5 ⭐️
Spice: 🌶️.5/5
Format: ebook

“I’ve been falling for you since the moment we met. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head once since you said hello to me at that Tuesday night practice. Every day, you’ve been in my thoughts, from when I wake up to when I fall asleep. And then you’re in my dreams.”

I had a whole reading plan but then I read one Tal Bauer book and now I can’t stop. Everything he writes is literal perfection, and You & Me is no exception.

This might be the first book ever where I loved every single character. Every. Single. One. Okay, maybe not Riley, but she wasn’t really part of the book at all.

We have Luke, a dad trying to recover from the death of a wife who hated him and trying to fix his relationship with his son. He is just the purest soul, only wanting the best for Emmet and for him to know how much he loved him, just not knowing how to show it. Knowing how much Riley screwed up their relationship makes me sick, but he was never bitter or resentful, and never had a bad thing to say about her, or anyone.

Then there’s Landon, the super dad whose whole world revolves around what’s best for his son. I don’t think there’s a better dad out there than Landon, and Bowen’s speech at the end of the book speaks volumes about their relationship. The way he took Luke under his wing to help him fix his relationship with Emmet and cheered him on the whole time, adorable. 

Bowen, a literal carbon copy of Landon. I loved his character so, so much. Such a great son, friend, teammate, captain, mentor, etc. Everything he did, he did with love and kindness. He helped Emmet when he was struggling and held him accountable when he needed it. And all he wanted was for his dad to be happy, so much so that he figured out as soon as he started secretly dating Luke just because he noticed the love they had for each other.

Emmet was so precious. Gosh, his mother really messed with his head, and I completely understand where he came from with his hang-ups over Luke. That poor baby really thought his parents didn’t care about him. But he did forgive Luke and slowly got closer to him again. The way his passions aligned with Luke’s in the end and they reminisced over drawing together when he was young had me in tears.

Luke and Landon are perfect together. A puzzle of two pieces, like Luke said. It was a slowburn but it was worth it. I enjoyed every single moment they spent together and I adored the way they slowly fell in love before they even knew it. I wish there was a bit more spice but the romance in this book cannot be topped.

This is going straight onto my “to be reread” shelf. I’ll never move on from them.