Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: How to Say I Do
AUTHOR: Tal Bauer
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 406 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 10, 2023
BLURB:
Opposites attract, sure. But when Manhattan glitz collides with Texas grit, will love be enough?
Noël:
Manhattan is my heart and soul. In the cutthroat world of elite public relations, I’m one of the princes. I manage global superstars, predict the up-and-coming trends, easy. And social media? That’s my specialty. I can make you, hon, and launch you straight to the stratosphere. My life is champagne glitter and starlight, and everything around me is gold. But then, my own wedding bells turn into alarm bells, and suddenly, I’m off to Cancun—alone. Alone with a first-class ticket to a honeymoon for one. All that gold? Tarnished tin. Everything I thought I knew? Gone.
Cancun is supposed to be where I obliterate myself on margaritas and tropical waves. Forget the past, shake off the pain, and look ahead. It’s my strategy, always has been. But beneath it all, I long for someone to see the real me, the Noël I’ve hidden away for years. I’m so damn lonely.
And then I meet Wyatt.
He’s nothing like me. He’s a rancher from Texas, he can’t tell me whether high waist jeans are in or out, and he’d rather work his fields than rub elbows with celebs. Velvet rope lines and VIP access are meaningless to him. He’s also kinder than me, and altruistic in a way I haven’t seen since cargo pants died as a trend in the early 2000s. He’s the best man I’ve ever met.
And that’s a problem, because all of his big-hearted warmth and Texas gentleness is drawing me in. I’m desperate to surrender, but I can’t. Good things aren’t meant for me. I’m no good for Wyatt. In fact, I’m his looming heartbreak.
So why am I kissing him?
Wyatt:
I’m a man of the land, made from the Texas soil I work on, strengthened by the vineyard I tend to. It’s a world I’ve carefully nurtured, a balm for the wounds of my past. This life hasn’t been easy, but it’s mine. I’m fiercely protective of the world I’ve built for me, my brother, his fiancée, and my nephew. The four of us are everything that matters to me, and my life and my cares extend to my cross fences and the edges of my range. Everything else out there? It’s all just dust in the wind.
And then Noël blows into my life.
I’m gone. Captivated, spun around, tipped upside down and torn apart. I can’t breathe; being around Noël makes me feel like I’m sixteen again and hiding all my secret fantasies and unspoken desires. I’m down in Cancun with my family, and this isn’t the time to be falling for a guy, but how can you not fall head over heels when the man of your dreams walks into your world?
Noël’s many multi-hued layers fascinate me and perplex me, and I want to spend every minute unraveling him. Noël’s life is glittering gold, and mine is Texas soil, but I can learn to understand Manhattan, pop culture, and celebrities if that means I get to be Noël’s man.
But does Noël feel the same? What is this between us? Is it just a week that we both need, a Pause on life, out here in this place so far removed from our real lives? Or is this the start of something new and huge and life-changing for the two of us? What am I seeing in Noël’s eyes when he looks at me?
And what’s going to happen when this week ends?
***
How to Say I Do is an opposites-attract, slow-burn, bi-awakening, rom-com-meets-heartfelt romance love story full of swoony beach vacation vibes, laugh-out-loud moments, and grab-your-chest heartache. Add a sprinkle of fake husbands, second chance romance, small town vibes, and celebrity shenanigans, and you’ve got the makings of Wyatt and Noël’s love story.
Pour yourself into the sand and sun and enjoy Noël and Wyatt’s journey to their Happy Ever After.
REVIEW:
Rich, velvety ripeness. Complexity. A story unfolding in a taste of love and loss and heartbreak.
Tal Bauer’s latest M/M romance How to Say I Do is undoubtedly Bauer’s best work to date. I couldn’t put it down, hooked from the beginning to The End. It’s an astounding story, unexpected in its trajectory, that will leave you with a heavy book hangover. How to Say I Do is one of the best of 2023.
Wine plays an important part in this story. And like the best wines, Bauer’s romance for Noël and Wyatt is rich, deep, and complex, evoking feelings, memories, and decadent appreciation and enjoyment. It is a perfectly balanced blend of love and loss, friends, family, fear, and fortitude. Bauer gives us his trademark emotional rollercoaster, but it’s not melodramatic. It’s apt and relatable, not overdone, and he gives us redemption and joy that’s authentic.
Noël and Wyatt are fantastic, fully realized characters who are vastly different yet perfectly matched. Noël gives Wyatt the love he’s always wanted and deserves, and Wyatt gives Noël the love he’s always wanted but doesn’t trust or feel deserving of. They are brilliant characters, sublimely brought to life for us to embrace as we follow along with their gorgeous, poignant, sexy, super swoony, and impactful love story.
Bauer’s writing here is mature, very much like the fine wine he so vividly describes. Bauer’s writing style is unusual in that he tends more towards descriptions rather than narrative, monologues rather than dialogue. But here, he gives us more dialogue, and it’s some damn fine stuff. And the descriptions are breathtaking. Bauer’s prose is poetic and hypnotic. His world-building is sublime. I could picture every grain of sand, drop of water, blade of grass, and grape on the vine, all in technicolor. Whether it’s an exclusive Cancun resort with sandy beaches and crystalline blue water, Manhattan with all of its energy and glamour, or Wyatt’s sweeping Texas ranch and vineyard, Bauer takes us to a magical place, making us feel like we are there and wish that we could be in real life.
Despite some heavier moments (tissues are needed) and some second-hand stress, Bauer lightens it up with humor and feel-good family interactions with Wyatt’s brother Liam, sister-in-law Savannah, and nephew Jason, and steams it up with emotionally connected encounters between Noël and Wyatt, featuring plenty of firsts. Bauer does this without letting it distract from the overarching story he wants to tell.
In How to Say I Do, Bauer shows how to write a second-chance, opposites attract, vacation, instalove romance (with some other tropes thrown in for good measure), and yet not have it feel tropey at all. Noël and Wyatt’s romance is fresh, new, and different, evoking deep feelings for these endearing men. It’s a full-bodied, comprehensive story of love of all kinds – the completely improbable love, resilient friendships, unwavering family, small-town found family, and the deep, lasting connection between a parent and a child. How to Say I Do is a gem to be savored and then enjoyed often. One taste of this fabulous love story is not enough.
RATING: 
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