartfelt story and these rich and wonderful characters.
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Tal Bauer writes breathtaking, heartfelt, and often action-packed gay romance novels. His characters are head over heels for each other and fight against all odds for their happy ending. Nothing stands in the way of love. Tal is best known for his romantic suspense novels, including the Executive Office series, The Murder Between Us, The Grave Between Us, The Night of, and his MM sports romance, The Jock.
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