Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This is a gentle enemies-to-lovers romance full of small town charm. When Vince returns to his hometown, he comes as a polished and successful city investor. It’s a persona miles away from the quiet bookworm that Tack remembers from high school. But Tack has also made a few big changes in his own life and the relationship that never happened as teenagers might just work if Tack and Vince can find each other as adults.

I have to admit that Vince is a thoroughly unlikeable character at the start of this story. His arrogance, his careful veneer – it’s not attractive or genuine and only his difficult childhood made me want to see past it. Adult Tack is wonderful – but it is equally difficult to look past his treatment of Vince as a teenager. Even as a reader, I felt like I had to do lots of forgiving before I could cheer for these two as a couple.

While I didn’t love either of the leading men immediately, I really loved the quirky citizens of New Hope. The characters are recognisable, well observed, and very entertaining. As always, I don’t love kids in romance but I am happy to make an exception for Tack’s very special child.

I like that this book doesn’t get too dark and the more serious moments don’t weigh the story down. I don’t love the big miscommunication near the end – it’s an overused plot device that didn’t add much to the story. I still think the town of New Hope remains my favourite part of the book, but Vince and Tack did manage to win me over by the end.

This was a really enjoyable read. Both MC were interesting and fun. There was plenty of snark for the enemies to lovers trope and lots of atmosphere of the surrounding town and characters. I resonated with the author's writing style and thought there were some nice twists and moments within the story. I definitely appreciate a reformed character- as long as it shows growth and the author did this very well It is really just a fun, heartfelt summer read that will give you some happy feels.

I was really looking forward to this book, and am definitely glad I picked it up. I will be honest though...at about 40%, I literally threw my phone and said "I cannot stand this character" out loud. That hasn't happened in a while. To me, Vince was not likable character at all until about halfway through the book. He was just so angry and didn't care about anyone else, including the people he was supposed to be helping.However, I will say this...Vince does redeem himself, and for that I was grateful. Tack was super sweet, and deserved to be with someone who would care about him, and what Tack had going on in his life at that time. Once they connected as a couple, they seemed to mesh well, even when Vince didn't quite know how to handle things like a child that he didn't know about.I did end up enjoying this book, and really loved the relationship that Tack had with his child, and that Vince was willing to go all in with the entire family.3 stars

Jeff: Philip William Stover’s The Hideaway Inn was everything I want in a romance. It’s a small town, second chance romance that also brings a peace to a long-suffering guy who has lived with his shields up for way too long. Like any good Hallmark movie, there’s also a “we must save the inn” plotline. The story has amazing queer representation across its characters. It’s a spectacular debut for the Carina Adores line.

Vince has come home to New Hope after losing his job following a disastrous workplace relationship. He’s set his sights on The Hideaway Inn, which he’s bought and is hoping to flip it and sell it to a hotel conglomerate. He’s also hoping to show the town the man he’s become since the days he was bullied in school. He’s thrown off balance shortly after arriving in town as he’s thrown together with his high school crush and the guy who broke his heart, Tack.

Part of Vince’s plan for the Inn is to make the restaurant–the only part of the Inn that’s working–into a profit center. But he immediately loses his chef. It’s none other than Tack to rescue because in the intervening years he’s been going to culinary school and has become a quite good farm to table chef…and exactly what the Inn needs.

But Vince and Tack are like oil and water. These two do not mix. Vince’s armor only grows around Tack as he’s determined to show Tack that he’s not the kid that was a target. Tack, however, is a softie in the best way. He’s determined to be nice to Vince, help Vince and hopefully get Vince to let his guard down so they can get to know each other. This is only aided by the by some forced proximity as Tack moves into the Inn’s owner’s quarters along with Vince. The reasoning is good to reduce Tack’s commute but it only forces the two together to deal with their past and present.

