4 Stars!

Bowen MM = Hell Yeah!!

Start with taciturn, extremely introverted, awkward gentle giant Kieran, who’s all sorts of manly farmer goodness. Pretty much his whole life Kieran has felt like an outsider, and he’s torn between forging his own path and helping his family at the detriment of suppressing who he truly is. Life has gotten awful stifling, and Kieran is at his rope’s end.

Then there’s Roddy, a spontaneous, live life to the fullest, extroverted baker with little filter who has returned home to Vermont after devastating heartbreak and sadly, his parents aren’t welcoming him back with open arms. When he crosses paths with Kieran, it brings up a salacious history from high school that Roddy can’t help but poke, while Kieran wishes the ground would swallow him up.

This is quite the slow burn, but the characters and their struggles are real and organic. As Roddy and Keiran get to know each other through being awkward coworkers first, and then reluctant roommates second, the reader also gets to discover the many layers of these two as each evolves to carve out a new life together and apart.

It will come as no surprise that I loved Kieran hard. Good, thoughtful, with plenty of self induced turmoil, he had the most growth to do, and his sexual awakening was deliciously oh so very nice. *winks* Bowen is that rare author who can get me to read their MF stuff too, and the fact that she’s inspired several planned spinoffs for other authors to contribute to, all of which connect to her True North series (alerting all Griffin lovers!) is just really more for us to enjoy!

I’m always on board for Bowen and only hope there’s more from this author soon!! Fans should embrace her latest offering with no problems! Cheers!
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I haven't read a lot if any of Sarina's books but this one was brilliant! It has chemistry, family angst, love and laughter.

Roddy and Kieran are beautiful together and as we read,secrets and history are revealed, which helps their connection grows stronger.

A definite 5 star read. ( )

This title has been on my to-read list for some time now and I'm glad I was finally able to get it.
I REALLY enjoyed getting to know Roderick and Kieran and their journey together.

Awesome narration, as well. ( )

Fleeing a bad relationship, Roddy Waite returns to his home town where he gets a job as a baker in a coffee shop and lodges with one of his coworkers who is leaving the family farm to become a graphic designer.

Despite it being the first in a series following different characters but all set in Vermont, I didn't really feel any sense of place. It could have been anywhere. Still, it was an enjoyable quick read that didn't need any great powers of concentration. ( )

This was pretty light and fun. I enjoyed reading it, and I loved Kieran becoming more of his own person and more expressive with Roderick. Not much else to add in that area because it was just a simple but good read.

I understood the pressure Kieran felt, and I related a lot, but his flat-out refusal to come out and be his own self despite knowing he'd be supported did get very frustrating around the 70% point when it became the main issue. I kind of wish there had been an opportunity for Roderick to grow more. He was already very self-aware and knew what his problems were, he just didn't have the self-control to do it most of the time (hellooooo me too). He basically fell into the solution to his problems by going to Vermont and meeting Kieran so I'd just have like to see more choices from him.

My only real critique is that it just didn't get that deep. It had all the setup for this big drama - a cheating, abusive ex, homophobic parents, pressure from families to be a certain way, repeating unhealthy relationship behaviors, exploration of sexuality - and it never really dug deep and dealt with the heart of those issues. Everything was literally smushed in there in the last 15% to deal with Kieran's secrets and Roderick's ex (which was just pointless too, actually no reason to even be in the book). It just felt kind of fluffy with all these serious issues but never really confronting them head on. ( )