Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ever since finishing Courtside, I have been salivating for Chuck and Tommy's story, and this exceeded all my expectations!!! These 2 men were everything. The love and support they shared, even before they were a couple, was so strong, incredible, and beautiful. And as someone who has depression , I immensely appreciated the amount of care Taylor took in writing Chuck's struggles and experience. It was so very real and his character made me feel so seen. Oh! And yet again, Taylor gave us a furry (or should I really say hairy?) side character friend to be obsessed with. Leonard was the perfect cantankerous houseguest that just wanted love and somewhere cozy to live. (Justice for Leonard! 😂)
RUN, DON’T WALK, TO YOUR KINDLE RIGHT THIS INSTANT AND PRE-ORDER POOLSIDE BY @taylorewestonauthor
This book has everything to make you feel all warm and fuzzy and melty inside! I couldn’t stop giggling and squealing and honestly crying a little bit because these precious darlings work so hard for their WELL-DESERVED HEA!
✨Friends to Lovers
✨Over 30 Representation
✨Mental Health Representation
✨LGBTQ+ Representation
✨Cat Dads
✨Bi-Awakening
✨Speedos & Steamy Locker Room Scenes
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Poolside is available for pre-order now and will be available for purchase and download on KU on May23rd! Go get it! I’m gonna go read the first book now and I swear @taylorewestonauthor if you don’t give me K&M in a book three I will haunt your DM’s!!!!!
This book has everything to make you feel all warm and fuzzy and melty inside! I couldn’t stop giggling and squealing and honestly crying a little bit because these precious darlings work so hard for their WELL-DESERVED HEA!
✨Friends to Lovers
✨Over 30 Representation
✨Mental Health Representation
✨LGBTQ+ Representation
✨Cat Dads
✨Bi-Awakening
✨Speedos & Steamy Locker Room Scenes
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Poolside is available for pre-order now and will be available for purchase and download on KU on May23rd! Go get it! I’m gonna go read the first book now and I swear @taylorewestonauthor if you don’t give me K&M in a book three I will haunt your DM’s!!!!!
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you Taylor E. Weston for this ARC!
This is a super cute best friends to lovers story. I loved both characters. It was super sweet and romantic definitely recommend it.
I loved how Tommy goes for what he wants. He realizes he has feelings for Chuck and goes for it.
Chuck is more reserved. Having his parents cut him off completely because he’s gay affected him. It made him afraid to be more open and be more himself. He battles depression and feels like he can be too much for others. Especially Tommy. He’s afraid because of his depression that Tommy will have enough and leave him.
Since both want forever they work hard for their HEA. They make time for each other and try to be there for whatever they need.
This is a super cute best friends to lovers story. I loved both characters. It was super sweet and romantic definitely recommend it.
I loved how Tommy goes for what he wants. He realizes he has feelings for Chuck and goes for it.
Chuck is more reserved. Having his parents cut him off completely because he’s gay affected him. It made him afraid to be more open and be more himself. He battles depression and feels like he can be too much for others. Especially Tommy. He’s afraid because of his depression that Tommy will have enough and leave him.
Since both want forever they work hard for their HEA. They make time for each other and try to be there for whatever they need.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chuck and Tommy have been friends for a long time. Chuck is a closet gay by choice. He doesn't think his straight friend group will embrace him like his LGBTQIA+ group has. He keeps them separate.
Enter Tommy. Tommy is Chuck's safe space. Tommy starts discovering he may be into men after his divorce from his wife. His discovery takes you on a journey of figuring out how to just be who you are all the while loving the sight of men just as well as women but in different ways.
Taylor E Weston does an excellent job of showing and sharing the journey with the reader. This hands down is one of the best bi-awakening books I have read this year. It is a very delicate balance of ensuring the character is seen as well as given the space to flourish.
Without giving away key details just know that you will be pulled in and engaged with Tommy's journey about finding his sexuality to be fluid. & with Chuck's journey of managing his medication needs and walking the tie rope of therapy because depression is not a virus that can be cured. It has to be managed and never goes away.
