Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Andrew Campbell’s life couldn’t be better. He’s a mechanic at a local shop working with his best friend, Tanner McKenzie, with whom he is planning a cross-country trip. Andrew’s getting ready to restore a Ford Mustang with his dad. Then tragedy strikes when his father dies unexpectedly. Andrew promises his brother that he will be there for him.

Andrew wouldn’t have made it through dealing with the death of his father without his best friend by his side, day and night. When he’s forced to choose between protecting his little brother and following his heart, Andrew’s choice is clear. He pushes Tanner away and tells him to go on their trip without him. Ten years later, Tanner returns.

Tanner spent most of the last ten years as an army firefighter and traveling the world while Andrew spent the last ten years just getting by. Now Tanner says he’s back, but Andrew isn’t sure whether Tanner will want to stay forever. Can Andrew and Tanner make love work the second time around?

So when the first book in this series, Charlie’s Hero, ended we got a bit of a glimpse of what was to come in Andrew’s story. In this second book in the Heroes series (that I have been anxiously awaiting reading) we get to see what happened between Andrew and Tanner way back when they had the fight that had Josh hiding his sexuality from his brother ten years ago, and then what happens in the present day when Tanner returns home. While it could be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend that readers start with the first book in the series because that is where you really fall in love with Andrew and the person he is.

Andrew is the brother we all wish we had. His whole adult life has been put on hold in order to provide his brother with a stable home after their father died. Despite giving up everything, he isn’t bitter or resentful, but he isn’t truly happy either. Now with his brother in a relationship and moving on with his life, Andrew doesn’t know how to move on with his own life because there isn’t anyone who can replace Tanner.

Tanner was heartbroken when Andrew shut the door on their relationship and sent him off on their grand adventure by himself. Returning home, he spied Andrew and his brother at a basketball game and realized the power he had to destroy their happiness and enlisted in the Army. Despite living his life and sowing his wild oats for the last ten years, he’s never found anyone to replace Andrew in his heart.

In the first part of the book, the sexual tension starts to build between Andrew and Tanner after Tanner provides Andrew with comfort after his father’s death. Yet, they never got farther than a mind-numbing kiss. These two make up for lost time though in the second half of the book when Andrew welcomes Tanner home properly by finishing where that kiss would have gone had they not been interrupted all those years ago. And did I mention that Andrew saved himself for Tanner?

Overall, I really liked Andrew’s and Tanner’s story. While there wasn’t a whole lot of conflict in the second half of the book, I chalk it up to destiny as these two really deserved to be together! So, if you like a sweet romance without a lot of angst, you will love this book!

A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.