Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.

Sorry in advance for the insane amount of quotes. I couldn’t pick.

Miller Harrison ticked boxes Sandy didn’t even know he had. But handsome was zero excuse for arseholery.

This book deals with a fair few things that are serious and important that I don’t feel at all equipped to comment on, like identity and sexuality, and there’s a good bit of bigotry in the forms of homophobia and ableism as well. I will say though, that these things are handled really well, and I enjoyed it being discussed through an emotional lovestory, and through characters that felt real.

“You can’t park there. It’s a disabled space.” “Accessible, actually.” If he had a dollar for every fucking time someone decided to police his disability, he’d be rolling in it.

It deals with a semi-closeted MC with a disability, who inadvertently (and against his will), becomes a role model for gay and disabled people, when all his life, he’s tried to be invisible and fly under the radar. He also falls in love with a very proud, femme gay man, who enjoys wearing skirts, a little makeup, and in general sometimes presents more as non-binary to the outside world, while he personally doesn’t want to be labeled at all. He just wants to be whatever feels right. You might imagine that one MC who doesn’t want to make waves, paired with one who wants to fight loudly to have the same rights as everyone else, might create some issues, and you would be right. It’s not always smooth sailing, but their connection is really strong, and when they have issues, they talk it out (eventually).

But it taught me that if your own parents can’t be trusted to listen to your story and learn from it, then no one else deserves it from you just as a matter of curiosity. It hurts too much to have it argued or rejected time after time, so I only offer it when I really want to. There might be people who genuinely want to know to improve their understanding, but unless they’re going to be a part of my life, I don’t have to be their rainbow Wikipedia. And they aren’t entitled to that from me any more than they would be entitled to answers on personal questions from a cis, straight person.”

This book was like a complete 180 from the previous one in the series, Up Close and Personal. I believed in the MCs being together, and they had amazing chemistry. And although the themes are serious and it got really sad at times, it’s not horribly angsty or anything. I think what angst is there was needed. Very highly recommend.

“You’ll share your arse and ram your tongue up mine, but you won’t share your potato fritters?”

Ugh, I don’t like the cover though. That’s not a great representation of the Sandy I have in my mind after reading, lol.

She thinks I’m one of those cheerful, twinky, go-shopping-with-your-girlfriend kind of gays, and I am so not that person. I’m six foot three of insecure, gangly, potty-mouthed confusion who struggles to find a dress size to fit.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Rugby player
Disability rep
Wheelchair user
Femme MC (skirts, makeup heels)
Para athlete
Assistant pathologist
Semi-closeted
Coming out
Facial (not a nice day at the spa)
Lingerie
‘Fostering’ a teenager

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Explicit sexual content
Homophobia
Mentions of drunk driving accident
Ableism
Domestic abuse (father/son, side character)
Attempted kidnapping
Car accident (on page)
Injury and hospitalization

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 3rd person, dual POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile

[…] I am so over babying guys through their puberty of emotional expression.”

“Yeah. Fucking men, right?” Sandy followed his gaze. “Who’d fucking love them?” “Us,” they both said and clinked their glasses.

His eyes rolled so far, the only thing stopping them falling down the back of his throat was the what-the-fuck coming up it.