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Actual rating: 4-4,5

TW: death of parents, war, PTSD

Rep: Gay MCs, questioning SC, lesbian SCs

When I started this I was like „oh god, this is one of these books with instalust where the two dudes do nothing but each other�.
Well, I was wrong.
This book starts with Beau, a professional hockey player in the AHL being traded and moving to a new town in Texas, when on his way his car dies on him.
At the car repair shop he meets Conner, who’s kind of forced by his coworker Peggy to let him stay at his place as long as he has no other accommodations and his car is in repair.
The deal is: Beau has to help renovating the house, which has been destroyed a lot by a hurricane.

Conner has been in the Marine for years, and only just gotten out to take care of his four siblings who he doesn’t know well, after their parents died in a car crash.
All of them are still in mourning and impacted by their trauma, suddenly being forced to take care of four children wasn’t in Conners plans.
Bringing Beau into this mess was not his ideal situation either. Starting with a gay Guinea pig wedding (I laughed my ass off!).

I absolutely loved the found family element in this.
Beau has been traded a lot and never lived long in one place. His relationship to his own parents is not very tight either.
Him sneaking his way into this dysfunctional family was so cute and heartwarming to read. The way he takes care of the children and talks and really listens to them. He’s not only a physical but also such an emotional help for Conner and his siblings. It felt like he was the missing piece for their family to finally work out. And he fit in so well. (Did I mention he has blue hair?! 😂)
After the first instalust it slowed down immediately and this book is not very steamy at all. It had a lot more depth than I first anticipated and was more of a slow burn romance after all. They were so cute together. Like new parent trying to figure out life. 😂

As far as I know Texas is a very conservative state, so being openly queer there is not a given. This book is SO queer though. Both MCs are gay, one of the kids is questioning, there are married lesbians. I loved it!
I loved all the side characters, from the kids who each have their own problems to the woman in this being absolutely fantastic badasses.

I loved this, the ending was super cheesy yet very cute and simply perfect.

The only critique I have was the fat phobic comment in the beginning. There is a horrible social worker trying to take away the kids from Conner because he’s a homophobe. Yes, he’s a horrible person, yet it has nothing to do with his statue. It’s not a thing I like to see or read.
Also the storyline wasn’t picked up again in the end and just left hanging at his threat somehow? Or maybe I missed it.

🎧 Audio review: I love Chris Chambers, I really loved some of the audios he did! But somehow he sounds different in every single one and in this one he was rather monotonous and emotionless sometimes. Also to me it is SO hard to follow a book with two POVs and only one narrator. It’s super confusing sometimes and I wished they would have done two narrators instead.