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bookish_bonzsu's review against another edition
5.0
I liked the fact that basically nothing had been cliche about this book. It turns out very different as I expected and I loved it! Ethan and Kurt relationship is so precious and real. I loved the way how this book had been written.
bluebeereads's review against another edition
5.0
Okay, so full disclosure: this is the first book I've read that's set in New Zealand and I'm not overly familiar with the country, but google was my friend! I made sure to look up all locations (holy damn NZ is gorgeous) and food & expressions & such that were mentioned in the book. (I had no idea what pavlova is, but now I want it.) I always do that when I read a book set in a location I'm not familiar is. (Real world ones, that is...) Why? It helps me immerse myself in the story more if I can pick up on all the vibes of where it's set. So yeah, I did a fair amount of googling while reading this story and then promptly admired the beauty of NZ.
Jay Hogan is an author that has been recommended to me quite a few times and I can't, for the life of me, tell you why it's taken me until now to pick up one of her books. Honestly, that was stupid of me. Because this story is so very very beautiful. The moment I started reading it just drew me in and didn't let me go. I fell in love with NZ and all these wonderful characters. Tanner and Ethan's romance grew so naturally and it was absolutely stunning to see them grow closer while they were both fighting demons in their own way. I was actually sobbing at one point, not gonna lie. I was that invested in them.
And once I turned the last page, I did the only logical thing. I got all of Jay Hogan's books so I can binge all of them. Obviously. I'm definitely a fan and I highly recommend this book if you haven't read it yet!
Jay Hogan is an author that has been recommended to me quite a few times and I can't, for the life of me, tell you why it's taken me until now to pick up one of her books. Honestly, that was stupid of me. Because this story is so very very beautiful. The moment I started reading it just drew me in and didn't let me go. I fell in love with NZ and all these wonderful characters. Tanner and Ethan's romance grew so naturally and it was absolutely stunning to see them grow closer while they were both fighting demons in their own way. I was actually sobbing at one point, not gonna lie. I was that invested in them.
And once I turned the last page, I did the only logical thing. I got all of Jay Hogan's books so I can binge all of them. Obviously. I'm definitely a fan and I highly recommend this book if you haven't read it yet!
tyseco's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
geeknb's review
5.0
Lovely. Blubbed for every word between 83-88%, every bloody word.
This story deals with overcoming grief in many forms and the lengths people go to to protect themselves from that hurt. Ethan & Kurt are dealing with the loss of their mother, an immediate and intense hurt. Into this comes Tanner, older, more put together, except Tanner is still running from the grief of his career-ending injury 14 years ago.
Despite the subject matter I found this a light read (apart from that 5% of impending separation that I could barely read through my tears), funny in places, definitely hot (Ethan and Tanner caused sparks in the bedroom), with a great sense of place. The conflict was real with understandable reactions on both sides (even though I wanted to slap Ethan on occasions).
Can't wait for the sequel.
This story deals with overcoming grief in many forms and the lengths people go to to protect themselves from that hurt. Ethan & Kurt are dealing with the loss of their mother, an immediate and intense hurt. Into this comes Tanner, older, more put together, except Tanner is still running from the grief of his career-ending injury 14 years ago.
Despite the subject matter I found this a light read (apart from that 5% of impending separation that I could barely read through my tears), funny in places, definitely hot (Ethan and Tanner caused sparks in the bedroom), with a great sense of place. The conflict was real with understandable reactions on both sides (even though I wanted to slap Ethan on occasions).
Can't wait for the sequel.
geeknb's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely. Blubbed for every word between 83-88%, every bloody word.
This story deals with overcoming grief in many forms and the lengths people go to to protect themselves from that hurt. Ethan & Kurt are dealing with the loss of their mother, an immediate and intense hurt. Into this comes Tanner, older, more put together, except Tanner is still running from the grief of his career-ending injury 14 years ago.
Despite the subject matter I found this a light read (apart from that 5% of impending separation that I could barely read through my tears), funny in places, definitely hot (Ethan and Tanner caused sparks in the bedroom), with a great sense of place. The conflict was real with understandable reactions on both sides (even though I wanted to slap Ethan on occasions).