One of the places Vince visits where he’s got good memories is the local book store run by Toula, who has transitioned from being Tom. The bookstore was a haven for Vince and while he still has a hard time relaxing here initially we do learn significant things about his past. Toula’s also good at kicking him in the butt and see that things have really changed.

Vince and Tack though. Wow. In some ways there’s an enemies to lovers vibe here because Vince very much views Tack as an enemy at first. But Tack slowly but surely shows Vince what’s changed with him–including why he and his wife divorced and the amazing kid–Jules–they’re co-parenting. Jules is one of the best kids I’ve ever read. They’re such a free spirit and can’t help but spread joy. As much as Tack shows Vince what life can be like if he’d free himself of the past, so does Jules.

Philip does such a wonderful job of bringing Vince and Tack together as they work on the Inn and truly start to see its potential. They take day trips out to farms to source ingredients. They end up hanging out at the creek. They spend an amazing July 4 along with Jules. At the same time, Vince battles himself over what he came to New Hope to do and how his life and priorities are changing.

The moment where all is lost comes and it’s rough. Philip gives Vince a beautiful moment of soul searching that is only topped by the HEA that of course comes.

I have no doubt this book is going to end up on my best of list for this year. While it takes a minute to warm up to Vince, I totally get why he’s the way he is and it makes his journey all the more satisfying that he’s able to find his happy. And Tack is simply a great, adorable guy. The Hideaway Inn is everything I want in a romance and it’s so unabashedly gay that I absolutely adored it. I can’t wait to see what Philip does next in this series.

Will:I loved it for all the same reasons you did. I think this is a wonderful trope, heavy, small town romance, and I really loved getting to know the characters tack and Vince and understanding their specific viewpoints about life and love and the town of new hope. And how through the course of the story they set some of their preconceived notions aside and find love together. I just really enjoyed it.

I happened to listen to the audiobook and I want to call out narrator James Cavenaugh. I think he did a really lovely job of not only voicing these two main characters, but the diverse secondary cast. I think he did an excellent job. This is the first time I’ve listened to this narrator, and I’m certainly looking forward to any future books that he does.

So yeah, if you can’t tell, we are definitely fans of Phillip William Stover, and we’re looking forward to whatever titles come up next in the series that he’s working on.

When I learned that Carina was producing a romance line specifically for LGBQT stories, I became ridiculously excited. I've long been a fan of the Carina line - they've made a real commitment to publishing diverse, #ownvoices romances and some of my favorite writers are published by them. When the Carina Adores titles showed up on my Netgalley, I was first in line with my grabby hands to read each one.

This book brings together a few favorite tropes - big city vs. small town pairing, forced proximity and second chance romance. Vince Amato returns to his hometown to renovate The Hideaway Inn, with the intention of flipping it and selling it to a franchise vacation business for a profit before returning to the city. He has no intention of sticking around, since New Hope holds difficult memories of a poor upbringing and his first - and greatest - heartbreak.

He runs into Tack O'Leary within the first five pages of the book and it is clear that there is history between the former "Skinny Vinnie" and the popular high school football star turned chef. But there is serious history and Vinnie barely hides his resentment behind a veneer of toxic masculinity that often made me cringe.

But beneath all that bluster is still the slender, courageous, poetry-loving boy who loved Tack from afar and spent his life compensating for Tack's apparent rejection of him by armoring himself in a take-no-prisoners maleness that only serves to crush any tender feelings Vinnie might possess. Vinnie is aggressive and rude and frankly obnoxious, but there is no doubt that, no matter how hard he tries to push those feelings away, they refuse to disappear

Tack, meanwhile, has changed, owning his bisexuality and raising a gender-nonconforming child with his ex-wife, with whom he is friendly and has bonded because she has come to terms with her own queerness. He is handsome, competent, gregarious and easy to love.

The romance builds slowly and when they get together, it is steamy and heart-felt. Vinnie slowly grows into his feelings and even when he botches everything, he is always the poet who pines for his first love.

