Honestly Yours ~ Jamie Reese

Hello, hello, new potential favourite book of the year!

I knew that I was going to like this book before I started it because this author is always a hit for me. I knew that this book was going to be a 5 stars book for me when I was at 36% into the book. But by the end of the book, this book had reached one of my favourite book of the year status. This is only my 6th 5 stars book of the entire year and I couldn’t think of a better book to be in that spot. I don’t think I can even put words on how much I loved this book. This book is just so special to me and I loved everything about it. Also, I read this book for the first time a couple of days ago, and as soon as I reached the end, I went back to the start of the book and re-read the entire book. So I have now read this book twice in less than a week, which I think is enough to tell you how much this story impacted me. I want to start this review by saying that this book was by far my most anticipated book of the entire year, so far. I would consider this author my favourite author of all time. I have read all of her books at least 10 times each and I can never get enough. They are massive comfort books for me and I love them so much. I have been counting days until the release of this book since this book was announced. When I woke up to an email telling me that I got an ARC of this book, I was so happy about it that I screamed and I kept squealing about it all day until I had the time to sit down and read it. And then I read this entire 400 pages book in the fastest time possible. I was just so excited about this book. And safe to me, my expectations were more than met.

Brief Summary Ren is the owner of a club. He has been watching over one of the members, Gian, for months. Ren finally decides to approach Gian, and they start a relationship. Ren has a lot of trauma and learning how to trust someone and being in a relationship with them is a learning curve for him, but Gian is a patient man that is always there for Ren and that wants him through it all. They fall in love over time, and through many hugs.

"Gian was everything. […] But most of all, it was the way those arms wrapped around him and held him close, shielding him from the outside world. Held in the arms of his hopeless hugger, he was safe. And wanted. Always wanted."

First, the hurt/comfort in this book just melted my entire heart. Ren is traumatized because of many events he went through in his life, and Gian just wants to cuddle Ren and make him feel better. I loved that so much. I loved how they were always there to make each other feel better and to comfort each other. Ren never had a support system and someone to take care of him. So I absolutely loved how Gian was always there for him. Gian was like a rock, always supportive of Ren and his needs and there to offer cuddles when Ren needed them and it was just so sweet. Side note, the hugs in book were just out of this world. It’s no secret that one of my favourite thing in books is cuddles and hugs. I absolutely love that kind of comfort in books and there was so many hugs in this book and all of them just melted my heart due to how sweet they were. Second, Ren was very guarded and he didn’t really know how to open up and share his life with someone. But I loved how much he tried to it because he just wanted to be with Gian. That was just really worked for me. I just love seeing Ren try to open up and learn how to let someone in. I love how it wasn’t a painless process for him and how he struggled but he never gave up on doing it. It was such a lovely journey to follow him around the process of learning to trust Gian fully.

“In the end, I don’t care what it costs me. And I will fight for you with my very last breath. Because the time I have with you—any time I have with you—is worth it.”

Third, their banter was just so much fun to read. I absolutely loved the humour in this book. It was just so wonderful to read and it really make the book a joyful read, even if it had a lot of harder to read subject matter, the humour in this book just really helped balanced the tone of the book so that it never felt too angsty to read. Also, their nicknames for each other were just best and I loved them so much. Fourth, regardless of that, this book still made me so emotional. I felt for these characters so much. I laughed with them, I cried with them, I cheered them on through their ups and I wanted to hug them through their downs. I was just so invested in the characters in this book and I felt like I was their friend who wanted to be there for them no matter what. These people were just so endearing to me and I loved them so much. Fifth, I loved Gian and Ren so much. Just so much. These characters were just so lively and they really came off the pages. Gian was the sweetest main character I have ever read about. He was such so caring and patient and I absolutely adore him. And I adored Ren too. I absolutely adore how strong and resilient he is. He was a little broken but also so strong and I just adored that about him. Sixth, the relationship in this book is just so wonderful to me. I adored the way it developed. I loved how they both put their all into the relationship and they were ready to so everything to make their relationship work. I absolutely loved all of their interactions and how much you could tell that they wanted to be together through their every actions. Also, I loved how they knew that they want to be together and they everything to achieve that. I loved how they always fought for each other and to be together. Plus it was just so sweet. They had the cutest relationship and I loved it so much.

“I don’t want to lose you.” “Good. ‘Cause I don’t like getting lost.”

Side note, I absolutely adored the relationship progression in this book. I just loved the easy way in which they got to know each other and how they always made effort to spend time together. The way their relationship developed was just so beautiful and I loved it, so much. Seventh, the communication in this book was absolutely perfect to me. They were always reaching out to each other and communicating when things were rough, or going well. I just loved it. I loved how mature their relationship felt because they were always honest and communicating with each other. Also, all that Gian wants is for Ren to be honest with him and I loved how that played out in the book. The fact that they were always honest with each other about their wants, fears and everything else just really worked for me. It really helped me cheer for them as a couple because they were always communicating so well with each other. Eight, a lot of this book is focused on found family and finding the people that will always be here for you no matter what. I just adored how this book tackled this theme, it was just the sweetest thing ever and it made my heart melt so much. Ninth, I have always been outspoken about how my favourite moments in books are the slower couple moments where we get to see the couple being happy and in love when doing things together and there was so many of those moments in this book. I loved all of them, very much. Seeing all of those cute couple moments just melted my entire heart. I just adored seeing those moments so much. Tenth, I loved all of the little side plots in this book and how they all related to the main story and the characters. I really loved how the characters were so well developed that we got to see through many events in their lives. I just had so much fun reading about these character’s daily lives and their struggles and what they were trying to accomplish. I was just so invested in this book. This book had my attention from the first sentence and my attention never wavered. I just so into this story and I just wanted to know more about the characters. Also, massive shout out to my favourite construction worker for making a cameo in this book, I was so happy to see him. I will be honest here, this will probably be the most perfect for me book I will read all year. It’s rare for me to find a book that works for me as well as this book this did. This book was just the book for me. Every second of this book just appealed to me. This book was honestly my perfect book. Reading this book was one of the best reading experience I have had all year, it was just truly wonderful to me.

Honestly Yours is available as an ebook and via a Kindle Unlimited subscription.