Can't wait for the sequel.
This story deals with overcoming grief in many forms and the lengths people go to to protect themselves from that hurt. Ethan & Kurt are dealing with the loss of their mother, an immediate and intense hurt. Into this comes Tanner, older, more put together, except Tanner is still running from the grief of his career-ending injury 14 years ago.
Despite the subject matter I found this a light read (apart from that 5% of impending separation that I could barely read through my tears), funny in places, definitely hot (Ethan and Tanner caused sparks in the bedroom), with a great sense of place. The conflict was real with understandable reactions on both sides (even though I wanted to slap Ethan on occasions).
Can't wait for the sequel.
marisny's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
kaity_b's review against another edition
DNF @ 64%...
idk what it was about this book but i couldn't connect with the characters, and i was just getting annoyed with the hot and cold that they were doing to each other.
i felt for Kurt though, even though he was a little shit at times, he deserved more than Ethan was giving him. yes they both were hurting from their mom's death but they should have leaned on one another not pushed each other apart.
and tanner, idk you were there and i didn't feel much of anything towards you.
i must be dead inside since i couldn't care about any of the main characters. I did like Adrian though haha he was telling it how it was.
Gary Furlongs narration of this book is on Scribd for those who wanted to listen to this. He did a good job like always, i am just bummed he couldn't keep me wanting to continue. Also this book was free on Kindle, but not sure for how long.
now i have to find a new book.. oh well.
idk what it was about this book but i couldn't connect with the characters, and i was just getting annoyed with the hot and cold that they were doing to each other.
i felt for Kurt though, even though he was a little shit at times, he deserved more than Ethan was giving him. yes they both were hurting from their mom's death but they should have leaned on one another not pushed each other apart.
and tanner, idk you were there and i didn't feel much of anything towards you.
i must be dead inside since i couldn't care about any of the main characters. I did like Adrian though haha he was telling it how it was.
Gary Furlongs narration of this book is on Scribd for those who wanted to listen to this. He did a good job like always, i am just bummed he couldn't keep me wanting to continue. Also this book was free on Kindle, but not sure for how long.
now i have to find a new book.. oh well.
zaza_bdp's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐
C'est un roman doux et lent que Jay Hogan nous offre là, un roman qu'il m'a été impossible de ne pas comparer à [b:Made for You|45177210|Made for You (Love and Family, #2)|Anyta Sunday|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555712401l/45177210._SY75_.jpg|67155158] de Anyta Sunday. En effet, on retrouve la Nouvelle-Zélande (♥), cette thématique du héros qui devient le tuteur légal de son frère suite à la perte parentale, et un homme plus âgé qui va entrer dans leur univers. Comme chez Anyta Sunday, les relations entre les deux frères sont difficiles et douloureuses, et la présence d'une personne neutre va permettre de commencer à arranger les choses et d'ouvrir le dialogue.
J'ai beaucoup aimé le début du livre, quand Tanner et Ethan se tournent autour, qu'on les voit tomber peu à peu amoureux l'un de l'autre, c'est doux et très mignon. Ensuite, le développement de leur histoire est en partie off-page et se déroule sur plusieurs mois. J'ai été moins convaincue par la fin et par les péripéties qu'ils traversent, qui sont pour moi un peu trop artificielles et qui auraient pu être évitées, pour nous sortir de l'habituelle malédiction de la marque des 80%.
Les personnages secondaires prennent une belle place dans ce livre, tout comme la cuisine et les bons produits néo-zélandais, et j'ai trouvé ça très chouette.
C'est une belle histoire tendre, émouvante et douce malgré des passages douloureux, mais qui souffre hélas de nombreuses longueurs. Pour autant, c'est une lecture que j'ai appréciée, et je lirai sans doute la suite, en sautant probablement le tome 2 car l'un des personnages principaux, que l'on rencontre dans le tome 1, ne me tente pas du tout.
