Us by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen

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.

Reviewed by The Romantic Comedy Book Club on

5 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 9 January, 2024: Finished reading
  • 9 January, 2024: Reviewed