Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Bear’s Best Friend
SERIES: Fixer Brothers Construction Company
AUTHOR: Raleigh Ruebins
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 218 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2024
BLURB:
He’s a ray of sunshine. I’m a loner lumberjack. We don’t make sense…
…But my straight best friend keeps ending up in my bed.
Sawyer Hendricks is the best friend I’ve ever had—the Goose to my Moose, and the shoulder I’ve cried on even though I’m not the crying type. The difference between us? Sawyer brightens any room in an instant, and I’m the gruff guy wearing flannel who’d rather be alone.
My first mistake was admitting to Sawyer that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been kissed–because the punk leaned over and kissed me, right then and there.
…And then he ended up in my bed. Just friends, right?
Now I’ve gotten a taste, and he wants another taste of me, too. But no matter how hot it is when we’re together, Sawyer’s straight. This is innocent fun for him, and I’ve long since learned to shove my true feelings for him where the sun don’t shine. I’m no good at feelings, anyway.
He’s renovating the brewery where I work, and now we’re in closer contact than ever. My heart’s been shattered before, and there’s no chance I’ll let anything threaten the deepest friendship of my life.
But I’m only human. How can I resist when my best friend is begging for more?
REVIEW:
Note: This is book 5 in this series. It contains major spoilers for the earlier books. It can be read as a standalone, but I think is much more enjoyable as part of this series order.
This is a really a sweet best friends to lover story about two guys who are both a little bit terrified of losing their friendship. Sawyer’s issues are driven largely by his feelings of self-worth which have suffered because he sees himself as the failure in a family of high achievers. It doesn’t help that his family want to “help” him by trying to run his life, find him a wife, force him into the family business etc. Harlan hasn’t let himself feel much after losing his boyfriend years before. Eventually Harlan realizes that he’s been rather stuck and has kept himself so walled off an guarded so he didn’t have feel anything – happiness, joy, grief, pain, etc.
While Harlan is supporting Sawyer though a job change, the lines start to blur in their friendship and he’s downright terrified. Sawyer is his oldest and best friend and losing that would break him. And of course there is the little issue of thinking his best friend was straight all these years. Despite knowing Sawyer couldn’t possibly be interested in him, he’s had a crush for ages. He’s stuffed those feelings down, so when Sawyer kisses him, well he has no idea what to do with that. Especially when Sawyer does it again and tells Harlan that it turns him on too.
Then things get awkward because suddenly Sawyer realizes he has the first crush of his life and it’s on his best friend. He’s not sure what to do with that. But he can’t ignore it. Harlan is nervous too because he’s held everything back for so long after Thomas, his boyfriend, passed away and he’s not sure how to even go about being with someone again. Then an event makes both Harlan and Sawyer realize that they need to seize the day, as it were. Being honest with each other and themselves is the road to happiness 🙂
I really enjoyed getting to visit this lovely universe again. The couples from the past books are here to support Harlan and Sawyer on their journey. In fact they were basically several chapters ahead 😉 Sawyer and Harlan were a bit in their own way. There is also some family reconciliation and hopefully a teaser for who will be next to find love. This is a low angst friends to lovers tale that left me smiling. It was good to see these two open their eyes to what was in front of them all along 😀 Recommended.
RATING: 
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