I loved this cozy read and enjoyed the story between Chuck and Tommy. Their journey of friends to lovers. The thought and care that went into their communication and checking in with one another. I loved every bit of it. We love open communication in this house.
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chuck and Tommy have been friends for a long time. Chuck is a closet gay by choice. He doesn't think his straight friend group will embrace him like his LGBTQIA+ group has. He keeps them separate.
Enter Tommy. Tommy is Chuck's safe space. Tommy starts discovering he may be into men after his divorce from his wife. His discovery takes you on a journey of figuring out how to just be who you are all the while loving the sight of men just as well as women but in different ways.
Taylor E Weston does an excellent job of showing and sharing the journey with the reader. This hands down is one of the best bi-awakening books I have read this year. It is a very delicate balance of ensuring the character is seen as well as given the space to flourish.
Without giving away key details just know that you will be pulled in and engaged with Tommy's journey about finding his sexuality to be fluid. & with Chuck's journey of managing his medication needs and walking the tie rope of therapy because depression is not a virus that can be cured. It has to be managed and never goes away.
I loved this cozy read and enjoyed the story between Chuck and Tommy. Their journey of friends to lovers. The thought and care that went into their communication and checking in with one another. I loved every bit of it. We love open communication in this house.
emotional
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I read this book in 2 sittings, and I cannot wait to go back and read book 1. It was such a great read. I don't know who I loved more, because Tommy and Chuck are both so damn lovable and they are so cute together. Both characters had baggage, and they felt so real.
The progression from friends to lovers was so sweet but the tension added some spice. I loved that Tommy wasn't that phased by the realisation that he was into his best friend. The bisexual awakening was done really well and the support he got was beautiful.
If you know me, you know I love found family, and this one was perfect. The way they all rallied to offer support and love even when Chuck was trying to hide melted my heart. I adored the way they were all rooting for Tommy on his quest to understand and prove his feelings for Chuck.
Chuck's depression was written well and was great representation. I felt every emotion along with him and it was so heartbreaking. It also deals with the side effects of SSRIs and how they affect your life.
The perfect sweet and spicy romance with some added emotional depth.
The progression from friends to lovers was so sweet but the tension added some spice. I loved that Tommy wasn't that phased by the realisation that he was into his best friend. The bisexual awakening was done really well and the support he got was beautiful.
If you know me, you know I love found family, and this one was perfect. The way they all rallied to offer support and love even when Chuck was trying to hide melted my heart. I adored the way they were all rooting for Tommy on his quest to understand and prove his feelings for Chuck.
Chuck's depression was written well and was great representation. I felt every emotion along with him and it was so heartbreaking. It also deals with the side effects of SSRIs and how they affect your life.
The perfect sweet and spicy romance with some added emotional depth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Depressive Episode
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the book of the summer! I was screaming, giggling & kicking my feet. I sobbed on my plane. I knew this one was gonna be emotional and make me cry but got damn it really got me in the feels. Taylor really has a way with words that pierce your soul. This may be a romcom book but it deals with clinical depression, coming out, bi awakenings, & lots of queerness. Chuck & Tommy were just everything. Their communication was just perfection and navigating being together was just so so beautiful to read. And seeing the gang together & new people joining the gang was so fun to read! I don’t want this series to end 😭
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I am a walking advertisement for this novel. Never has a book rendered me so book-drunk as Poolside, by Taylor E. Weston. It has taken me too long to write this review because I have struggled putting into coherent words my feelings. I have never read a more accurate and heart-breaking description of clinical depression. Chuck’s journey and self-acceptance with his mental health so closely mirrors mine that I feel as though Weston managed to take my experiences and eloquently put them in this book.
