This is a poignant and emotional romance novel that is a perfect fit for readers who appreciate complex, angsty, and deeply emotional stories about forbidden love, self-discovery, and the struggles of living a life of secrecy, particularly those who enjoy M/M romance and are looking for a absorbing and deeply moving reading experience.

I really liked this book, but I felt that there were lulls in the story that needed some help.. However I found this to be really enjoyable and entertaining and would recommend.

It wasn't clear that this was a second book when I requested it so I was very confused for a while - I liked parts of this story, the characters had a lot of emotion and their backstory was clearly intense. For me, this was a little repetitive, a lot of stubbornness and ignoring which I understand can happen but for me just frustrated me, especially with the slow pacing. A good story with in depth characterisation but maybe just not for me.

I like how this book includes both POV, I think it is nice that it shows this nice small town setting. But I do believe they both spent too much time just being unwilling to move forward and being stuck in the same position.

This book sounded so good and started out so promising, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I couldn't get attached to the characters or encourage enough interest in the story events. I may try again at another time but this time was not a knock out of the park.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the gifted e-ARC!

[Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ebook. This review is my honest opinion but just another opinion, you should read this book and judge it by yourself]

I'm terribly sorry but I couldn't enjoy this story. I didn't like the characters, the writing style, the bitterness of the story.... I felt sorry for Shane and I couldn't stand Andy. Not my cup of tea but maybe yours, you give it a try.

3 stars

I didn't read the previous book in the serious nor did I realize this wasn't a standalone. I was a bit lost not knowing some things. The writing also felt kinda bland to me. It was an okay read but I doubt I remember anything about it in the future.

Was not able to read the entirety of the book and cannot give an accurate or overall rating/review . As a librarian for a big library system, we most likely have a copy of this item. I will look forward to reading it in future since I am sure I will.

I am not the expert in romance but this one felt a bit too predictable and blant. the characters are nothing special that made me feel for them. I feel that are some issues with the pacing not being very well structured because the first part is very very slow and nothing happens and that is not good to hook the reader while the second part started to have some pacing it was already a bit lost for me but it was still an enjoyable book i could laugh in a part or two and in the end it was a love story.

Diese Gay Romance wird aus den Perspektiven von Shane und Andy erzählt und ist der zweite Band einer Trilogie. Man kann die Bücher unabhängig voneinander lesen, allerdings hatte ich zu Beginn des Buches einige Probleme in die Geschichte zu finden, da ich das Gefühl hatte, mir wäre etwas entgangen. Neben der fortschreitenden Handlung gibt es auch hin und wieder kurze Rückblenden.

Shane und Andy sind beide in den 30ern und leben in einer kleinen Gemeinde, in der jeder jeden kennt. Sie haben vor etwa 17 Jahren eine Affäre miteinander begonnen, die bis heute andauert und von der bis heute niemand etwas weiß und wissen darf. Die dahinter liegende Angst und Sorge geht hauptsächlich von Andy aus, aber beide Männer leiden gleichermaßen unter der Situation. Während sich Andy mit seinem Leben und der Perspektive, für immer allein zu sein, abgefunden hat, hat Shane noch immer ein bisschen Hoffnung darauf, eines Tages mit Andy zusammen sein zu können.

Ich habe mich mit diesem Buch leider sehr schwer getan. Zum Einen hatte ich am Anfang große Schwierigkeiten damit, mich in Shane und Andy einzufühlen. Shanes Beweggründe, sich mit dieser - mehr oder weniger von Andy vorgegebenen - Situation abzufinden, konnte ich noch einigermaßen nachempfinden. Shane liebt Andy und hat leider vergeblich versucht, von dieser Liebe loszukommen. Ich konnte jedoch lange Zeit nicht begreifen, warum Andy sich so verhält, wie er es tut und damit den beiden eigentlich noch mehr Leid zufügt.
Zum Anderen hatte ich während der ersten Hälfte des Buches das Gefühl, dass nichts passiert und die Gedanken der beiden sich immer nur im Kreis drehten. Es gab wenige Dialoge und quasi kaum Handlung, dafür sehr viele innere Monologe mit den immer gleichen Überlegungen. Warum es dann schließlich zu einer Änderung in ihrem Verhalten kam und mit der Handlung vorwärts ging, kann ich mir auch im Nachhinein noch nicht wirklich erklären.

Die zweite Hälfte des Buches hat mir dann jedoch deutlich besser gefallen und konnte mich schließlich sogar an den Seiten fesseln. Die Handlung nahm an Tempo auf, die Entwicklung zwischen Shane und Andy wirkte natürlich und teilweise sogar süß, und ihre gemeinsame Vergangenheit wurde intensiver beleuchtet, sodass ich sie besser verstehen konnte. Auch das Ende war ausführlich und lang genug und hat mir gefallen. Zum Schluss habe ich mich in der Geschichte sehr wohl gefühlt und konnte das Buch mit einem Lächeln im Gesicht beenden. Dennoch denke ich nicht, dass ich die anderen beiden Teile der Reihe noch lesen werde.

Fazit:
Die zweite Hälfte des Buches hat mir ausgesprochen gut gefallen, sodass ich das Lesen doch noch genießen konnte. Aufgrund der sehr schwachen ersten Hälfte kann ich hier jedoch leider nur 3,5 Sterne vergeben.


