HIM – Sarina Bowen, Elle Kennedy

This is my first time reading an M\M book.

It was not because I avoided it simply because I was not interested enough. But after so many *good* reviews on this sub-genre – I had to give it a try.

I asked for a recommendation for a good book, and the majority recommended this book.

I started reading it on Kindle, but I felt I would experience it better if I listened to the audiobook. Mainly because there were many recommendations for the audiobook and because Teddy Hamilton narrated this book and… It’s Teddy Hamilton!

Before this book, I had never heard of Jacob Morgan in narration, but I certainly understand why they like him.

Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy wrote this book. I’ve read another book by Elle Kennedy – The Deal – but I didn’t know Sarina.

I do not know if it is the combination of the two or that Sarina is just as good as Elle at writing, but this book surprised me! Why was I surprised? Again, because this is a sub-genre, I have never tried and did not know if I would connect to emotions and feelings. After all, it is very easy to read a book about a man and a woman and understand what the woman feels when she loves, when she is sad, when she is angry – because I am a woman, and it is easy to connect.

But listening to a book where there are two male characters with thoughts, feelings, emotions, and fears is something I am not familiar with since I do not really know how the male mind works, and the world of same-sex love is unfamiliar to me.

Wesley – I’m in love. I’m in love with this perfect man! I’m in love with this man who loves men, but his one true love is Jamie. My God, it was charming!

The fears of his feelings and emotions towards Jamie broke me, and I felt them in my heart. I felt them in my stomach when he spoke, when he got excited when he dreamed.

Jamie – Okay, I’m in love with him too! I can not understand how hard it was for him to reach 22 and discover a new world. A new sexual world – both physical and emotional. To find out that it was not that his whole life was a lie but that he simply did not know himself as he thought.

I loved his daring, openness, and desire to understand, learn, know and get to know.

His desire not to lose his best friend.

What chemistry they have. What a tremendous power there is in words they said to each other. How hard it is to carry secrets and hide your truth from the person you love the most in the world. How hard it is to discover a new world after years of thinking you know the world you live in.

💔 love is not something easy for anyone. Not for same-sex couples and not for couples of different sexes. That’s exactly the phrase – “All fair in love and war” because it is a war – to fight for your heart. 💔

I read a lot of romantic books. Lots! And I read books where the emotion was stronger than the physical aspect (which of course is better in my opinion), and I read books that left me speechless, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that this book is very high on the list of books that really left me with a taste for more, left me with such a wide heart and opened a new world for me.

🎧 Lately, I am more and more listening to audiobooks than reading, and it has mostly started because of comfort, and it is beginning to feel like a preference, and it is mainly because of the overall experience that the narrators provide. The good ones, of course. The tone they bring to the character, the way they talk and helps us experience fully and amazingly. 🎧

So, of course, without a shadow of a doubt – I highly recommend this book. I recommend listening to it (mostly because of Teddy because again – Teddy!) But thanks to the two narrators Teddy and Jacob, this book just came out of the pages! perfect! 💖

Click here for an interview with narrator Teddy Hamilton