"The afterword got me right in my fucking feelings. Ouch, but also awwww. I just wanna hug the author. That’s still weird for me to say because I’m still not a touch person.

I will also never recover from the Rolodex of local asses comment. My soul left my body for a moment while I caught my breath. There were actually many times where I needed a break to recover from laughing. It was fantastic.

As for the rest of the story, I loved it. I am always going to be here for a good OV story. This one reminded me so much of listening to my friends talk about their relationships and dating lives. Aside from the clearly romanticized bits that border on implausible-to-impossible in all romance books, it was painfully and beautifully accurate to real life. The dialogue, the mechanics of spicy times� it was amazing. The characters were relatable and well developed, I loved Lucas being included instead of used as a plot device and abandoned when unnecessary, and the world that was built left me eager for the next installment so I could keep digging into it.

This is for sure what MM romance should be all the time. Especially the fact that there’s bearS. More than one. In the same pairing. Hella good stuff.

My only gripe would be that the ARC wasn’t a closer-to-final copy, and it got dicey here and there trying to work around the things that will be fixed in the final version. That’s not factoring into the rating, but I’m mentioning it because it just goes to show how much I loved the story. I loved it so much that I had to do some reaching to find anything amiss.

4.5/5. Were there things that didn’t work for me on a personal level? Yes. Of course there were things I wouldn’t vibe with, but that’s just me. And I know what goes on out in the world even if I’m a shut-in with no tangible friends outside of my bestie these days. Will I be recommending this book to all my friends that ask me for OV recs? Absolutely. This book reminded me of the Finn Dixon realness I can’t ever get enough of, and that’s the best kind.



**[I received an ARC from Gay Romance Reviews (GRR). All ratings, reviews, and opinions are my own.]**"