The rep in this book is excellent, featuring not only the full spectrum of the LGBTQ community but also disabled and neurodivergent representations. New Hope is a wonderful creation - a town that exists as a safe haven for everyone. It's an excellent example of found family and an inclusive society that does not interfere, but supports the full spectrum of human expression and it is, frankly, magical. As an #ownvoices offering, it was a must-read for me.

I received a copy of this book from Carina Press in exchange for an honest review.

Originally posted at https://serataino.com/2020/06/03/bookshelf-the-hideaway-inn-seasons-of-new-hope-book-1/

A lovely story about second chances and personal growth, THE HIDEAWAY INN by Philip William Stover is the first book in this exciting new series and I'm looking forward to the next book already.

Vince Amato left behind his childhood home and his broken heart a long time ago. He has transformed himself into a tough alpha who controls every part of his life down to the last detail. When he finds himself in money difficulties and needs to quickly flip an old inn back where he grew up, Vince has no doubt that he can get in and get out without too much hassle. But that was before he ran into the one guy who could always take his breath away, Tack O'Leary. With Tack being the best chef in the area, Vince soon finds himself working with the man who tossed him carelessly to the side during high school when Vince needed him the most, and Vince is determined to show Tack just how much he doesn't want or need him in his life. Except, Tack has changed and grown in so many different ways in the years since Vince has been away, and he will do anything to show Vince just how much he has always cared about him.

Emotional, steamy, and with plenty of real-life issues nestled among the pages, THE HIDEAWAY INN by Philip William Stover is a story about loving someone for who they are and what they care about, and not by labels or other people's opinions. I loved the town of New Hope and look forward to getting to know more members of the community as the series continue. The characters are flawed, relatable, and have the power to get under your skin and make you care about them deeply.

THE HIDEAWAY INN is a wonderful romance about letting go of the past, embracing the future, and letting love be the guiding force in life. I will definitely be reading book two!

Wheeler-dealer Vince thinks flipping the Hideaway Inn in his old home town is going to save him from his financial woes, but he doesn't count on tangling with his old high school crush who also happened to crush his heart back in the day. He's not the same old Vince.

Tack is Vince's high school crush. He's come a long way in understanding himself and who he wants to be which is a very attractive quality in this character. And even though Tack and Vince are both crushing on each other as adults, it takes a little bit for them to trust each other and themselves. I liked these two together.

Things get complicated once Tack finds out about Vince's plans for the Inn and Vince has to make some hard decisions. While predictable, I did really like these two characters. Vince is a jerk at times, and that just made his transformation all the more satisfying. Tack's soulfulness complimented him well.

There were a few aspects of this story that bugged me and might even be almost cringe-worthy. There is a very inappropriate business colleague who I didn't find funny, and the power imbalance between Vince as owner and Tack as employee might be viewed as questionable by some.

I did appreciate the diversity of this book and I would probably check out this new-to-me author again.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:

An ARC was provided. This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars
I loved the blurb and the book did not disappoint. Vince needs to make a profit by flipping The Hide Away Inn he recently purchased. If successful, this will get him out of the financial hole he is in and allow him to return to the life style he craves in New York City. He hates returning to New Hope, PA where as a child he was horribly bullied.
Naturally he bumps into the one man he hopes to never see again. Tack is a farmhand who has been taking classes on cooking. He rescues Vince when he is stranded and takes him to the Inn. Tack is so down to Earth and sweet natured. I loved his sincerity and outlook on life. There are unresolved issues between the two men and Vince is plainly not thrilled to meet with Tack, the only man he ever had feelings for.
Vince was apparently the town geek that was brutally picked on because of his sexuality. Logically he knows he has come a long way and doesn't fit that mold anymore but deep down he still feels an outcast. His manners are horrific as pushing people away prevents him from getting hurt again. Tack let him down when they were teens and he is stuck in gear. Tack has evolved into a decent man that is very interested in the prickly businessman. He becomes a chef for the Inn and really has a passion for developing beautiful meals for the guests.
Miscommunication and ghosts from the past threaten to sabotage the two. I wanted to shake Vince at times and hoped he would see the future and not dwell on past mistakes.
A wonderful story of second chances that I enthusiastically recommend. reviews left on Amazon, KOBO, Good Reads and Barnes and Noble.

