Late Bloomer

I know it's just June but this is the BEST book I've read so far this year. The angst! The pining! The never-aligning timing!

This had me at the edge of my seat. It was like a telenovela in print. The dramaaaaaaaa. The bad decisions. The romance! The PINING!

I am cramming this down the throat of everyone I know. This feels like when I read Captive Prince for the first time and knew I'd go back to it again, and again, and again.

I'm in love. My heart is broken and my heart is fixed. This was EXCEPTIONALLY well written. I'm not joking. I had my phone open and was scrolling while my boss was sitted opposite me in a meeting. I had my laptop open in the way but still. It was honestly THAT GOOD.

Okay. Done gushing. The review...

“You want to know why I’ve picked you? Because you’re boring, Vincent.” Yes. A wonderful start to asking someone to knot you. Very good.

(He’d researched how to take care of Malcolm. How was Malcolm supposed to handle that?) I knowwwwwwwwww😩

Let me tell you, I fell in love with Vincent right alongside Malcolm. That man was romantic in a logical sense. He'd do and say the most swoonworthy things. On like a Tuesday at 8.15am. Like????? Malcolm had no chance. None whatsoever.

But here's the thing.... Vincent thought he was in love with someone else for almost the entirety of this book. And wait for it.....so did Malcolm. My poor baby! I know! And I get why they both thought that. Hell, even EYE thought it at first. And the pages kept going and he wasn't snapping out of it. And I wanted to tear my hair out but also smack them.

Because in retrospect, Vincent was into Malcolm for a really, really long while before it hit him. It just wasn't the way it happened with his first love so he didn't see it. It happened with a lot of snark and tentative heat arrangements and killer elevators and childhood bedrooms.

'Vince makes me feel like I’m nineteen again in all the best and worst ways.'

This man was too rational all the time but he absolutely went apeshit when things had to do with Malcolm and HE STILL COULDN'T SEE IT.

And poor baby Malcolm had to go do the sweetest most self-sacrificial gesture on planet earth because they're both dumb idiots and my heart broke. More than his, I'll wager because have you ever seen two people SO ABSOLUTELY FUCKING IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER THAT THEY GLOW WITH IT, but you're the only one who can see it?

I love these two, but smart, they were not. Not about this.

And when they finally, FINALLY got together, it was everything I'd been waiting for. I read a thousand epilogues for these two. What a hard won HEA. Yeeish. A LOT of collateral damage to get there. But honestly fuck eternally confused Lacy, fuck Laurent, fuck all the VPs at work AND their bloody gift baskets.

I'll be frank, I never thought I'd enjoy a romance where the primary MCs were with other people during a significant portion of the book, but I'll tell you now that this was my lack of faith and exposure talking. A good author can make you like (no, LOVE) anything.

100 stars. Could not recommend more highly.