Did not Finish. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I found it a bit confusing and repetitive.
Thank you, NetGalley, for sending me a copy.

A second chance romance in the small town of Connemara where everyone knows each other and everyone else's business, this was such a cute yet angsty read. I enjoyed the range in emotions that made it to the page as well as the camaraderie between all the side characters. I especially enjoyed how Silas and Leo eventually come together even though they had become estranged throughout the years.

Silas endeared himself to me immediately, but seeing Leo dealing with the aftermath of the decisions he made and the direction his life went knowing what he really wanted out of life--especially who he wanted--made my heart go out to him too. I could clearly see how deeply connected and emotionally tied they were, even when apart.

 It's an interesting story with fascinating characters. It has a bit of humour, a bit of mystery and a little sadness. I am not a fan of Leo, but he is sweet, and he adds some of the best comic relief. Silas is compassionate and easygoing, he has a calming effect on everyone. 

Although this is the fifth book in the series, it would help to have read the previous books since this is a very tight-knit group of friends and family and some of their stories are touched upon in this book. I've only read the first two and felt a bit lost in the beginning, but I understood that they're all a found family of sorts and that they all added something to the story somehow. Thankfully, as the story progressed there was more of Silas and Leo's story--more of their development, their engaging interactions and their superb chemistry.

Overall I liked the MCs in the first half and was pleasantly confused by the secondary characters. The second half did not live up to the premise for me and felt like it could have used more editing and expansion of the characters. I considered a DnF but I was far enough into it I pushed through.

O-M-G! 📚✨ So, like, imagine this super cute book set in the small town of Connemara, where literally everyone knows everyone else's biz! It's like living in a fishbowl! 🐟 But hey, that's where all the juicy drama goes down, right? 😜 This book had me feeling all the feels, from swooning to stressing out!

Silas and Leo's romance had me hooked! 🥰 Despite all the angst and drama, I was rooting for them SO hard! Like, who doesn't love a second chance at love, right? 💌 And OMG, the side characters were total squad goals! 🙌 The way they all had each other's backs was just too cute!

But, like, can we talk about how this story was a bit of a rollercoaster? 🎢 It was kinda long and sometimes felt like déjà vu, you know? Like, we get it, stuff happens, but do we really need to go through it all over again? 😅 Still, it had all the good stuff – humor, mystery, and a little bit of sadness to keep things interesting!

Leo was a mixed bag for me. 😬 Like, I wasn't totally feeling him, but he did bring some serious comic relief! 😂 And Silas? Total sweetheart! 💖 He was like a calming cup of tea in a world full of chaos.

Overall, I totally dug this book, even if it could've been a tad shorter. 📖✨ Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for hooking me up with the eARC! #BookNerdForever 🤓📚

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This was a cute story. I will say I did not realize this was part of a series when I requested it, but they seemed like more interconnected stories, so it did not really affect my understanding of the story. I liked this overall, I felt it was a little long for what it was (a queer romance), but still a cute story, I might go back at some point and read the other stories in the series. I guess only time will tell on that!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*

I did not know that this was a sequel when I started reading it but my rating was not influenced by this as the author makes it very easy to catch up. I just did not like the two main protagonists, I did not like their romance and overall I found that most people seemed more caricatures than people. I really enjoyed the Irish setting (I know Clifden very well), but the novel also did not feel Irish to me in any way, it could've also been set in the States for that matter. While I enjoyed how old wounds could finally heal and how families came together, my dislike for both main characters prevented me from enjoying the read. I also kept mixing the two of them up (don't ask me why!) and thought that they both should work on their communicational skills and maybe go and get therapy. Graphic sex scenes yes, but they were more tasteless than sexy. I don't know. Gay men, what did you think? 2.5 stars

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I absolutely loved this novel.
Such a great story with defined characters and a great plot.
What drew me in the most was how fleshed out the characters were
The writing style was fluid and relateable.
The cover was fascinating as well.
A reviting read overall
Definitely recommend adding this to your TBR!

I was very intrigued by this small town second chance romance when I read the premise, but there were a number of things that didn’t really work for me. For one, this is the fifth book in a series, which I didn’t realize when I requested it. While it is possible to read this as a standalone, I had a really hard time keeping track of who all the people were and there were a lot of things mentioned in passing that seemed to come out of nowhere that I’m assuming were plot elements of previous books.