The Hideaway Inn will have laughing, frowning, aahing, and that's just the first chapter. Vince hasn't been to his home town since he left fifteen years ago. He plans to renovate The Hideaway Inn and make a profit off it. He runs into his first love when he is left stranded on the side of the road. Tack was and still is in love with Vince and admires him. He didn't know how to tell him so he ends marrying a woman and having a child with her. Tack helps Vince save the hideaway but he finds out that Vince was planning on selling but doesn't realize that he changed his mind. They eventually get their happily ever after and I enjoyed this book even it's first read by this author. The book is funny, romantic, with points of views from both men and all the characters are likeable.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Carina Adores for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

This book was pretty interesting because it was indicated as a second chance romance, but one side of the couple didn’t realize that they were the cause of the other person’s heartache in their high school years. So would it really be a second chance romance if they didn’t know how they hurt the other person? Maybe. But that’s just me.

I like that Tack and Vince are able to open up to each other years later, and find love in one another during their time together while working on Vince’s flipping project in their hometown. Maybe it worked out that things happened the way they did and Tack was able to help Vince out when things didn’t turn out the way he wanted them to? I don’t think Vince expected to be stuck in the “middle of nowhere” while he was on his way back to New Hope, PA, but that paved the way to bring Tack back into his life again.

Again, we have another Happily Ever After novel so this was a good novel to take a break from the troubles of the world today. It felt like a breath of fresh air to just watch the relationship form between Vince and Tack, and see where it would lead for them after all these years.

The Hideaway Inn is a second chance romance in a sense, but it's more another chance at being who they're meant to be. Sometimes it takes a bit of life lived to get there, and to me, that's what Vince and Tack needed. Both of these guys have some emotional work to do on this journey, and I gotta say that Vince was a hard one to like. He made me think of someone who has gone so far over the top of reinventing himself that even he doesn't quite know who he is anymore, and the result wasn't favorable. Nevertheless, Tack either saw something in the new and not so improved Vince or he saw the Vinny he remembered from high school. Whatever it was, this pair did start to grow on me little by little, and the more Stover pulled back the layers of Vince, the more I wanted to hug him - even when I wanted to shake the daylights out of him first. I'm going to stop there rather than give spoilers, but I'll add that I really like the town of New Hope and its colorful characters, and I hope to see more of it in the future. Tack and Vince's romance may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I ended up liking them both and enjoying their journey.

There’s a spectrum of gender rep and queerness woven into The Hideaway Inn, alongside sweet small-town vibes and delicious food made with locally-sourced ingredients.

Tack is kind and patient. He’s come out as bi (whoop, woop!) and is supportive of his child starting to use they/them pronouns. He has an interesting, loving life that I wanted to see more of. But I DNFed at 40% because Vincent's character is essentially a vessel for childish outbursts –and a very weird hatred for anything without meat. He’s rude way past the point of defensiveness, with a bad attitude that goes from 'Okay, he's not happy here' to ‘We getttt it, you're bitter' to unbelievably nonsensically disrespectful, and it just. keeps. going.

Content Warnings: derogatory homophobic words, a few (seemingly accidental slip-ups) moments misgendering their kid.

Rating - 2,5

I was really excited when I read the blub but my expectations weren't met.

I don't really know that to think. The story was OK (I love second chances) but Vince was a very unpleasent MC. At one point of the book I was really rooting against him and Tack, something that should be unthinkable about a romance novel.

The second characters were good as was the small town setting (boy, I love a small town).

Overall, very mixed feelings.

