Us (Him, #2)

by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen

Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated?

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 nosiest 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.

• ISBN10: 1942444885
• ISBN13: 9781942444886
• Publish Date: 1 March 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Tuxbury Publishing LLC
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 322
• Language: English

Reviews

[The Romantic Comedy Book Club]

If you thought Him was going to floor you, just wait until you read “Us”. The story of Jamie and Wes continues as Wes settle into his NHL career and Jamie finds his place in Toronto as a Junior League coach. Moving forward from Him, we are aware that Jamie and Wes have to hid their relationship. There are no openly gay hockey players in the NHL and for the sake of his career, Wes isn’t ready to be the first until he has proven himself to his team. Jamie completely understands this until the reality of the situation starts to have an emotional impact. Becoming more and more isolated in his new environment, unhappy with the progress of his team, and dealing with Wes’s schedule – the ever calm and free spirited Jamie finds himself becoming more and more down about his predicament. He tries his hardest to be understanding and not hold it against Wes, he knows the score but that doesn’t make it any easier. Things go from bad to worse when Jamie falls ill – creating a domino effect that explodes with their secret being revealed. The problem – be careful what you wish for. Now that the world knows, can Jamie and Wes handle the wave coming their way or will this end before it truly had a chance to begin?

Like Him, this books is thought provoking, deep, sad, and consuming. In Him, we focused on Wes’s struggle with his unrequited love for Jamie and Jamie trying to understand his new feelings for Wes. In Us, we finally to get to see these two together but we also get a reality check of what life will be like for an up and coming Rookie hiding his sexuality. 

While this book is insanely deep, it is also absolutely hilarious! As I said, Bowen was front and center and while I have no idea if she was behind Blake Riley, having read her other books – he felt all her!

Like Him, Bowen and Kennedy brings the sugar, spice, and everything nice back again. Even though they do write the novella Epic that takes place after Us and Good Boy (Blake and Jess’s story), they make sure to wrap up Jamie and Wes’s story with the perfect bow. You can’t help but fall in love with these two even more! Bowen and Kennedy do use Good Boy to give Wes and Jamie their final send off so don’t worry, you don’t have to say goodbye to them just yet.

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

I’ve had Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy on my TBR since I read Him last year for the Romanceopoly Challenge. I decided to read Us for the Romanceopoly 2020 Challenge, which completed the Rainbow Row square on the board. I was happy to get back to Ryan Wesley and Jaime Canning after reading their first book. Even though the first book had somewhat of an HEA to it, I’m glad Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen decided to continue Wes and Jaime’s story. I needed to read more of these two lovable characters.

The second book is all about Wes in his professional NHL career in Toronto and Jaime in his new coaching job. Wes comes home every night to his loving boyfriend, and life is good for both of them. Unfortunately, both characters have to keep their relationship hidden from everyone in Toronto. Wes has it planned that he would come out after the season ends. Jaime also has to keep it quiet at work, and he ends up having to deal with a co-coach that keeps saying derogatory remarks. Jaime doesn’t want to complain to his boss, but he should, especially with what the co-coach keeps saying around the kids.

At the beginning of the book, everything is going good with Jaime and Wes, until they have a nosy neighbor that moves close to them that happens to be one of Wes’s teammates. He’s always over, and Jaime and Wes can’t have any alone time. Poor Jaime and Wes having to keep their relationship hidden are not healthy for their relationship. This is when tension happens between them, and I felt for these two characters. I didn’t want them to keep their relationship hidden. I wanted them to be out in the open, so everyone could see them happy together. Wes and Jaime are best friends/soulmates. They deserve a happily ever after.

I don’t want to give anything away, especially if a reader hasn’t read the first book. I highly recommend reading the books in order; otherwise, you will miss out on how Wes and Jaime met initially. I love these two. I can’t say it enough how much I love them. I’m glad that both authors gave these two characters a well-deserved HEA. I also love reading how Wes was worried about Jaime in the story and took care of him when he was sick with the flu. There’s also Jaime and how he approached Wes at the very end, which is some of my favorite scenes in the book.

Unfortunately, the only problem I had was when both characters decided not to communicate with each other. They kept their problems of certain situations hidden from each other. Communication is vital in any relationship. Other than that, the book was amazing. There were steamy moments, but not the steaminess that it was like in the first book. I can’t wait to read the spin-off books from this series.

