Left to care for his teenage brother, Ben hopes he is doing the right thing. But when parent/teacher night happens at the school, Ben is left feeling not up to par and in desperate need of some help. Jack is a teacher at Milo's school and sees a boy who loves his older brother but struggling with the death of his parents. One conversation between Ben and Jack sets them all on a journey that sets them on the path to finding their forever family. This book was a joy to read. The characters were beautifully written and the storyline one I was sad to see end. This is my first book by Anyta Sunday but it will not be my last.

I read Made For You on a sunny bank holiday when I was stuck inside sick, and it was the perfect gentle companion to cheer me up.

The story follows 24 year old Ben, who is struggling in his role as sole caregiver to his younger brother Milo after their parents died, and Milo's hunky woodwork teacher Jack who is approaching 40 and desperate for a family after his own rejected him, and moves in with Ben and Milo to remodel their house.

It's a lovely slow burn of a novel, with Ben and Jack finding their way to a relationship while always keeping what's best for Milo in mind, and the complicating factors of grief, the age gap and and Jack's professional role. I really enjoyed seeing the three of them come together as a family, so this is a great read for anyone who loves the found family trope.

I also loved the New Zealand setting and kept interrupting my reading to google the native birds Ben, Milo and Jack bonded over and the beautiful settings for their daytrips. I'm super keen to visit Zealandia now!

The queen of hilarious, heart-warming slow-burn romances does it again!!!

*dreamy sigh*

This was just so perfect. I read this from start to finish with a stupid grin on my face, bursting into uncontrollable laughter at some of the things the sweet idiots said, and I didn't want it to end.

I love how this book was as much serious (at 24, Ben raises his little brother after their parents died and tries so very hard not to be a total screw-up it sometimes hurt, and I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be ok! Which Jack did for me, but oh well.) as it was hilarious (inappropriate bickering, and lemon-throwing is all I'll say on that). It was so sweet to watch Ben tackling the adulting stuff with Jack's help, and I'm so glad that the book took its sweet time making sure they were ready before they jumped into bed. It's one of the things I love most about Anyta Sunday's writing, that character development and building a foundation of friendship never falls short, so that by the time they do realize they love each other, everyone else pretty much already knows from the way they constantly bicker. This is just my kind of romance, and I LOVED this one especially!

This was seriously delightful.
I'm a sucker for the single parent trope and this was a beautiful story about a family finding their feet!
Ben is such a sweet guy and while he is still a fun loving guy in his early twenties, he is so willing to sacrifice whatever needs to be done to raise his little brother right.
Jack has such a heart of gold and I'm so happy he finally gets his happy ending.
Together they are just so wholesome and watching them work together for Milo was so lovely.

Read this if your heart needs a bit of a lift!

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Genre: MM Romance
Steamy?: Yes
Cliffhanger?: No
Can be read as Standalone?: Yes
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

This was one of the better works that I’ve read from Anyta of late. This book was definitely a SLOOOOOOOOW burn as the characters didn’t become official until the last few chapters of the book. But the characters were enjoyable and there was more maturity to this piece than the last few I’ve read. Even though I felt something was lacking and I couldn’t put my finger on it, I did enjoy the journey and couldn't put the book down.

This is the second book in a series and I liked it SO much more than the first one! This one was written in first person which I LOVED and I also LOVED the two main characters Ben and Jack. Ben is in his early twenties, guardian to his 12 yo brother Milo, since his parents died in a car accident. He is finding out how hard it is to take raise a kid, work and be a responsible adult all while trying to have fun and act his age too. Near impossible, actually especially since Milo is a handful. He meets Jack, who is Milo's wood shop teacher and is instantly attracted to him even though Jack is much older than him. After a few innocent meetings, Jack agrees to move into and help rehab Ben's parent's house that they live in (well, B & J live in the guest house next to it because Ben has issues with being in the house where he lived when his parents were alive). The house needs a lot of renovations and Ben wants to sell it and move so they can get on with their lives somewhere else. The three of them get much closer, as do Ben and Jack but Jack keeps Ben at arm's length because he is the teacher of Ben's brother and they just can't have a relationship...at least not right now anyways. This story is so sweet. Jack and Ben are totally adorable together and once they find their way it is fabulous. Milo is funny and smart and the three of them together are the best. I loved the love story and watching Ben grow up into his role as Milo's "caretaker." A great read, short and sweet.