"Skinny Vinny" was a quiet kid in school, just trying to graduate without incurring the wrath of homophobic bullies. The summer before graduation he became friends with popular Tack O'Leary - as Tack says "We fit like opposite pieces of a puzzle that click when joined" and from Vinny: "The only time I felt normal was when I was with him that summer." But after Tack ghosted him senior year, Vinny couldn't wait to get out of town, and on his way to a college degree and a powerful job, Vince "erased any aspect of [his] personality that [he] though was a weakness."

Vince returns to New Hope in a last grasp attempt to save himself from financial ruin. He's purchased the Hideaway Inn with plans to quickly rehab it, sell it to the FunTyme hospitality chain and get out of town with enough money to start again. Along the way he reconnects with Tack, who is in culinary school, and reluctantly hires Tack as his chef.

Bottom line - Vince is an arrogant jerk. "Every breath I take is a controlled study in hyper-masculinity, from my voice to how I hold my body to my lack of overly expressive emotion." We get Vince's POV throughout, but he is a difficult character to like, much less cheer for his HEA. and I really struggled with his cold demeanor and continual putdowns of Tack in order to build up his own low-esteem.

Tack, on the other hand, is a stand-up guy who has embraced his bisexuality, gets along with his ex-wife and is joyfully co-parenting a great six-year-old named Jules who loves tutus and dump trucks equally and likes the pronouns "them" and "they." Tack is a great character who deserves a happy life ... just not with Vince. However, the author does a beautiful job of crafting Tack and developing his character and I loved Jules and the community that Stover gives us in New Hope.

I really loved Stover's first book Evolution of Love -- which apparently has been republished as There Galapagos My Heart -- and I am looking forward to reading more about the nurturing Bucks County community and hope we'll get glimpses of Tack and Vince that show their relationship growing and evolving. 3.5 stars for "The Hideaway Inn."

"But what does it mean? Was it the ending to something that started a long time ago or was it an invitation to a beginning?"

📚 Series? Yes. Book 1 of Seasons Of New Hope.
📚 Genre? LGBT Contemporary.
📚 POV? Dual POV.
📚 Cliffhanger? No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Homophobia. Use of a slur (addressed in author's note). Bullying. Lots and lots of sexual content.
⚠ Book Tags : Gay main character. Bisexual main character. Non binary rep. Trans rep. Second chance romance. Small town. Forced proximity.
⚠ This Book In Emojis: 👨‍🍳👨‍💼🌈🏡🚎👨‍👩‍👦👨‍👨‍👦🍽📚

The book is about:
The Hideaway Inn tells the story of Vince Amato, who comes back to his hometown, New Hope, after a drastic self and image transformation. He reinvented himself and is now a success but has to go back and flip an old hotel/restaurant after doing some questionable career decisions. On his journey back, he meets Tack, an old 'friend' aka the guy who unknowingly broke his heart in highschool.

What drew me in:

I have been struggling with reading books and have been relying on audiobooks to get my fix of stories. But, when I picked this one up, I was excited and the pages kept on flying for some reason.

The author is new to me and I don't normally see #ownvoices M/M books, too. I love how Carina Adores allow stories like this to be told by people who actually experienced this stories and are most equipped to tell them.

Characters & connections:

I loved both of our main characters and their dynamic. Some people, based on some reviews I have read, disliked Vince and the way he handled the situation.

However, in my opinion, Vince has the right to feel what he wants to feel and no one can really blame him if that is how hurt he was about the things that happened.

On the other hand, I love how Tack matured and how the author portrayed him as a father. I loved his side of the story more, because seeing his thought processes was a sweet and touching experience.

My favorite character is Jules and I love all the scenes that they were in. The other side characters also made this story more fun... though I wish the author shed a little more light on Evie and the dynamics of here relationship with both Tack and Vince.

Everything I liked:

This author, Philip William Stover has a very readable writing style. I enjoyed the humor and the flow of the story through his word weaving. I liked the banter between the characters and there were really funny parts that made me smile.

