Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Who We Were

SERIES: Love Starts Here (Book 3)

AUTHOR: E. M. Lindsey

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 290 pages

RELEASE DATE: November 22, 2021

BLURB:

“Don’t leave the house, don’t talk to the paparazzi, don’t answer your phone unless it’s me, and do not- whatever you do- attempt to post about this on social media.”

Life isn’t supposed to be this complicated when you’re an Oscar winner…right? So what if he has two names, and straddles the line between two worlds. Adan Balil—also known as Bowen Phillips—has made his comeback, and he’s not ready to let go.

If only those strangers hadn’t stolen his room key.
If only their recording hadn’t been live.
If only he hadn’t been wearing panties.

Running away isn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done, but then again, neither is pretending to be someone he isn’t for the ridiculously good looking man next door. And it wouldn’t be so bad, pretending to be the former professor’s professional cuddler, if he wasn’t starting to dream about a future with him.

Noah Jordan is nothing short of perfect in Adan’s eyes, and he’s starting to wonder if maybe giving up his celebrity life might just be the solution to all of his problems.

He just has to convince Noah that in spite of all the mess that comes with his past, Adan’s love is worth it.

Who We Were is the third book in the light-angst, humorous, steamy series, Love Starts Here. It features an asexual awakening, a celebrity running from a scandal, a professional cuddler who isn’t much of a professional at all, an actor trying to figure out who he is and what he wants, and an ex-professor who is trying to figure out where he fits in the world. This book has no cheating, and a happily ever after.

REVIEW:

I love this series and couldn’t wait to get to know West’s professor friend Noah that owns the little coffee shop.

Adan can’t ever get a break. From the moment his mom took him to that mall audition at the age of four his life has been in a glass fish bowl for all to watch and gossip on. By the time he was fourteen he had to enter rehab from all the coke his manager gave him to calm down. Fast forward 26 years and Adan, aka Bowen Phillips, has made it not only back into acting but in the big leagues with Oscar nominations and block-buster hits. But, at the age of 40, he is lonely and can’t figure out what is broken with him…especially sexually. When his co-star suggests he go buy “a violet wand and panties” he takes her suggestion and goes for it. Unfortunately security at his hotel is crap and a couple of girl employees break into his room with a live feed on their phones recording him in the act of self pleasure. Now he is in hiding and labeled a sex pervert! Time to get out of LA and the sleepy coastal town of St. James seems like a good place to hide.

I was eager to get back to St. James and see Rhys and Carter along with West and Jakob too. Actually I couldn’t wait to hear about West’s professor/friend/fellow businessman being taken down by LPM. Noah isn’t having a great life lately. His eye degeneration disease has proceeded to the point that teaching is no longer a viable option. This disease has already taken him out of scientific field work but now teaching it doesn’t work either. So, at the tender age of 43, Noah is retired and running his newly relocated (thanks to Rhys) coffee shop. A dream that he hadn’t plan to go into full time for many years to come. Add in the fact that he and his wife are long ago divorced and he is so damn lonely and was it asking too much for a friendly, warm cuddle now and then?

This book is full of hidden identity and lies to hid Bowen from the world. Adan just wants to hide away and be safe. What he doesn’t anticipate is the sexy as can be almost blind professor/coffee shop owner/neighbor living next door that just needs some one to hold and cuddle with him every once in awhile.

Adan and Noah were perfect for each other from the start. For both men sex isn’t the most important thing in their lives. They have much bigger problems pushing on their lives. But the physical intimacy of just holding each other does wonders for the two of them. But the lies are threatening to tear apart everything that has been building.

This series runs on mistaken/hidden identities and the lies that keep the men hidden from who/what they really are. This was the sweetest and least steamy of the series. It was more about sexual awakening/awareness and discovery versus hot, steamy sex.

It did bother me that Adan could open up to and trust Bennett, a man he literally met sitting at the beach, with his true self but couldn’t find it in himself to open up to and trust Noah, the man he was forging his first true relationship with. It wasn’t fair to Noah, who had been open and vulnerable to Adan but Adan couldn’t do the same? Not cool!

I keep seeing that this is a three-book set but I have began to get attached to Bennett, West’s ex and now Adan’s friend. I thought for sure that we would finally get to see him happy in love too.

This book move pretty slowly and cautiously. But it is a fine example of a man on a journey to discovery his true self and sexual identity.

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon