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.

Well, that was .... fabukous! Truly. I'm sat here trying to come up with something that will sum up just how much I loved this book.

Slow burn reads can go either way for me, I either totally love it or end up ditching the book. I can safely say Made For You was delicious. I loved every word and not once was I tempted to skim ahead, skip forward for sneak peeks (you know you do it too ha!). The author played this to perfection. The build from acquaintances to friends to lovers was so real without any ridiculous angsty drama.

Loved the characters, loved the writing, loved the story .... just floved the whole damn thing. Now I'm kicking myself I didn't read Taboo For You first. Although this is a standalone in the series, this anal mama needs to read things in order(ish). Guess what's queued up next on my Kindle.

Some book funk stats.... 2018 I had 32 books on my favourites shelf on Goodreads, this year .... 2. Two! So I'm off to make it 3 after finishing this book. I can safely say my book funk is in my rear view 😁

Huge thanks to Netgally and the author for this arc.

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.