I also liked the premise of the story. I am a sucker for a little hate-to-love, and the story even mixed in the forced proximity trope.

Another thing I liked here is the sexual tension. This author mastered the teasing and anticipation, and I was actually not expecting that this read will rank high on the steamy scale.

Finally, the last thing that I liked was how this book educated me. It was refreshing to see many scenes on various aspects of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Personally having no idea on most of their struggles, this book made me see a glimpse of a person's experience and their thoughts on these things.

Overall thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed this read and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series. I am curious on who's story will be next.

I loved it!

The Hideaway Inn captured my attention right away and held it from start to finish. The only reason I didn't read it in one session is that real life required my attention. This is the first book I've read by Philip William Stover and one of the first in the new Carina Adores line.

The story is told in first person POV, with most chapters told by Vince and about one-third of them by Tack. One thing I found a bit disconcerting at first… the chapters told from Tack's POV are labeled with his name at the top but when the next chapter switched back to Vince there was no label. I love books where we get the POV of both of the MCs but I'm used to seeing each chapter labeled with the name of the character speaking in that chapter. After the first couple of shifts I finally caught on to how this book was being done and didn't have any issues with it going forward.

Second chance stories are one of my absolute favorite romance tropes so I was really drawn to this one. Vince and Tack didn't exactly have a relationship in high school but Vince definitely felt there was a connection and he was deeply hurt when he realized that Tack didn't feel the same way.

In high school, Tack couldn't acknowledge that he was attracted to "Skinny Vinny", something he later lived to very much regret. While Vince returns to New Hope intending only to make a quick buck by flipping The Hideaway Inn, Tack sees it as a chance for him to right a wrong and reconnect with Vince.

This story has lots of feels going on. Tack has a child and he and his ex-wife are wonderful parents to them (yes, that is the right pronoun for his child). In the beginning Vince is all bad-ass and distant with the locals. But he is gradually won over by the town, Tack, and especially Tack's child. I really fell in love with all of the characters and the town of New Hope. I hope we get to see more of Vince and Tack in the upcoming books in this series. I'm really looking forward to reading more.

A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

The Hideaway Inn is a sweet, second chance romance. Vince is quite a jerk at the start of the story. He is a hard, bitter person who hides the pain of his formative years behind the mask of a cutthroat businessman. Tack has also changed since high school, but he’s become more confident and brave, owning his bisexuality and trying hard to be a great role model for his child, Jules. As the former friends get to know each other again, you hope Vince will open up and show Tack the wounded boy inside that he used to be. Tack is patient and slowly breaks down Vince’s defenses, but Vince will do anything to avoid getting hurt again. As Vince softens a bit and let’s go of his hard edges he becomes more likable and I started rooting for him to find his happiness with Tack and Jules. Despite some heavy subject matter that helps the reader understand the history that shaped these two men, The Hideaway Inn is a heartwarming story with a lovely HEA.

This is was sweet and cute from Tack's perspective, but quite the opposite from Vince's. Vince is an angry tunnelled-visioned character, seemingly completely focused on selling the Hideaway Inn. I would have liked to have seen a slower, more organic change of mind, rather than what happens here.

Tack's situation is nuanced and vulnerable. It's hard to see what he wants with Vince -- is he just so caught up in the boy that Vinnie was? He seems unable to understand how much Vince was traumatised by what happened to him as a teen, which has made him cold and hard.

So, it takes a while to bend my feelings to Vince, but flashes of softness make it possible. Tack is the best thing here. His relationship with his child, and the way he cares about the town of New Hope. I do think I would like to visit this place again.

Thanks to Netgalley and Carina Press for advanced copy. Book is out on May 26.

The Hideaway Inn

By: Philip William Stover

4.3 / 5.0




Stover did a good job of not giving the reader too much information all at once. I never felt overwhelmed with information. It trickled in when it was needed, which made it easy to follow along as well as help build the characters in my head. All the characters were loveable, but still had their flaws. It resembled real life, with a little more love because of the town. 

