Raquel Riley

CW/TW: PTSD, Amputee Rep, Hearing Loss in one ear, Burn Victim Rep, Basically all the military injuries, suicidal ideation, 3 suicide attempts by a main character

West and Brandt are best buds who are in the same unit. They’ve been friends since basic training and here we are 12 years later. They go on a bad operation and end up saving each other’s lives and end up with a whole bunch of issues. West isn’t doing well after he gets back stateside. Brandt keeps a wildly close eye on him show more because he keeps trying to end it all.

I did really enjoy this. With books with major injuries, I usually feel like they rush the timeframe forward so much that people recover from their injuries immediately and like, no. This was set across months and no one is fully healed by the end. I wanted to shake West at a few points because he was so focused on his own losses that he kind of forgot about Brandt’s. I wish we had leaned into the hearing loss part of the story a smidge. Brandt is adamant that West follow his recovery to the letter and is like, nah, when it came to his own when he rejected the hearing aids.

I did like that they went really slow. Their relationship shifting after they came home was new to them and even when West was in his head, they still were able to be vulnerable with each other and talk because it was so important. show less

Received an ARC and this is my honest review.
4*
Really enjoyed! Anonymous hookup to workplace enemies is a great setup and these guys are as likely to throw punches as tear each other’s clothes off. The snarky comments, the flaring tempers, the fantasizing…

3.5 stars

This is pretty heavy for the first half with a couple of suicide attempts depicted for the MC West and focused heavily on West being depressed and sorry for himself, with MC Brandt trying to hold everything together. I really enjoyed the last quarter but it wasn't enough to drag my rating to a full 4 stars. The knitting circle men were great - a very needed lightening to the story!

Narration was very good - 2 new to me narrators, Lance West and Curtis Michael Holland.

I’ve been on the fence about this one for a lot of reasons, but it was surprisingly good. Enjoyed it for what it was, and will continue to be on the fence about the marketing. Love a good friends-to-lovers story!