Book Review: Us by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy! (@SarinaBowen) (@ElleKennedy)

Us (Him #2)
Author(s): Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Published:
Source: Author in exchange for honest review

My Rating:

Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated?
Five months in, NHL forward Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season. He's living his dream of playing pro hockey and coming home every night to the man he loves–Jamie Canning, his longtime best friend turned boyfriend. There's just one problem: the most important relationship of his life is one he needs to keep hidden, or else face a media storm that will eclipse his success on the ice.
Jamie loves Wes. He really, truly does. But hiding sucks. It's not the life Jamie envisioned for himself, and the strain of keeping their secret is taking its toll. It doesn't help that his new job isn't going as smoothly as he'd hoped, but he knows he can power through it as long as he has Wes. At least apartment 10B is their retreat, where they can always be themselves.
Or can they? When Wes's nosiest teammate moves in upstairs, the threads of their carefully woven lie begin to unravel. With the outside world determined to take its best shot at them, can Wes and Jamie develop major-league relationship skills on the fly?
Warning: contains sexual situations, a vibrating chair, long-distance sexytimes, and proof that hockey players look hot in any shade of green.

Hat Trick! In hockey, a hat trick is when a player scores three times in a game. Even though this is the follow up to Him, Us is a total score in my book. When I think of follow ups with the same main characters, I get nervous. I wonder if things are just going to be regurgitated or if it’s going to read stale. All of those fears were blown out the window with the return of Jamie and Wes.

We pick up not too long after the end of Him. Jamie and Wes are still together and they are trying to see how life is as a domesticated couple. Tiny problem, Wes isn’t out to the world and Jamie is forced to be in that closet with him. Being an advocate professional athletes isn’t what Wes signed up for, especially in his rookie year, so everything is hush, hush. Jamie is his best friend and “roommate” to everyone that doesn’t know about their love.

It’s a given that Jamie and Wes had sexual chemistry from the first book, and that their love for each other was real. But in Us, Sarina and Elle shake things up and give them realistic issues that I believe all couples kind of go through. This raises the questions, is love enough?

What I loved about this book was how things we’re perfect and they didn’t hide that fact. Each character had their set of flaws that they had to deal with and things didn’t turn out perfect every time. Shit happens, that’s life.

Along with my love for Jamie and Wes, there were new characters introduced in the form of Wes’ teammates. When you meet Blake Riley, I dare you not to fall in love with him. He’s the comic relief and really the moral compass of the story. I adore him and want more of him. The next book should be called Them. Make it happen girls!

If you don’t want to leave Jamie and Wes out in the cold, give this a read. It will make you gasp and smile. It has all the feels.