Review: Us by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

SYNOPSIS:

Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated?

Five months in, NHL forward Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season. He’s living his dream of playing pro hockey and coming home every night to the man he loves—Jamie Canning, his longtime best friend turned boyfriend. There’s just one problem: the most important relationship of his life is one he needs to keep hidden, or else face a media storm that will eclipse his success on the ice.

Jamie loves Wes. He really, truly does. But hiding sucks. It’s not the life Jamie envisioned for himself, and the strain of keeping their secret is taking its toll. It doesn’t help that his new job isn’t going as smoothly as he’d hoped, but he knows he can power through it as long as he has Wes. At least apartment 10B is their retreat, where they can always be themselves.

Or can they? When Wes’s nosiest teammate moves in upstairs, the threads of their carefully woven lie begin to unravel. With the outside world determined to take its best shot at them, can Wes and Jamie develop major-league relationship skills on the fly?

REVIEW:

I was not emotionally prepared for this book! This book tore me down, gutted me, and then put me back together. It has been a while since I felt that much anxiety over if a relationship was really going to make it. Jamie and Wes are put through some hard relationship trials this book. Is keeping their relationship a secret the right thing to do, and when everything is out in the open, is that any better?

The beginning of the book starts off with Wes and Jamie settling into their life together and they literally radiate love. I can just feel the emotions shared between these two and to see the Canning family welcome Wes with open arms, had me sighing with happiness. Wes finally has the family he deserves. But things eventually took a turn a for the worst. It felt like life was getting in the way and their relationship ended up on the back burner. Communication was breaking down and these boys had my heart aching.

There are new secondary characters introduced, i.e. Blake, who had me cringing and laughing-out-loud all at once. Much like Jamie and Wes, I wanted to hate Blake but you can’t help but love the big dork. He added so much comic relief to some tense moments in the story but more so he was a needed friend to both Wes and Jamie. But Wes’ hockey family was fantastic for the most part and I have learned so much about hockey through this story that I might become a fan myself.

The last 20% of the story left me floating on Cloud 9. These boys have been through so much and they both deserve all the happiness. I am so sad to know that this series doesn’t continue past a novella. These boys have found a place in my heart and they are just so stupidly cute and stupidly hot. The story was a delightful balance of harsh realities, finding your voice, and sizzling make up sex. And lets be real, I. WAS. HERE. FOR. IT.

LINKS:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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