Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Back to You
AUTHOR: S.W. Chambers
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 252 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2024
BLURB:
Sometimes love just isn’t enough.
For years, Brandon and Ethan have been the perfect couple. They’ve grown together, lived together, laughed together. But now, Brandon is coming in second place to Ethan’s job, and he’s just not sure that’s something he can live with anymore.
Ethan loves his boyfriend with his entire body and soul. But he’s so close to reaching that next level, and he’s prepared to put in as much effort as he needs. Maybe then he’ll finally feel he’s overcome his past.
With a bit of angst, a lot of humor and a ton of love, Brandon and Ethan must navigate a new normal as they try to find their way back to each other.
Join a colorful cast of characters on a journey to find happily ever after.
REVIEW:
This book starts off with an elegant woman walking a chicken wearing a “pink, rhinestone-encrusted leash.” This is how we are introduced to Brandon, who owns Bean Bistro with his lovely sister, Michelle, and no, the chicken is not his or hers. What is his is his partner, Ethan. Except we know right away that there are issues. “Really, though, was there any point in going home at all?” As Brandon scrolls through his phone after yet another, sorry, gotta work text, we can see how important Ethan’s job is to him. They’ve been together for three years but now Brandon is realizing something. “Message after message reminding him how much more Ethan’s job meant more than everything else in his life. More than Brandon.”. I was barely into the book, and my heart was hurting for Brandon already.
Brandon loves Ethan and wants their relationship to work but doesn’t know what to do. He and Ethan have talked about it over and over, and Ethan will promise to cut his hours back (he’s a lawyer who wants to make senior associate), but it’s always another project, and “…he swears he’ll cut back once it’s done.” But of course, there’s always another project, meeting, or something that just has to be done.
For his part, “Ethan sat at his desk, facing down hour 12 of his day, and knowing that his life was wildly off track.”
Side character-wise, I adored Marcus, who works with Brandon at Bean Bistro, and Michelle, Brandon’s sister. They have nothing but Brandon’s best interests in mind and aren’t afraid to tell him when he’s in the wrong and support him when he’s right. I also love that Michelle’s husband, a deployed sergeant, adores Brandon. They were roommates at college and Steven appreciates how Brandon cares for Michelle and their children while he is deployed. Ethan’s best friend, Lake, absent-minded, loyal, and kind, is another lovely character. Their initial meeting in college made me laugh.
And I have to say, Ethan and Brandon’s meet-cute was adorable. Embarrassing for Ethan, but the memory always makes Brandon laugh, and that gave me hope for these two.
Lake also tries to make Ethan realize what a merry-go-round workaholism is. There’s never an end – senior associate, then killing yourself to be junior partner, then more for senior partner. “Ethan, you need to cut back. Something has to give, and if you aren’t careful, it’s going to be your relationship or your mental health. Actually, if you lose your relationship, there goes your mental health, so yeah. You need to cut back.” Even then, Ethan doesn’t believe it. He has to be successful; he can’t ever go back to how his past was,
“…born to a pair of lazy, aimless, useless layabouts. Neither bothered to hold down a job. They could, they just didn’t want to. If it hadn’t been for government assistance and free school lunches, Ethan would never have been able to eat.”
To make mommy and daddy even better, they kicked Ethan out the day he turned 18 and he worked multiple jobs to pay for college, where he worked full time while taking full load of classes. So you can understand why he has such drive, but he doesn’t see there is no getting off that merry-go-round unless you choose to.
Fair warning, this won’t be for everyone. This is an established couple having problems and for much of the book it focuses on the solving of the problems, not “romance”. I found it interesting and something different than my usual, but there is a lot of soul-searching and working on yourself.
I like established couple stories, and this one is very realistic. There was no magical solving of problems with sex and the tension/angst that was there fit very well. Something happens that was expected and the results were, I thought, exactly expected. So I liked seeing how they would deal with everything and how things would turn out.
RATING: 
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