Poolside is the second novel in the Southeastern Alumni series, but is a complete stand-a-lone. Chuck has been hiding his true self from all his closest friends. He’s seen as the friendly, easy-going swim coach, and he is. But he is also a gay man and struggles with clinical depression. Tommy thought he had it all, until his divorce left him feeling rudderless and empty, focusing on a job that doesn’t bring him joy. Needing swim lessons to compete in his boss’s lake race, Tommy naturally goes to Chuck. Chuck has been his safe space ever since his divorce, plus he’s the swim coach for their alma mater. He’s Tommy’s favorite person in the world, so it’s a no-brainer. As the two spend more time together, the two men learn about themselves, about friendship, and about love.
Oh. My heart. I want to read Poolside for the first time again. And I also want to live in Chuck and Tommy’s world. There is nothing I love more than a book about men being nurturing and vulnerable. Especially when these men live and work in heavily hetereo-normative-coded worlds like athletics or bro-heavy careers. And Chuck and Tommy are couple goals - their friendship is the basis for a supportive and steamy love story that gave me warm-and-fuzzies as well as hot-and-bothereds. The book has hilarious and eccentric friends, an animal-based adventure (I love a good opossum side-character), a bi/demi-awakening, and super steamy scenes. (showers, the tv show Spartacus, a car? mama mia.)
Read Poolside. I love this book. I love Tommy and Chuck and I love Tommy-and-Chuck (Chommy? Tuck?). I love that clinical depression is a part of Chuck’s story but not his defining characteristic. I love Tommy’s self-exploration and his growth. I love this book. And I love that you can read it, too.
I received an advance review copy for free from the author, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I read Courtside earlier this year, it was right about the time that I caught wind of Poolside being Chuck and Tommy's story; it made some of the dynamics in that story hit just that much harder, especially toward the end, and I have eagerly been waiting for Poolside ever since. Thank you for the ARC!
It. Did. Not. Disappoint.
I love Weston's dialogue and the care with which she brings her characters through heavy topics and I am a sucker for found family--the fact that Chuck had two and was able to bring them together? My heart melted! I loved the mental health rep in this story, in fact I wouldn't have minded the story being a bit longer if we could have gone a bit more in depth with Chuck's therapy and the conversations he and Tommy had as they found their balance. It's not a detraction on the story, more like I'm selfish.
I'm looking forward to a reread of both Courtside and Poolside back to back and can't wait to see what's next in this universe!
It. Did. Not. Disappoint.
I love Weston's dialogue and the care with which she brings her characters through heavy topics and I am a sucker for found family--the fact that Chuck had two and was able to bring them together? My heart melted! I loved the mental health rep in this story, in fact I wouldn't have minded the story being a bit longer if we could have gone a bit more in depth with Chuck's therapy and the conversations he and Tommy had as they found their balance. It's not a detraction on the story, more like I'm selfish.
I'm looking forward to a reread of both Courtside and Poolside back to back and can't wait to see what's next in this universe!
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4/5 spice
What a lovely summer read by Weston! This was an ARC read (my first one) and I’m so grateful to have had an opportunity to read a great romance. First of all, it’s set in Charleston and Charleston is gorgeous. We get an opossum under the house, mental health rep, and a slow building love story. Overall, I did absolutely enjoy this read. I took my time with it and got enveloped with the characters journey. Neither one felt flat. I enjoyed the limerence and the pining. I enjoyed the spice and I also enjoyed the level of depth put into discussing Chuck’s mental health.
Overall, this was a great read and I will absolutely be reading more by Taylor E Weston.
What a lovely summer read by Weston! This was an ARC read (my first one) and I’m so grateful to have had an opportunity to read a great romance. First of all, it’s set in Charleston and Charleston is gorgeous. We get an opossum under the house, mental health rep, and a slow building love story. Overall, I did absolutely enjoy this read. I took my time with it and got enveloped with the characters journey. Neither one felt flat. I enjoyed the limerence and the pining. I enjoyed the spice and I also enjoyed the level of depth put into discussing Chuck’s mental health.
Overall, this was a great read and I will absolutely be reading more by Taylor E Weston.