Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Tell Me Again
AUTHOR: Becca Neil
PUBLISHER: Destined Publishing
LENGTH: 318 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2024
BLURB:
Every minute away from you is a minute too long.
Coop
It’s been ten years since he kissed me, and I can still feel it—his warm lips, his soft touch. He was my best friend, but then he abandoned me just before my entire life fell apart.
When he shows up at the diner where I work, with his fancy job, new car, and beautiful fiancée, my heart feels like it’s being ripped in two. Should I bury my feelings, forget the past, and give him a second chance at rebuilding our friendship, even though I know it can never be anything more than that?
Josh
Ten years ago, I made the worst decision of my life in the aftermath of the only kiss that ever meant something to me. I never stopped loving him, even if I didn’t get to tell him that.
When I run into Coop at a small diner in rural Nebraska, all those feelings I suppressed for years are back, threatening to upend the perfect life I’d built. I’ve got two weeks to convince him I’m sorry. But can I keep my other feelings locked away, or will that sexy baseball cap of his be my undoing?
Tell Me Again is a high-emotion, slow-burn(ish), second-chance(ish) MM contemporary romance set in a small town in rural Nebraska. It’s a story of best friends to strangers to lovers, featuring past emotional trauma, found family, virgin MCs, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.
Trigger warnings: references to alcoholism and an abusive parent with an alcohol use disorder, references to and brief instances of parental homophobia, mention of a parent who passed away from cancer, mention of past homelessness.
REVIEW:
Such a conundrum I have with this book! I love a good second-chance story and the ability of people to understand how they hurt another person and make good on it. And we have that here. Josh and Coop have been best friends forever and when they were 15, they took it a step further and had their first kiss. A kiss Josh initiated and one that was cut short when Josh’s violent, alcoholic, raging homophobe father burst in and caught them. He chased Coop away with a baseball bat, and Josh immediately denied to his father that he wanted that kiss. “Good, I’d have had to beat that shit right out of you.” So, being only 15, it was understandable. What wasn’t so much was that Josh cut Coop off, ignoring him and pretending he didn’t exist. “The moment I’d made the worst decision of my life.” Even then, I had some sympathy for Josh because he was terrified of his father, and while the decision wasn’t a good one, it was understandable to lie at 15. Coop was left on his own with his heartbreak.
Ten years have passed, and this is where Josh lost me and my sympathy. He is traveling with Brenna, his fiancé, and ends up in the diner where Coop works. Josh has been lying to Brenna, his parents, himself, and everyone since that day ten years ago. He has never told Brenna about his kiss with Coop or even suggested to her he might be gay, and Brenna, his best friend, does not deserve to be treated that way. Even when she can see something is not right when they run into Coop, he still doesn’t tell her the truth. “So I can probably go easy on the lying as long as I still…carefully edit.” This is the woman who supports him no matter what, his best friend and his soon to be wife and he is still lying. There is no cheating here, which saved me from hating Josh. But he absolutely does not deserve someone like Brenna, who is lovely and wonderful.
When they first meet again, Coop is wary, as he rightfully should be, and we hear a lot about how guilty Josh feels towards him and Brenna. I couldn’t help thinking, what would Josh have done with his life if they hadn’t randomly shown up at this diner? For his part, Coop had a rough time, especially right after Josh left. He is so down on himself for reasons that he shouldn’t be. I was happy that he has friends like Mel and Angie, who are and were there for him.
We get the reconnection of the two and things go a little fast for me. Josh says a few times that his choices back then were due to just being kids. Things are different now. But in my head, if you were just kids back then, you don’t actually know this person now. You are now both adults, ten years living completely different lives, and I felt like they needed time.
I would give this book a 5 for Brenna and a 3 for Josh. Coop, for all his shyness and self-deprecation, would get a 4. I liked the epilogue and for a minute was afraid we wouldn’t get to see that happen, so I was very happy we did!
RATING: 
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