3.75
Lots of grief and heart break in this one as we read about Evan Monroe dealing with the loss of his long time lover, Bill, to cancer. Grayson Lantham is Bill's nephew who had lost touch and only knew about his uncle's death through an email sent by Evan. Gray comes to visit and pay his respects and the men form a tentative friendship that they maintain through emails and phone conversations.
While there is the tug of attraction at that first meeting and a lonely fueled kiss initiated by Evan but this is slow, slow moving romance and one that I really enjoyed. I liked the friendship build between the two men and how they talked about how they were attracted to each other and didn't sweep it under the carpet. There is a lot of healing for Evan and Bill is never an afterthought but a strong presence in the story but not to the point that Evan is determined to never love again.
I liked the secondary characters here. There was a nice romance for Sarah, Gray's sister and Troy, is a good friend to Evan and deserving of his own HEA.
One thing that bothered me was no mention of safe sex. The men have only known each other for a year and have sex with no condom. That's a bit of pet peeve with me and always tends to throw me out of the story. Still this read was a lovely build of both a strong friendship and romance.
3