3.5 life stars

I was blown away with the first book in this series, Taboo For You. So when I heard a 2nd book was coming out I might as well have been sitting on an ant pile I was so anxious to get my hands on it. I'm so happy to say it did not disappoint.

I felt so bad for Jack in the previous book. I just had to see his HEA in this one. He couldn't possibly be a more angelic character.

This story brings such a strong feeling of family. Twenty-four year old Ben is the sole caregiver for his 11 year old brother Milo after their parents both died in a car accident. Throughout the story you can see how hard Ben is trying to be a good parent. You can feel the love between the brothers.

When 39 year old Jack comes into the picture, his maturity and no nonsense attitude is exactly what both boys need. We watch as all three of them fall inexorably in love with each other. It's a slow, beautiful process.

Anyta Sunday makes the small moments count. She shows us everyday life through a rose colored microscope and I feel privileged to have seen the beauty by reading this wonderful story.

Ben McCormick has been caring for his brother Milo after their parents’ death. He feels woefully inadequate and Milo is failing school which he feels is his responsibility. The only teacher he seems to be able to connect with his woodwork tutor “Mr Woodpecker” who also is a draw to Ben but Jack knows it’s all kinds of inappropriate to go there. Engaging story of hope and love.

…

4.5 Stars!

Slow, slow burn, but so, so good!

I love pretty much everything by Anyta Sunday, and this one was no exception. It was fluffy, heartwarming perfection.

I love how much Ben wanted Jack. Such a shameless flirt.

”I’m a junkie for the little sparks that fly between us, and I’m after a harder hit.”

I also really loved the dynamic between Ben and Milo.

”Milo rests on my lap, Jack’s emergency sleeping bag spread over his legs. He murmurs thank you, over and over, as if he is a burden. It’s crushing my heart.”

He tries so hard to be a good caregiver and just needs a little reassurance. The moment where Ben asks Jack to stay with them broke my heart.

”Will you stay in our lives?” His moist breath sieves through to my stomach. “Will you stay in our lives and be our friend, please? Will you stay in our lives and be our friend even if I’m such a flirt?”

And Jack’s 73 reasons Ben is the best. *swoon*

If you’re like me and a sucker for friends-to-lovers, slow burn, age-gap, and/or stories with a spunky kid/found family - I’d definitely check this one out!

PS: I’m totally down for Felix and Mort book STAT.

*ARC kindly provided by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review*

I’ll be posting a reader friendly review to goodreads et al. later. Here’s my book buyer review:

The POVs changed abruptly and frequently. That was annoying. On a personal note, I like books where both protagonists have POVs, which wasn’t true in the other works of Ms. Sunday I’ve bought. Overall it was a quick read that felt longer than it is. That’s great from a librarian prospective- wait list turn over is faster, and for our patrons who come to us looking for a Safe Space, especially those who can’t take our tablets home with them, a book that they can read in 1-3 settings is ideal.

Further, our patrons seem to LOVE the insta-family trope . . . at least when it’s well done, which this is. The touch of Jack’s family abandoning him and Ben recognizing that as a comparable loss really put the book over the top. Milo acting like a real teenager with his own issues, and the dynamic between Ben and Milo, made the characters feel hyperrealistic. While the drama was based on parental deaths, I think it could apply to many situations, including parents that are having a hard time with one’s sexual orientation.

Bottom line— this wasn’t the best romance I’ve ever read, but I think it’ll be really popular and I’m buying four copies. I’m also recommending it to our buyer who buys print copies, if those exist.

This book is simply beautiful.

Ben is twenty-four and now the sole caregiver for his brother Milo. After the tragic death of both their parents last year they’re doing the best they can.

Ben is amazing, he’s trying his best to raise Milo. Afraid at every turn that he’s failing. At the same time he’s trying to balance a job he doesn’t like. All the responsibilities that come from effectively being a parent. And his own grief and loss.

Milo is fabulous. I loved his humour and well...everything really.

