HIM – HIM BOOK ONE by SARINA BOWEN & ELLE KENNEDY

We absolutely love Elle Kennedy and are mad ‘hockey book’ fans as well as seasoned MM readers. So this one without doubt piqued an interest in our reading hearts and we jumped into the story as soon as it landed on our kindles. Sarina Bowen is new to us which excited us too. We have to say we were not disappointed and we read this one front to back with mostly smiles on our faces.

“Really, dude? That was like two seconds. You have the stamina of a pre-teen.”

Who doesn’t love friends to lover stories?! Well we certainly do and this was a sweet, romantic and easy read about friends who meet as early teens and strike up a beautiful friendship; only to later find romance.

‘Sometimes it’s better to just let shit lie. The way I see it, one night of drunken stupidity shouldn’t be the defining moment in a six year friendship.’

The path isn’t smooth and we soon find out why. A moment between our boys resulted in years of radio silence and when they meet again; older and ‘wiser’ they rehash what went wrong through being up front and with eyes wide open.

‘I’ve travelled back in time again. He looks the same. And different. He looks both different and the same.’

Jamie and Wes were both gorgeous, funny and lovable characters but for many reasons Jamie had an endearing vulnerability which teamed with a strong sense of conviction made us fall in complete love with him. Jamie’s character went through a lot of self-realisation, soul searching and at no point did this beautiful man let himself or others down. Yes, he had a loving supportive network behind him but his personality, his maturity and the size of his heart is what made him incredibly special for us. Wes was a more cautious, cocky and larger than life character; his heart has always belonged to Jamie but at no point in this story did he do anything but try and put Jamie first in his thoughts, feelings and future. We LOVED that the Authors didn’t add any unnecessary drama or angst. This story is a great example of where less is more and we loved that.

‘I’ll give him every fucking part of myself, serve it to him like a feast at a banquet.’

As far as M/M stories go this one was really sweet with wicked humour but in an odd way it almost read as an M/F. It’s hard to explain really, in some respects it lacked the emotional intensity that we usually find in our M/M reads. We all love a bit of hot nookie and Him certainly had that but what we truly seek out is that heart wrenching and overwhelming emotional connection between our heroes which Him didn’t quite achieve for us. That’s not saying we didn’t love it because we absolutely did. It had us smiling most of the way through especially during the family scenes, the hockey banter and the gorgeous relationship between Wes and Jamie. For us Him epitomised friendship, love, acceptance and self-discovery and we enjoyed every reading minute of it.

“Want you,” I whisper. Lately, those two words define me. “Have me,” he says.

**Reviewed from an ARC copy provided by Omnific Publishing, with thanks**