Story Rating: 4 stars
Steaminess Rating: 4 stars
Standalone or part of series: Part of Duet.
Do I recommend this book? Yes.
Will I read other books from the author? Yes.
Tropes/Elements: Sports/Hockey; Friends-to-Lovers; M/M Romance

[maggiefan]

I liked this book even more than the first one, and I'm actually shocked by how much I enjoyed it. What can I say, I like romance books ( ꈍᴗꈍ)

[Romance Schmomance]

Ahhhhh, I can never get enough of Wes and Jamie 3

Review to come!

[Linda]

Us was filled with love, anguish, sickness and health...

[stacey_is_sassy]

It was a shaky start but finished strong.

I was kind of hesitant to start Us. I really enjoyed the first in the series Him which was surprising at the time as I’m not really into M/M books. For me, I normally put myself in the shoes of the main character which is a little hard to do when there are two heroes and no heroine. I can’t relate. It’s that simple.

In this case, I have to be a voyeur and observe…like watching a movie. When there was talk that a second book was coming, I couldn’t help but get drawn back into comfort zone blasting. Would the second live up to the first? Would I enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone again? Would the fascination of watching two men form a relationship when one man is gay and the other is not, still be there?

Saying that, my observations are the same as the first…M/M is REALLY HOT!!! There just seems to be no hesitation with these guys. No self-conscious hiding under the sheets or worrying whether you look your best. It’s just an attraction that develops…and good times roll in.

Straight up…I enjoyed Us, liked getting to see Wes and Jamie again and getting to know more about the world of puck. But the highlight of the whole story –

* * * B L A K E * * *

Oh my lordy this guy had me busting out laughing more than once and his generous spirit and uncanny ability to read his friends made him my favourite by far. He was loud, uncouth and crazy, but so lovable. His fear of sheep had me cracking up laughing.

Back to the story…So, Wes and Jamie are living together and everything should be great but unfortunately, it is far from great. It is decided that they’ll keep their relationship on the down-low for a while. Both of them hate having secrets and exist rather than live together. Jamie feels like a dirty secret but knows that Wes loves him. He struggles at the best of times considering how much things have changed but is willing to let things be for Wes’s rookie year. Wes knows that he is hurting Jamie by putting his career first, but doesn’t know how else to handle things.

The first half of the story was a little hard for me. I did not like seeing Jamie struggling to live with his decision. He was practically left alone to deal with all his worries and concerns because Wes was on the road so much. Jamie is also having a few issues at work. All of these problems really made the story a little depressing. I know Wes was aware that he was upsetting Jamie and I knew he hated doing it, but I felt like he definitely got the better end of the stick. It was inevitable that things would eventually have to change.

It definitely got better in the second half of Us but I think that was mainly due to Blake. Yes, it was still HOT between Wes and Jamie and the storyline flowed really well, but Blake just really stood out for me. I really hope the authors decide to do a story for him…maybe with a certain sister (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

The issues this couple had to face were a little hard to take, but in the end, it didn’t seem to be as bad as what I thought it would be. There were plenty of people who supported and loved them enough to help them through tough times.

Being an observer and standing on the outside looking in was still a little weird for me.

I don’t know what I would do in the same situation because I can’t really relate to having my relationship judged and commented on. For these guys to be in the spotlight while they are developing and strengthening their relationship was hard to watch.

I still stick to my – each to their own and all that jazz and find it unbelievable that people would comment on personal relationship choices.

Will I go back for more M/M? Not really sure, there's just something about it that's a little freeing. Men just look at things differently. If they come out with a story for my Blakey…I’ll be there with bells on.

Stacey is Sassy, received an advanced copy of this story. The copy provided is not the final copy and may be subject to edits and changes.

[thebookdisciple]

Loved that this book was more about the 'real life' of a relationship. you know-after the kismet, the swooning, the winning the person over stage, there is the 'real life' stage. I was worried that this book would be all about more will they won't they. Will they stay together? Will they break up? Thankfully, its not. It really is more about how they will navigate their lives together. Its a very natural progression for the story and I enjoyed it. If you haven't read Him, you should check it out!