Tack was my favorite character. We got some of Tack’s point of view, but I wish it was more frequent. I would have liked it every other chapter, but that is just because I love Tack. I understand why Stover didn’t do it that way; it is mainly Vince’s story.

This novel shows what it is to love someone unconditionally. Tack’s relationship with Jules is amazing and very loving. He shows that you can love someone no matter how they identify. The representation in this novel is also amazing. Normally, in the novels I read, there is just one couple or one person even who identifies as being part of the LGBTQ+ community. This novel definitely falls under the category of a LGBTQIA novel. I wish there were more, but we are slowly(I wish it was quicker) starting to see more representation for everyone. This novel would be great for a Pride month TBR list. 

Stover’s work flowed very nicely and I truly enjoyed my time reading. I can’t wait to see what else he releases. I will definitely make sure to keep my eyes open for his work.


Author's Site: https://www.philipwilliamstover.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hideaway-Inn-Seasons-New-Hope

Barnes and Noble: https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hideaway-inn-philip-william-stover


This review will appear on May 26, 2020 on my blog.

About a quarter of the way through this book, I started hate-reading this book. And that’s because the main character said of the love interest “I can’t help toying with his insecurity”. If you think I can sympathise with a character who thinks this, you got another think coming.

Up until then, the main character had just been sort of frustratingly arsehole-ish, but that had mostly been understandable since he had experienced some form of trauma at the hands of the potential love interest (or so I thought, but more on that later).

And then that line.

I just don’t see how I can get past a line like that and come to even like the protagonist, let alone love him. But that is exactly what this book required me to do.

Most of my review notes, understandably, centre around just how much of a dickhead Vince was, and just how much better Tack deserved. But I’m not going to say Tack was an angel in all this - obviously how he treated Vince impacted on him fairly severely - but in the story being told in the present, he all but was.

But anyway, I was all set-up and ready to sympathise with Vince on finding out just what Tack had done to him. And then I did find out. And.

And.

There is, of course, no telling what will deeply impact on a person and how they’ll take it, sure, but I have to say I was expecting a little more than what I got. As I understood it, Tack is busy dealing with a combination of internalised homophobia and a massive arsehole of a father. Vince, as a young kid might, insisted that Tack had to feel comfortable with himself. Tack did not, Tack got a girlfriend, Tack stood aside and didn’t speak up when Vince was being bullied. (This last part is the only thing that I can sort of sympathise with Vince on, but Vince’s complete inability to even try empathise, over fifteen years on? I got stuck on that.)

But Vince and Tack never even really had anything beyond friendship. That’s what gets me. To all intents and purposes, this is an unrequited love on Vince’s part, and yet he takes it all in so deeply as to become even more of an arsehole to Tack than Tack ever was to him.

Vince has some excellent grudge-holding abilities.

It’s that grudge that leads him to be unable to forgive Tack for what he did years ago, on first meeting, and then treat him like shit throughout, until he does apologise (necessarily, obviously). At which point, Vince forgives him but never apologises himself for being such a dickhead. They get together and Vince never apologises. What this book gets right is that what you might do and who you might hurt while closeted is not excusable because you are closeted. What it gets wrong is, I think, refusing to treat any such shitty behaviour after the fact as inexcusable.

And then, like a car crash you can see coming about fifty miles off, the angst comes.

It’s not really spoilery to say that the angst centres on Vince’s desire to flip the hotel (it’s in the blurb). But what really annoyed me about it was how it’s on Tack to initiate the big get-back-together. Vince is all ready to run off and sell the hotel and never fucking apologise. It’s Tack who starts it. It’s Tack who forgives Vince so easily.

And all throughout, Vince has still not really apologised.

I don’t know how much of the commentary on toxic masculinity was intended (probably only about half to two-thirds of what I took from it), but in the end, it turned out a very good one.

If only I hadn’t been so pissed off for the majority of it.