Aeris
Tal Bauer is a new read to me, but I’ve seen his name and this book, You & Me, a lot around KU and MM reader groups. Given the shower of positive responses, I decided to pick this up. Based on the excerpt, I thought I was in for a light and cozy read. Well, it wasn’t exactly light, but it was cozy and warm and full of love. So much love.
A single dads, friends-to-lovers MM Romance.
Landon Larsen is the envy of all the dads in Last Waters, Texas. He’s cool, confident, and put together. He and his son — the high school’s all star-star quarterback — have the perfect father-son relationship. He’s such a super Dad, it’s almost sickening.
I’m not cool, or confident, and my relationship with my son couldn’t be worse. He’s barely speaking to me, and a year after my wife died, we’re both clinging to the wreckage of our family.
Landon’s son and mine are best friends and—of course—Landon is the football Team Dad. And thought I know nothing about football, Landon convinces me to volunteer to be closer to my son. Volunteering might give him and me a chance to rebuild what’s broken between us. Now I’m spending all my free time with the team — and with Landon — and the more we’re together, the deeper our friendship grows. My son is opening up, too, little by little. I think I’m getting him back.
There’s just one giant problem.
I’m head over heels for Landon.
I’ve never been attracted to men in my life… until him. Landon draws me in without even trying, and the harder I fight this, the deeper I fall.
Crushing on my son’s best friend’s father must be my biggest parenting failure ever, but I can’t get enough of Landon. Falling for him puts each fragile moment I’ve rebuilt with my son at risk. What would he think if he knew I craved his best friend’s dad? I’m playing with fire, but I can’t turn off these feelings Landon has unlocked inside of me.
Of course, a guy like Landon could never fall for someone like me. It’s pointless to even imagine we could be something together.
So why did I just kiss him?
Wow, that’s a long synopsis.
The book opens with Luke Hale — a broken and miserable person who feels like he failed in both life and fatherhood.
Failure lived inside me like an organ. I could feel it pumping alongside my heart. Keeping me alive, even when I didn’t want it to.
That first paragraph grabbed me and didn’t let go. Luke’s definition of failure, how he sucks, and how he tries so hard to make things right — all in the first few pages of the book. It’s gripping. His trepidations are infectious. I fear for Luke, how his efforts might not earn him the result he wanted, but I’m also rooting for him. Who hasn’t had moments when you feel like you have done nothing right? I want to see Luke succeed, and gain back his son and his family. His life and happiness.
He was the easiest person to be around that I’d ever met. He’d burrowed into my life and set himself up like he had always been a part of my world. We were a puzzle made of two pieces, and when we fit together, all the sharp edges of life seemed squared off, blunted.
I was hooked by Luke’s wish to reconcile with his son Emmett, but I stayed for Luke and Landon’s moments. While their “meet-cute” isn’t exactly cute with Luke still wallowing in his self-loathing, the eventual cute part is to die for. Their easy friendship, the late-night texts, the volunteering activities, that slow-burn romance — ugh. Like I said, too cute.
I love being inside Luke’s head. Like Landon said, Luke has a different way of seeing the world. Inserting Landon’s POV will break immersion. And I can’t believe I’m saying this as a mostly single POV fan, but I would love to read Landon’s POV. I think there are also interesting things inside his head, too. Though I guess, there won’t be much character growth for him, seeing as he’s already stable, the constant one in the story.
While the You & Me in the title means Luke and Landon, I think, it may also apply to Luke and Emmett. The family subplot ties neatly to the romance plot and is essential to Luke’s growth. Life doesn’t magically rearrange itself just because he falls in love, but he has to work and fight for it. Especially with his relationship with his son. I loved seeing them grow closer throughout the book.
You & Me took my heart, not just with the story and its characters, but with the writing, too. The descriptions are *chef’s kiss. These are some of my favorite lines from the book:
If I could find it, maybe I could cut this pulsing mass out of me that kept fucking everything up. But if I could cut my failure out, would there be anything left of me?
What was left between us? Did he even remember Saturday morning pancakes and cartoons? Or did he only remember that distance?
What if, after I poured out my heart, my son stomped it with his cleats?
Hey, Google, I thought. How do you break your own heart first so someone else can’t?
My shirt, my skin, absorbed his tears. My body would always collect and cradle his tears. My arms would shelter him forever.
A child’s love is hard-fought, hard-won. You have to earn it.
“You’re classically handsome. You have the face that all men want,” I said, grinning at him. “But there’s so much more to you. Your looks would be empty on anyone else. It’s who you are that fills everything in.” I was rambling now. Full speed on a wild tear. “I can see your dedication in the lines of your face. Your work ethic in the cut of your jaw. I know you love life when I see you smile, and even when you’re not smiling, the laugh lines show you’d rather be. I know you’re a father when I look into your eyes, and I know you’re a good one when I see those eyes are kind. When you’re you, you light up, and all these different parts of you combine, and everything that you are bursts free. You’re like color exploding in a black-and-white world.”