C'est un roman doux et lent que Jay Hogan nous offre là, un roman qu'il m'a été impossible de ne pas comparer à [b:Made for You|45177210|Made for You (Love and Family, #2)|Anyta Sunday|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555712401l/45177210._SY75_.jpg|67155158] de Anyta Sunday. En effet, on retrouve la Nouvelle-Zélande (♥), cette thématique du héros qui devient le tuteur légal de son frère suite à la perte parentale, et un homme plus âgé qui va entrer dans leur univers. Comme chez Anyta Sunday, les relations entre les deux frères sont difficiles et douloureuses, et la présence d'une personne neutre va permettre de commencer à arranger les choses et d'ouvrir le dialogue.
J'ai beaucoup aimé le début du livre, quand Tanner et Ethan se tournent autour, qu'on les voit tomber peu à peu amoureux l'un de l'autre, c'est doux et très mignon. Ensuite, le développement de leur histoire est en partie off-page et se déroule sur plusieurs mois. J'ai été moins convaincue par la fin et par les péripéties qu'ils traversent, qui sont pour moi un peu trop artificielles et qui auraient pu être évitées, pour nous sortir de l'habituelle malédiction de la marque des 80%.
Les personnages secondaires prennent une belle place dans ce livre, tout comme la cuisine et les bons produits néo-zélandais, et j'ai trouvé ça très chouette.
C'est une belle histoire tendre, émouvante et douce malgré des passages douloureux, mais qui souffre hélas de nombreuses longueurs. Pour autant, c'est une lecture que j'ai appréciée, et je lirai sans doute la suite, en sautant probablement le tome 2 car l'un des personnages principaux, que l'on rencontre dans le tome 1, ne me tente pas du tout.
perusing_pages's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This was a sweet age gap romance between Ethan (23) & Tanner (39). Ethan is struggling to keep his mums cafe business alive and his younger brother on the straight and narrow after her death. He has an arsehole landlord who wants the cafe gone so he can sell the land. Tanner is only in town for a couple of months for work and isn't looking for connections or complications yet he gets just that when he sees Ethan whilst in his cafe and they clearly share a mutual interest for each other.
This story deals with greif and loss, difficult life choices, fractured family dynamics and uncertainty surrounding next steps all intertwined with a unexpected romance they know has an expiry date as Tanner is only there for so long... but therein lies the rub for me, had these two only had a fling for a few weeks at most then the reluctance for one of them to uproot their lives so they could continue to be together would have made sense, however they were together months and had exchanged I love you's so the split towards the end felt unnecessary. I really enjoyed the side characters and Ethan & Tanner together, the pacing of the book felt slower than Foxed but overall it was an enjoyable read and I will definitely be doing the next book in the series. Gary Furlongs performance was great, I really enjoy him as a narrator, and his delivery of the humour/banter never fails to make me smile. 🌶🌶
This story deals with greif and loss, difficult life choices, fractured family dynamics and uncertainty surrounding next steps all intertwined with a unexpected romance they know has an expiry date as Tanner is only there for so long... but therein lies the rub for me, had these two only had a fling for a few weeks at most then the reluctance for one of them to uproot their lives so they could continue to be together would have made sense, however they were together months and had exchanged I love you's so the split towards the end felt unnecessary. I really enjoyed the side characters and Ethan & Tanner together, the pacing of the book felt slower than Foxed but overall it was an enjoyable read and I will definitely be doing the next book in the series. Gary Furlongs performance was great, I really enjoy him as a narrator, and his delivery of the humour/banter never fails to make me smile. 🌶🌶
rosska22's review
4.0
I struggle with the rating for this one, because I read the first few chapters, hated every second, put it down for two weeks, and then picked it back up and finished it in a day. I liked it a lot, once I got past the beginning. I was a little miffed towards the end, I got over it, but it was a little frustrating. I wished we'd gotten a little more interaction with Tanner and Stef, given that their relationship is so close, but, eh. I'm giving this a 4/5 star rating, but it's really more of a 3.5.