A review by endemictoearth
Bear's Best Friend by Raleigh Ruebins

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

I've read a number of books from this author, and in my mind, they continually get a little more thoughtful with each book. This is very much in keeping with the author's backlist of cozy fluffy romances, but I was pleasantly surprised about how the 'straight' MC thought about himself and his sexuality. Basically, Sawyer has never allowed himself to think about being anything other than 'normal' - he is the odd man out in his family and gets a lot of judgment from his mother in particular, so it makes sense that he would try to conform in other ways or not try to explore options that would make him more of a pariah (in his opinion.)

Harlan is Sawyer's steadfast champion, and they've been best friends for a long time (I admit the timeline was a little fuzzy for me, but I just rolled with it . . .) the relationship is solid and wonderfully depicted. 

It possibly lingered the merest bit too long near the end, but since there was some freshness to the trope, I didn't mind. The

love confession under the influence of pain meds that was followed up by an almost identical confession the next day

was very cute. I highlighted quite a bit, which is my yardstick for something a cut above. Plenty of books slide right through my brain, perfectly fine but nothing stands out, but if lines snag on my attention and make me think "Yeah, that's a great way to say that" I'm happy.

I kindly received an advanced copy from Gay Romance Reviews.