Jack is Milo’s woodwork teacher. He’s hot, kind and desperately wants his own family.

What we have is a slow burn beautiful story you can get lost in. I loved all these guys and the way they just fit.

I voluntarily read a review copy kindly provided by NetGalley.

As always, I try to drag out reading Anyta Sunday's books as I want them to last and last but I find myself reading them in one sitting. She has become one of my 'must read' authors as her books hit all the right spots for me. The humor is just right, the romance and slow burn is perfectly paced and the characters always feel so genuine.

This was another wonderful slow-burn romance, possibly even slower than usual but it didn't disappoint or feel too drawn out at all.

The story centres around Ben and Jack (and Ben's younger brother, Milo). The characters are written with such a warmth and personality that I really find myself caring for them and whether they get their HEA.

Made For You is the second book in the series but it can easily be read as a standalone. I'd recommend you read the first in the series as it is just as good as this one.

Another 5/5 read. Hopefully there will be more in this series soon.

An adorable, poignant story, just all the feelings you come to expect from an Anyta Sunday tale.

Jack and Ben - not the slow burn we usually get from this author, I’d say it’s more like a steady bake (if that’s a thing . . . I’m making it a thing). They constantly orbit each other through this book. Their chemistry, banter, need to be with each other is so strong you can see it come off the page. Individually, they are just great, good, goofy guys, and you can’t help but cheer for them.

Milo, the other main character, he was well written. It’ s almost frightening how believable of a character he is. His relationship with his brother, it’s powerful, both extraordinary and utterly ordinary.

The glimpses of Luke & Sam from book 1 were lovely. I liked how sparingly secondary and background characters were used here - typically I’m a huge fan of well-used, highly featured, lovable, secondary characters but that wouldn’t have worked here - instead the passing mentions, meetings and brief interactions with these characters added depth and intrigue while still keeping the sole focus on Jack, Ben, and Milo.

The pacing was perfect. The weaving together of fun and angst was on point.

Just a lovely, cozy read.

This was a sweet book with a love story between Ben and Jake. I do feel like it was disjointed at times and I felt like sometimes parts were skipped altogether. But the premise itself was good and I did enjoy the story. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

I loved everything about this book. The characters were realistic, the romance was slow and believable (and steamy!), and I couldn't put down the book for one second. I loved the little quirks of each character - the fanta obsession was hilarious, and the bird watching was so sweet and added so much to the brotherly connection and eventually to the whole family aspect of the book.
This was my first read of an Anyta Sunday novel and I'm an instant fan. I look forward to reading more by this author!

I am so in love with these three! Yes, three. Jack, Ben, and his little bro Milo. Ben is hot for teacher, who is an older guy and things get all kinds of complicated. Not to mention adding a layer of trying to parent a teenager and Ben is trying to figure his own life out. This story has all the things- moments that made my cry, moments that made me smile or swoon even, and so much delicious heat. Yes, it's a slow burn but I felt like I would slowly burn from their thoughts and words leading to the actual physical connections. Half of the book was forplay and teasing, while making us fall in love with them and wanting Ben and Jack to figure it out and be a family. LOVED it. And loved seeing characters from book one, and MAYBE a tease for a future couple?

This latest book by Anyta pulled me in right from the get go, as 24 y.o. Ben was raising his 11 y.o. brother, Milo, doing the best that he could, but still feeling as if he were drowning under the responsibility at such a young age.

Then Ben met Milo's 39 y.o. woodshop teacher, Jack, who had also been flipping houses as a side gig for at least the last 8 years, while impatiently waiting for his dream villa to come up for sale.

From their very first meeting, it was amazing to feel the chemistry between Ben and Jack, and to see how Jack helped build up Ben's self-confidence that he wasn't doing as badly raising Milo as he'd thought.

A lot of the drama, and Milo's rebellion, arose from the fact that Ben couldn't bear to step foot in their family home after their parent's death, so he planned to sell it and move Milo somewhere without so many painful memories.

Then Jack agreed to move into the main house and renovate it, while the boys lived in the small cottage in back of the property, which changed everything bit by bit.

