Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Stuck With You
SERIES: Snowed Inn
AUTHOR: Meredith Russell
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 105 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2022
BLURB:
Brodie loves Gabriel. Gabriel loves Brodie. So why is it so difficult for them to be honest with each other?
Brodie Lewis has been in love with Gabriel, his best friend, for years. The problem? It’s an impossible love. After all, they’re practically family.
With his dad working long hours to make ends meet, Brodie had been lonely growing up, until the day a boy from his neighborhood invited him over for dinner. The boy’s house had been so different to his own, filled with people and warmth, and Brodie would be forever grateful for how the Conley family treated him as one of their own.
When feelings beyond friendship stirred in Brodie, he’d tried to ignore them. Gabriel and his family were everything to him. How could he ever confess? And so, looking to move on from his first love, Brodie attends the speed dating night at The Retreat Hotel. It was a good plan, if only Gabriel wasn’t the one to offer him a ride to the venue.
Gabriel Conley only wants Brodie to be happy, which is why he’s willing to lock away his feelings yet again and drive Brodie through the snow to the dating event. Brodie smiles the most when surrounded by Gabriel’s family, and Gabriel never wants to ruin that with a selfish love confession. So instead, he’ll stay at Brodie’s side as a friend.
When an avalanche cuts the hotel off from the outside world, and Gabriel and Brodie find themselves stuck together and closer than ever, it’s time for some truths to be revealed.
Can the oblivious childhood friends finally understand each other’s feelings, and confess their love for each other?
All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.
REVIEW:
Best friends, Gabriel and Brodie, have grown up like brothers. So, how does one tell the other that brotherly love morphed into something more? And, what if, this? What if that? And a lifetime of dream scenarios. They’d both do anything for the other to be happy, hence Gabriel driving Brodie to a speed dating event. But what of the personal cost? Could they risk everything for the possibility of something more? Does mother nature have the answer?
Stuck With You is one of several stories written by different authors for the Snowed Inn series. The tale is told in the third person from the viewpoints of Gabriel and Brodie. With Christmas on the horizon, shelves are filled with stories that leave you with warm yuletide fuzzies. Hence the worldbuilding around snow, mistletoe, and other festivities.
Gabriel and Brodie are lovely human beings afraid to move their relationship to the next level. Brodie is out and proud, though Gabriel has only recently discovered that he is bi. It is one of those scenarios where others can see what the main protagonists can’t. The playful banter between the two is delightful, and their familiarity leaps off the page.
I have given this book a 3.5 heart rating, which means it’s a good book – better than average. The reason is that this field is a well-populated one. It speaks to how well-loved the genre is. There is also the difficulty is writing something unique. The label of friends to lovers is one that gives an inevitable ending. So, as we already know what the end will be, what matters is the bit in the middle. And while the Christmassy theme suggests no great excesses of angst-ridden pages, I would have liked a bit more than I got. Although, there is plenty of denial, jealousy, and hesitancy, which makes for good reading.
I found Stuck With You to be a well-told tale but not a unique one. It is a super story to sit with a mug of hot chocolate in front of the fire.
RATING: 
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