RELEASE REVIEW AND EXCERPT: US by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

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 noisiest 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.

Review

I couldn’t wait to dive into Us…I’ve wanted more time with Wes and Jamie since I finished reading Him, and I’m so glad that Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy continued their story.

There’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to Wes and Jamie’s new relationship, and it’s only made more difficult because they have to hide what they mean to each other because Wes wants his rookie season to be about his play NOT his sexual orientation. But regardless of how understanding Jamie is, he can’t help but feel a bit resentful and extremely lonely, and those feelings are only exacerbated when Jamie’s career and health take a downward turn, making him feel useless and needy – two things he never wanted to be.

“Keeping up appearances” not only forces Wes and Jamie to be roommates instead of soul mates, but it also wreaks havoc on what defines them as a couple…on what it means to be an us instead of separate people living entirely separate lives. Neither want what’s happening to their relationship to happen, but they don’t know how to prevent it…how to be together without calling attention to a bond that is best kept secret even though it’s destroying them both.

The following up to Him proves that in order to be an Us, which is what both Wes and Jamie want, they’re going to have to be open and honest with each other, which is easier said than done when the only place they can be themselves is in their apartment, and with them both traveling for their jobs and a certain teammate cockblocking them, tension mounts and frustration dominates, proving that relationships take work, patience and honesty, which are ideas that Wes and Jamie struggle with when everything else in their lives dominate their time.

I absolutely adore Wes and Jamie; through both of their books, readers are able to watch them grow as individuals, realizing what they truly want out of life, and experience with them a love that may not be what professional hockey sees as true and right, but it’s perfect for Wes and Jamie, and when it comes down to it, that’s all that really matters.

A complimentary copy was provided by the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Poison Apples

Excerpt

At long last, I’m twenty paces away, then ten. Then I’m opening our door. “Hey babe!” I call out like I always do. “I made it.” I drag my duffel over the threshold, then toss my suit coat on top, abandoning these things beside the door, because all I need now is a kiss.

Only then do I notice that our apartment smells amazing. Jamie has cooked dinner for me. Again. He is the perfect man, I swear to God.

“Hey!” he calls, emerging from the hallway leading to our bedroom. He’s wearing jeans and nothing else except—and this is unusual—a beard. “Do I know you?” He gives me a sexy smile.

“I was going to ask the same thing.” I’m staring at the sandy-blond beard. Jamie has always been clean-shaven. I mean—we’ve known each other since before facial hair. He looks different. Older, maybe.

And hot as blazes. Seriously, I can’t wait to feel that beard against my face, and maybe my balls… Jesus. The blood is already rushing south, and I’ve been home fifteen seconds.

And yet I’m just stuck there in the middle of the room for a moment, because even though it’s been eight months since Jamie and I started up together, I’m still a little stunned at my own good fortune. “Hi,” I say again, stupidly.

He walks forward, his easy gait so familiar that my heart breaks a little bit. He puts his hands on my traps and squeezes the muscle there. “Don’t go away for so long. If you do that again, I’m going to have to sneak into your hotel room on the road.”

“Promise?” I ask, and it comes out like gravel. He’s close enough now that I can smell the ocean scent of his shampoo and the beer he drank while he waited for me.

“If I ever get a winning lottery ticket and a day off, I’ll do it,” he says. “Hotel sex after a game? Sounds hot.”

Now I’m measuring the distance to our sofa and counting the layers of clothes I’ll need to remove in the next ninety seconds.

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