It was okay. sweet, cheesy but not much growth on the story or the characters.
But enjoyable and cute.

I adore second chance romance so I knew I would enjoy this. It was a cute romance, could have used a smidge more depth.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Kind of slow for me and did not connect to the characters.

This was exactly what I was hoping for and thought it was going to be. It was a cute romance of lost love redound. It was just what I needed at the time. I love going in to romance that meets expectations.

I...do not like this book. I wanted to, and I will be trying this author again to see if it's just their writing style I don't enjoy, but let's just get into this.

Jared and Logan were together once upon a time, but when Logan found out Jared was bi and not gay, it ended badly (with comments about how bisexuals are gross whores who can't make up their mind, etc etc etc). Jared is left with a broken heart and endless trust issues. a decade or so later, they are thrown back together in a twist of fate that has defense lawyer Logan with mob assassins after him and construction company owning Jared somehow saving him in a variety of ways, including shooting someone with a nail gun. You know, as you do.

So let's talk about the problem I have with this.

There are major issues with the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community here. First of all, I have a hard time rooting for a relationship where one of the two players starts off in such a bad place, but even more than that is the overall, well, anti-normalization of the gay community. It's pretty gross, honestly. At one point, one hero actually thinks that the cops were being surprisingly professional seeing as they are there to interview witnesses to an assassination in a gay bar. Really? Are gay bars really that uncommon? I mean come on, the story takes place in Boston, it's a major city, there are tons of gay bars, and I'm reasonably certain the Boston police department has talked with gay people, you know, once or twice. At least.

On a side note, apparently Jared's cuts start healing in a couple of hours. He must be an X-Man....

I was looking forward to a fantasy M4M romance story. Disappointed when I finished the book and it ended before the romance really came together. I would have preferred less of the action around the legal case and more of the two main characters finally getting together at the end. Might have been better if it had been marketed as an action story with the M4M romance as a secondary plot. I would then have been less likely to request it and read it. Simply did not live up to the cover and the description. I am baffled as to why so many female writers of M4M romance feel the need to make the main character(s) bi-sexual.. It was tolerable here as the author made it a part of the main characters' history. On the other hand, it detracted from from the reading enjoyment to be reminded of it in scenes when the the fact was not germane to what was happening. Was the author aiming at a female reader?

2 Stars

Quick Summary
Jared is a contractor in construction who just got out of a relationship because his girlfriend moved away. When he meets his ex Logan who is also his new client, he is not happy. Logan, on the other hand, wants to apologize for the hurtful things he said when they broke up in college and reconnect, but Jared is determined not to be receptive. However, Logan's job as a defense attorney puts him in danger, so he asks for Jared's help and over time, they begin to rekindle their old relationship.

Review
This book perfectly explains why I am so hesitant to read books in the second chance romance genre. There is such a huge danger of the book just losing the spark of passion and the journey of falling in love. Instead of seeing why Logan fell in love with Jared again or vice versa, this book just came off to me as a lot of Logan apologizing until Jared finally forgave him. It didn't really have any true "romance" in it, because I honestly could not tell you why Jared and Logan fit and were right for each other. There was really no chemistry between them that I could see. Plus, I thought Logan was kind of a jerk in college and got off way too easy for the legitimate hatred that poured out of him. I do understand the influence of parents on upbringing, but I feel like college is all about taking responsibility for your words and actions. At that point, being ignorant is a choice, especially about an identity so integral to your boyfriend. Logan says some really hateful biphobic things to Jared before breaking up with him. I kind of felt like Logan got off really easy and he didn't quite deserve Jared. On a positive note, biphobia was pretty decently represented. There are definitely people that hold such strong views about bisexuality, and the book did a good job bringing attention to the fact that it isn't just the fundamentalist Bible-clutchers who are capable of hate.

The book was also quite long and sometimes boring to read. There were many dialogues and not too much of Logan and Jared just being a couple, which is my favourite part.

Also, it is totally uncool (in my opinion) for a brother to continually give someone who said such hateful things about your family access to that person, even if they were your roommate. I have a brother, and that is totally not okay. Personally, I think a fair reaction is something along the lines of an interrogation and dissection of that person's entire life before giving them any sort of help, but hey, that's me.

I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven't read anything by this author before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I mostly enjoyed this book, so I may try to read one of her other books to see how it compares.

While I liked both Jared and Logan, it feels like I didn't get to know them very well, other than the aspects that were expanded upon from the synopsis. The author just didn't dig deep enough to get to the heart of these characters. The angst was 10 years old, so Jared and Logan's rehashing of the past became repetitious. I just wanted them to move on and get over it already!

I really enjoyed the secondary characters, especially Gage. So, overall, this wasn't a terrible read, but I think with a few changes it could have been a great story.

I don't normally complain about the narrative style of a book but in this case the third person narrative was distracting. This was especially true in the beginning when I was struggling to remember which character was which and the paragraphs would just seem like a never ending tale of names. I was also taken aback by the biphobia and the repeated mentions of it. It just felt like such a fake conflict to me. I didn't dislike the story, just the back story and the narrative style.

This felt very non-realistic. The beauty about contemporary fiction is that it's believable which helps you escape. The other genres like paranormal, horror, etc... is where the world is full of possibilities. This felt like there is no way the characters would act like this in real life. And the whole bi racism. I know it happens but Logan's parents being on board with it was part of the unrealistic part. This was my first time with this author and it didn't reel me in.

