Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE: Hardwood

SERIES:  Four Bears Construction #3

AUTHOR:  K.M. Neuhold

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

RELEASE DATE:  July 1, 2020

LENGTH:  206 pages

BLURB:

I’ve spent forty-four years of my life telling the world I’m a carpet man. Is it too late to admit to myself and everyone else that deep down I’m really all about the Hardwood?

It took me over thirty-five years to admit to myself that I’m gay, another seven to find the courage to say it out loud to anyone else, and exactly thirty seconds to develop a massive crush on my daughter’s music teacher. It’s really not my fault, have you even seen those cute bowties he wears?

After everything it’s taken to get here, am I going to work up the nerve to come out to my ex-wife and my best friends? Am I ready to shake up my comfortable, simple life and take a chance on Watson? Or am I going to throw a wrench in my own chance for happily ever after?

REVIEW:

This is the third book in the Four Bears Construction series. It is about four best friends who set up their own construction business and are very successful. This installment is about Everett, who is straight, as far as his best friends are concerned. He got married, divorced and has one little girl. And is a fabulous and fantastic music teacher who is utterly confident of who he is.

Finding out for sure that you have been gay all along but decided to just keep it to yourself all this time can be reassuring and frightening at the same time. Denying your true nature from early on in your life can have serious consequences in your adult life, mostly to your self-esteem and outlook. Your self-confidence will suffer considerably and being afraid if someone finds out can be another.

Everett can’t deny it anymore, but at forty four years old, how do you come out to your ex-wife and your best friends. Oh, he knows they will accept him with open arms, but how do you explain not knowing it all this time. But mainly, he is ashamed of how to tell Val, his ex-wife. They are best friends but he felt like he did her an injustice by keeping all of this in and he feels guilty for making her feel miserable in the years that they were married.

Watson is happy with his life. He has a good job, a great set of friends and he is proud of himself. But he wants more. He wants a partner and a husband. He wants his own “happily ever after,” or as close as he can get to that. But he has to decide whether to still hope and wait for his Prince Charming or just continue on with adopting a child or two. He can’t pin his happiness or the rest of his life waiting for someone who might not come.

This is a sweet love story between two men who are looking for that “ultimate and fulfilling happiness” like what you and I are looking for, too. Everett is navigating and accepting his being gay, and Watson is trying to move on to the next chapter in his life, with or without a partner. While they have all these going in within themselves, they are also starting a friendship that could likely become more if they give it a chance and be less afraid of the outcome, whatever that may be.

I have been in love with this series since the first book. It is a series that tackles acceptance, being proud of who you are and who you love, friendship, family and finding the person who is meant for you. If sweetness, cuteness and great story-telling is your forte, then this book is for you! The story lines in each book are well-written and the characters are amazing!

RATING:

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