I also struggled with Silas and Leo’s relationship. They were best friends in high school that turned into something more but Leo wasn’t out and ultimately left town and married a woman. Now he’s separated from his wife and has moved back to take care of his brother, although it’s never explicitly stated what’s wrong with his brother or why Leo and the whole town are so concerned about him. It’s not stated on page, but Leo reads as demisexual to me, and I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the translation but I was rubbed the wrong way by his refusal to acknowledge that he could be gay. Like I get that labels are personal, but he admitted he was in love with Silas and then went “but I’m not gay”. I also really didn’t like how hung up Silas was on Leo marrying a woman. Towards the end of the book it is made clear that Leo married her right after he ran away from Silas wanting to go public, so I would have understood if it was specifically Rachel he had a problem with but it read more as biphobia like Silas believed Leo couldn’t possibly be attracted to multiple genders.

Questionable queer representation aside, I also did not love the way it made it seem like Leo and Silas were soulmates and couldn’t possibly be happy without one another. I generally don’t buy into the one true soulmate thing though I might have been able to gloss over it but because of my frustration with other elements, I just couldn’t do it.

As I didn't know this book was part of a series, I found it hard to get into it fully and was quite confused at the beginning. Usually that's not a huge deal for me, but it did take me quite a while to get into the book as this time it was pretty hard to follow. I liked the second chance aspect, but it wasn't my favourite book all around unfortunately.

This sounded so cute, however it was way too confusing for me to read and follow. Admittedly, that is my fault for not realizing it was part of a series. If I had known that, I would not have read this,.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I was so excited for this book, and although it was cute and had great representation, it was so hard to keep up since its a part of a series. It should’ve stated that we wouldn’t be able to read without the previous books :(

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was eager to get a chance to read this book by AS Kelly who is a new to me author. I love an LGBTQ+ romance and I really liked these two characters. Even better is a Second Chance romance! There was also more humor here than I expected and that always makes for an enjoyable read. However I did not know that this book was the FIFTH in a series. Sometimes series romances can stand alone well, but this quickly discovered to be one that doesn't. I made it through it but I spent a lot of time confused and feeling like big gaps were missing. It would be nice for NetGalley to advise readers somewhere that a book is part of a series so we can have that info before we choose to request it. Still the book was fairly enjoyable and if I had the background information it would have been much more so.

This book started off so confusing for me. Too many characters all introduced at once so it was hard to focus on the supposed MC's. Is this a part of an overall series because it felt like the plot jumped around to everybody. Pacing and flow could've been a little stronger.

Fun and Sweet. An effortless read that keeps you interested enough until the end.
A sucker for HEA and this one delivers on that front for sure.

i wanted to LOVE this- LGBT small town romance, friend to lovers to kinda-rivals-kinda-just-estranged to lovers again- but it was a bit hard to follow

this is book 5 of a series with all books marketed as able to be read as standalones but i had such a hard time following the complicated relationships of this tiny town without having read the other books

this book follows Silas and Leo in a slow burn dual POV with flashbacks to their high school friendship, the start of their relationship, why they became estranged, and how they rekindled their romance
while there were some super cute scenes, and while i was interested and invested enough to finish, i was so lost through most of the book- we don't learn the backstory to almost anything- including the fact that the characters knew each other before they "met" in the first few chapters (like okay obviously we know that from the book summery but still)

overall: cute read, love the story idea, should not be read as a standalone, MM romance, miscommunication is a HUGE HUGE HUGE trope in this book and honestly drove me completely wild most of the time

I really recommend you read the first books in this series. You don't need to, but it helps you understand this book better. This is a second chance romance between two male best friends, Silas and Leo. The way they become estranged from each other over time, and the difficulties they face in reuniting felt very real. Leo goes through quite a bit, and makes awful decisions. Still, Kelly writes in a way where you can understand where he's coming from. I really liked Silas the best, and this book makes you cheer these two on.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.

The writing style was not my jam and it was extremely hard to get into the narration. Part of that may be due to the face that the story is in a romance series and I had not previously read the other books. There was a lot of info dumping in order to catch the reader up, and that weighed down the story.

I’ve always loved this authors writing, especially her MM books! They’re emotional and so full of life that you can’t put the book down!

Also I’m in love with this town and all these characters in it😍

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the earc in return for an honest review

When I requested this book I didn’t realise it was part of a series. That’s my mistake and it did impact my reading experience.
I think if I’d read the previous books I would have enjoyed this one much more because I like the characters and the small town feel, so if you’ve read the others then I’d highly recommend this book.
I do think the author could have made more effort to give some small bits of background throughout to make it easier for new readers to the series who like me accidentally jumped in to an ongoing series.