I received an e-ARC of Building Up to Love by J.V. Speyer from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a second chance story between a designer/contractor, Jared, and defense lawyer, Logan, who’s being tormented by the mob. They were together in college but Logan, who is gay, broke up with Jared for being bi. There was lots of biphobic language in this book so there’s a content warning. Mostly, it was Jared remembering things Logan had said to him as well as biphobic stuff he internalized over the years. I was bothered by it, but it was Jared’s main conflict and reason for staying away from Logan after they ran into each other after 10 years apart. Logan believed all the hateful stuff his parents said about Jared back in college but during their time apart, he grew up, realized all that stuff was bullshit, and was very sorry he treated Jared that way. So when they meet up again, he immediately wants to make amends. Jared’s not into it because he can’t trust Logan, but he still wants him. They have sex a couple of times, but Jared says he doesn’t want to see Logan anymore. Then Logan confesses his love in an email.

This is where the story lost me. I just didn’t feel like the story earned the “I love you” yet. It felt like Logan was cheating, trying to skip the hard part of reconciling and just using I love you as an emotional bomb to get Jared back. This whole time, Logan is being stalked in more and more lethal ways by one of his client’s mob bosses and Jared saves his life a few times. Eventually, the mob boss gets put away and Jared decides to take a chance on Logan. But again, it just didn’t feel earned. Jared goes from “I don’t trust you and I don’t want to see you” to “I love you. Let’s have sexy times forever” without much effort. There was no grovel, no major conversation, and their relationship seemed pretty shallow. There’s another ex-boyfriend of Jared’s as a secondary character who was much more intriguing. I wanted them to work it out more than I cared about Jared/Logan.

I give this book three stars. It wasn’t bad, but I had quite a few issues with it. Also, the cover bugs me because Logan is described as having light brown skin and curly hair, not some basic white bro with straight douchebag hair.

This was a solid 3 stars for me. I enjoyed the overall story for the most part, but the words...!! This could have been seriously condensed (or the words could've been used for more depth). I felt like the inner dialogue and overall plot just went on forever. It was a little tedious and repetitious in a number of places.

Still, I liked both Jared and Logan, although Jared had some serious hang-ups that he couldn't seem to release (part of the wordiness stemmed around his constant re-hashing of them). The romance was nice and somewhat believable (though I kind of felt like Jared just got tired of his own whinging and gave in). I mostly wasn't sure why it had taken Logan so long to find Jared again -- it almost felt like he made the move for professional reasons, and then when he realized Jared was nearby, he thought, "Oh, I should start a relationship with him." So that aspect of suddenly recalling he was in love didn't really work for me...but it was okay overall.

Building Up to Love is a complicated story about love, acceptance and second chances. Logan has a lot of groveling to do if he wants Jared’s forgiveness after the way he broke his heart and screwed with his self-image for years afterward. Though a little slow this is a really good story.

This book taught me love is love no matter who you are. These characters were so well written and the plot was so good. Highly recommend.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I Highly recommend this book. It` s a romance with a little twist.
Jared and Logan meet after several years. In the past they were together, but Logan hurt badly Jared and now when they meet the pain came back.
Jared does not know how to deal with the new situation how to treat Logan, on one hand he doesn’t` want anything from him on the other hand he still has feelings.
But that`s not all Logan is in danger...
I really enjoyed the romance between those guys. It was heart-warming, cute and uplifting.
And the twist makes it even more interesting I could not put the book down.

A second chance story about how people can change. Over all I really enjoyed it, though there were some parts that seemed to drag on a bit. The romance, though, seemed a bit rushed. Jared is a study in contrasts both forgiving and not forgiving Logan at the same time and it's a bit confusing. All in all an enjoyable read, though!

3.5 stars!

Building Up to Love is a good read by JV Speyer. Focusing on bisexuality, it has a poignant theme.

Jared's faith in men has been destroyed, as Logan wasn't able to trust the bisexual Jared. A very intriguing topic, it's a wonderful illustration of the struggles with explaining bisexuality and the ability to be monogamous.

As these former roommates are reunited, Logan has to ride the fine line between giving Jared his space and trying to explain his past decisions. It's a great story of being in love but unable to put the past behind him. It's about rebuilding trust, rebuilding faith.

They also have to deal with some danger from some people who don't like Logan defending a certain criminal. A lawyer for mobsters, this also makes for a good take on morality and the job.

Building Up to Love is a wonderful story of getting a second chance with the great love of one's life. I was a little weary in the beginning, but overall I really enjoyed this story.

Again, I have to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book. No doubt an entertaining love story of two people reuniting after many years.

Anything with the mob involved is going to be totally crazy. Danger around every corner. But what struck me was the way in which we always find ourselves judging what is not understood. J.V. brought to light, how society, as a whole is sometimes so prejudiced over what they don't understand, instead of respecting someone choice and educating themselves. I couldn't put this story down. I also loved the nail gun scene.

This is not your typical M/M Romance. Author J. V. Speyer takes us on a very detailed adventure that reads more like a well written work of fiction than a pulp romance. It's a pretty wild ride!

I really liked that Speyer gives us a personal look at the lives (and work) of Jared and Logan and isn't afraid to delve in to the deep feeling behind their difficult history. It gave a nice, balanced reality to the craziness of the story. Their feelings and romance feels real too. As do the interactions with their friends and families that just want what they think is best for them.

This is the perfect book for those that want a little more out of their romances.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.