Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Affogato
SERIES: BrewBiz
AUTHOR: E.M. Lindsey
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 272 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2023
BLURB:
Despite finding success in his career, the BrewBiz Deaf Café owner’s love life is another story. Because Caleb’s longest relationship just came to a screeching halt when his ex cheated.
Then dumped him.
Publicly.
And the video of it went viral.
Resigned to his fate of being famous only because the world saw his public humiliation, Caleb turns sour and bitter. It’s easy to hide his feelings after that, and it’s even easier to ignore what his heart really the new hire who’s so anxious, he jumps at his own shadow.
It also doesn’t help that Bodhi is too young, too good looking, and too sweet for a man like Caleb to ever deserve him.
Especially when Caleb’s been nothing but terrible to him from the moment they met.
But there’s more to Bodhi’s story than meets the eye, and he might just be the man who can teach Caleb the meaning of love without strings. Love without expectations.
And the kind of love that leads to real happily ever afters.
Affogato is the first book in the BrewBiz series. It’s a boss/employee enemies to lovers romance featuring delicious baked goods, crêpe loyalty, late night snacks, first kisses, first times, and the swooniest HEA.
REVIEW:
Bodhi is a college student who is hard of hearing. His twin brother Ravi is deaf and they are both students who live together. They are away from their abusive family and figuring out life. Bodhi is also autistic and has trouble learning to sign. He gets a job at BrewBiz a cafe own and run by Caleb and his brother Wren. They are both deaf also and they use ASL at the cafe.
Caleb is then dumped by his a*hole cheating ex and the video is not only captured by shared. The cafe is overrun by patrons trying to get a glimpse of him. Students are speculating about exactly what went down since the convo was signed. Its all a big mess and Caleb – who has never been the most patient person – becomes more prickly and short with Bodhi. Bodhi has had a crush on Caleb since he started at the cafe, but it’s clear to him that Caleb doesn’t like him.
Caleb does like Bodhi though. He’s been attracted to him, but his life falling apart has made him harsh. He finally sees that he’s really be unforgivably mean to Bodhi when Bodhi is just doing his best. He vows to make it up to him and when Bodhi is there for him, he wants to return the favor. But negotiating a relationship with a virgin after a very public ugly breakup with a much younger inexperienced man is not for the faint of heart. Oh an Bodhi’s got some pretty large baggage as well that rears it’s ugly head. They are going both going to have to work to figure out how there is a way forward for them together.
One of the things I love most about this author is the introduction to so many different worlds. Years ago I took a couple of intro classes in basic ASL. I ended up meeting one of my best friends who was taking the classes because she has a deaf niece and nephew. They both had CIs, but primarily used sign in their family of hearing parents and one hearing child. They lived on the East Coast, but would be returning to the area after her BIL finished his Navy career. The classes were really interesting and I learned a lot about deaf culture and ASL. This story about two very different characters who have very different experiences in the world was just a really beautiful story. Bodhi and his twin Ravi have been through a lot. Caleb and Wren have been through some stuff too. Caleb was really a jerk at the beginning of the book. He was so self-involved – not without reason necessarily given what was going on with his life – and he was completely ignorant of all the ways he was hurting Bodhi. Bodhi was just so used to having people be mean to him, want to change him, only seeing his differences, that he never even though there was a possibility that Caleb would see him in a different light. It took Caleb’s life exploding for him to open his eyes to what he was doing. And then he felt terrible about it. He spends the rest of the story trying to be there for Bodhi and understand how he has screwed up. He puts in the effort to understand Bodhi and his issues and his needs. He doesn’t have experience with someone who is autistic and has been through the trauma that Bodhi has been through in his life. He also has to accept that Bodhi is a fully functional adult and he can’t just rescue/protect him all the time. It’s a dance that they have to work out together – along with everything else coming at them from work and school and family. Bodhi has to learn to not always think the other shoe is going to drop. He’s been left so many times and told to change and had things withheld from him to coax/force him to change himself which makes him scared. He’s also very honest and that is something Caleb has to get used to as well 😉 I loved the way they communicated as the story went on. There are traumatic and sweet and very sexy moments in this story. Ultimately Bohdi and Caleb work together to find balance and harmony as a couple. There are a log of wonderful side characters here as well that I’m sure will feature in future books 🙂 Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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