It broke my heart to see Milo sneaking into his old bedroom to sleep and feel a connection to his deceased parents, but that helped necessitate Ben going into the house and begin confronting his panic attacks. A task made easier by Jack's distracting presence.

I immediately loved both MC's and the slow burn was suuuper slow in this story, allowing a very organic development of their feelings. The first kiss didn't even happen until around 80% in, but the book never felt like it dragged.

I adored Ben's snarky, funny, smart-mouthed little brother. His pre-teen antics really made me laugh, along with Ben's rather unconventional parenting style.

Ben initial bribing and negotiating with Milo to get the kid to behave truly set my teeth on edge, but when Ben started flinging lemons off a nearby tree, OMG, that had me laughing so hard. It was pretty epic.

Fortunately, Jack's somewhat-stern, structured presence made a huge impact on Milo's behavior, and provided Ben with some much-needed support in learning how to better parent his little brother, while maintaining his sanity.

In regards to relationship obstacles, those came in the form of the school (and one nosy-ass, busy body teacher) looking down on a 39 y.o. teacher getting involved with the 24 y.o. primary caregiver of one of his students. Such a relationship wasn't explicitly forbidden, per se, but was very much frowned upon, and could cause major problems for Jack.

But the heart wanted what the heart wanted, so Jack eventually did give in to Ben's steady attempts at flirting, consequences be damned, much to his own chagrin.

This was such a sweet and fluffy story, which Anyta does so well. And Jack's "Ben is the best because" talk to Milo was kind of *everything*. Total swoon material, folks.

The overall steam level was low'ish, mainly because nothing physical happened between them until very late in the story, but I felt that the level of feels was pretty high, so I didn't feel that anything was lacking.

Also, to my great surprise, the 15 year age gap wasn't an issue for me, even though I'm generally not a fan of that trope. Like, at all.

The story was written in present tense (not my favorite), dual POV, and ends with a full-on HEA, with an epilogue from 6 years on, right as Milo had just graduated from high school.

I basically LOVED a whole lot of this story and would rate it at around 4.5 stars. : )

You know when you just can’t concentrate on a single book, and you find yourself flip-flopping between books in an effort to find something that’ll catch your attention? And then a slowburning contemporary romance comes along and suddenly you can’t put it down? Well, that was me with this book.

Made For You is told in dual POVs: Ben and Jack. Ben is the older brother of Milo, and his sole carer, after their parents died a year before in a car crash. He and Milo live in the guest cottage of their parents’ house, but Ben wants to sell the house and move somewhere new, while Milo does not. Jack is Milo’s woodworking teacher, who runs a side business renovating homes. One day, Milo takes it upon himself to ask Jack if he’ll do up their house for them. And then, obviously Ben and Jack fall in love.

The best part of this book is that it’s a proper slowburn. They don’t even kiss once until 80% in, and it’s beautiful. I’m always looking for books that take the time to properly develop a relationship before having the characters fall into bed (and particularly always looking for contemporary ones), but 9 times out of 10, that doesn’t happen, so this was a pleasant surprise. I think if I had any complaints at all about it, it’s that, while the romance is slow, the attraction is not. They do both want to hook up fairly early on, but they don’t for other reasons. But then it’s kind of a soft slide into “oh wait, we’re basically dating, aren’t we”, so that was nice.

The other thing I really liked was how the angst didn’t come from a relationship-based misunderstanding. They actually communicated so well (like adults, you might say). The angst came instead from Ben wanting to be a good parental figure for his brother so I definitely almost cried a few times over that. So this book is a really good example of how you can develop a relationship and have angst without having to have your couple break up over some stupid miscommunication (not that I’m bitter, but I’ve read an annoying number of books that do do that).

Tiny complaints? Only really the age gap, but I knew about that going in, so I can’t really get too bothered by it. And Anyta Sunday did a really good job of making me forget it was there (despite Jack referring to Ben and Milo as “his boys” a few times).

I would say that that this book has solved my problem of not being able to concentrate on one book, but really, it’s probably just put me in a reading slump and/or romance binge. But hey. Sometimes you just need to read a soft slowburn romance with very little misunderstanding- or relationship-based angst, and that is exactly what Made For You delivers.