In English:

This gay romance is told from the perspectives of Shane and Andy and is the second volume in a trilogy. You can read the books independently of each other, but at the beginning of the book I had some problems finding into the story because I had the feeling that I had missed something. In addition to the progressive storyline, there are also brief flashbacks from time to time.

Shane and Andy are both in their 30s and live in a small community where everyone knows everyone. They started an affair with each other about 17 years ago that has lasted to this day and about which nobody knows or is allowed to know anything to this day. Most of the fear and worry behind this emanates from Andy, but both men suffer equally from the situation. While Andy has come to terms with his life and the prospect of being alone forever, Shane still has some hope of being with Andy one day.

Unfortunately, I found it very difficult to read this book. For one, I had a lot of trouble getting used to Shane and Andy at the beginning. I could understand Shane's motivation to come to terms with this situation - more or less dictated by Andy - to some extent. Shane loves Andy and has unfortunately tried in vain to break away from this love. For a long time, however, I could not understand why Andy behaves the way he does and actually causes the two of them even more suffering.
On the other hand, during the first half of the book, I had the feeling that nothing was happening and that the thoughts of both of them were just going in circles. There were few dialogues and practically hardly any action, but a lot of inner monologues with always the same considerations. Even in retrospect, I cannot really explain why there was finally a change in their behavior and why the plot moved forward.

However, I liked the second half of the book a lot better and was even able to tie myself to the pages. The plot picked up pace, the development between Shane and Andy seemed natural and sometimes even sweet, and their shared pasts were shed more light on so I could understand them better. The ending was detailed and long enough and I liked it. In the end, I felt very comfortable with the story and was able to finish the book with a smile on my face. Still, I don't think I'll be reading the other two parts in the series.

Conclusion:
I really liked the second half of the book, so I could still enjoy reading it. Due to the very weak first half, I can unfortunately only give 3.5 stars here.

Oh dang it!! I really wanted to love this book as it sounded so good and started out so promising. Unfortunately, the style was so bland and I found the romance to be boring. I just didn’t really care for the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the gifted e-ARC!

I feel bad because this is just a matter of personal preference but the first person present tense ruined any interest I may have had in this book. I couldn’t do it. I’m going to say 3 stars and give the author the benefit of the doubt that I might have liked it had that stylistic choice been different.

3.5
A good story with mixed feelings from myself. A great gay fiction to diversify your shelves. Fun contemporary with a big message. There was a bit of repetition, which I struggle with in a lot of contemporary books. But it was a pleasant read.

I'll start off by saying that I've never read any other books by this author, so any information relevant to this story and in another book was completely lost on me. Either way, I do believe that this book should be able to stand on it's own, and it does to a certain extent.

It starts off like a floatie in a pool, there was nothing to anchor me to the story of really keep me interested. The characters seemed to simply exist, nothing really made them stand out from others in the genre or make me see them as real people making real decisions. I only persisted because I knew what the book promised and was more than willing to give extra energy to get it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to the story to keep me hooked. By the time I got to the backstory, I'd pretty much run out of good will and couldn't force myself to stay interested. I skimmed through about half of the book, though a few scenes did break me out of the haze and stand out.

The book was a good idea, but the writing just doesn't do it justice.

loved the representation in this book. It's always lovely to see a an adult M/M romance. I felt that a lot of the banter and dialogue was repetitive but enjoyable nonetheless.

Andy is afraid for everyone to know that he's gay and thinks he isn't good enough for Shane. Shane would happily tell everyone that he's in love with Andy, regardless of consequences, but holds back for Andy's sake. They dance around each other, hook up and then pretend they're just friends. I started to get tired of this and I can't believe that Shane was willing to wait all those years instead of moving forward with his life.

This book is filled with so many emotions and I loved how it was written. We get to know so many of the characters‘ thoughts and feelings, which definitely helps the reader to connect to the story. I absolutely loved that it was written from both‘s POV since we then get to know how both are actually feeling individually and how they are handling the situation. I also loved the fact that some scenes were repeating itself, but written from a different POV in order to understand everything.

Overall - I liked this - but didn't love it. I'm still interested to read more about this gang of friends and family! It sounds like Reid is going to need to take over the company for his dad and that should make things very interesting!

This story was so cute. It was definitely a typical romance novel and I love everything about that. I love books like these when I need some cuteness overload and want to see the beauty of the human experience and of falling in-love.

3.5*

This was a very cute story but extremely predictable. I did have a very good time reading it!

A huge thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book made me feel so many things I can't--
If I could describe this book by only using emojis it would be this -
😍😭🥺🥳🤯

This book felt really pure and lovely. I was frustrated throughout the whole book 😂 because two amazing man who cannot find their way to each other, mainly because Andy decided that they cannot continue this!!

Overall, I loved reading it so much - it was emotional, heart-wrenching, beautifully written and effective!

I definitely recommend this book 📚

Maybe this is my own fault, since The First Man is the second book in a series, but I assumed it was more companion-like. And it could be! But what I read had me feeling out of depth and like I didn't know anything about anyone. There wasn't a real anchor for me.

Speaking of anchor, there's no groundwork here. Yes, we eventually got some backstory (I made it 22% in before skimming the rest), but the characters' history together didn't come into until later, at odds points. On top of that, we're dropped in expecting to know every secondary character. Aside from angst, neither Shane nor Andy really had personalities. And I love some good angst, but this was too much needless back and forth.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.