Heartscape by Garrett Leigh

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Title: Heartscape
Author: Garrett Leigh
Series: Vino and Veritas #2
Published by: Heart Eyes Press
Release Date: March 22, 2021
Format: eARC
Pages: 240
Genres: Romance, LGBT, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »flashbacks to suicidal ideation; emotional abuse (not described in detail) « Hide Spoiler
Source: Heart Eyes Press
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

From award-winning author Garrett Leigh comes a gorgeous new romance in the True North world! Think: great food, burly men and good times. Beards are optional but encouraged.

I’m not the obvious choice to run Burlington’s coolest wine bar—quiet, brooding, clueless about tannin content, and always one wrong turn away from another downward spiral.

But no one seems to mind that I'm a wreck. Besides me. I just focus on getting through each shift until the night a beautiful stranger appears, looking as lost and damaged as I feel.

When a mutual friend calls in a favor, the sexy newcomer winds up crashing on my couch. I don't know if it's his melodic Cornish accent, or his ocean blue eyes, or the rock-hard body with the mysterious scars, but I get the feeling whatever happened to him runs far deeper than those wounds.

Having Jax in my home makes my chest warm. Makes me shiver. Makes me want more. But I've got a pile of baggage and I don't want to be a burden on anyone let alone a man who seems to have enough demons of his own.

Our chemistry is off the charts. His arms feel like home. The last thing I want is to screw this up. Is it wrong to hope we can heal each other? Or will one of us die trying?

HEARTSCAPE is a heartfelt MM friends-to-lovers romance in the True North world, with a brooding bartender, a rugged outdoorsman, sweet angst and lots of Shipley cider. Triggers: contains mentions of depression, suicidal ideation and PTSD recovery.

My Review:

I received a free copy through Heart Eyes Press in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — I can’t seem to get my thoughts in order.  I fucking hate that.  So I apologize if this review feels a bit scattered.

I definitely felt a lot more connection between Tanner and Jax.  I loved the way they connected, and that while there were a few obstacles in their way, in general it wasn’t their feelings that was stopping them.

Tanner’s dealing with depression surprised me.  I knew something had happened, but details were trickled in bit by bit in the story.  I appreciated all the nuances of it, and that it wasn’t just one “event”.  I also found it interesting to see how it presented in him.  It felt nothing like how I feel with mine, but I really appreciated that since I know it looks different in different people.  And this kind of made sense for him, and who he was.  I think for the sake of awareness, this perspective was really needed.

And besides all the mental health stuff, he was pretty adorable in how he took care of everyone he loved around him.  Perhaps reluctantly, or with a grumpy face, but you could feel how much he loved his peeps (from his employees, to his friends, to most of all Jax).  He made me swoon with the way he cared for Jax.

Jax had his own trials to struggle through, and I feel like perhaps I got them a little less than Tanner…which makes sense in some ways.  There was a part of me that maybe wanted to learn a bit more about his past, but at the same time I was glad not to be mired in it.  He was so different from Tanner in how he dealt with things, but they fit.

And damn, they were hot together.  I mean, I will admit I was a bit concerned about their first time (no prep???), but when I just decided to let that go, it was steamy and fantastic.  They had a great connection, from friendship to more.

I think one of the other strong points in this book, at least for me, was the background characters.  They didn’t take up a lot of time, but I genuinely felt the relationships that each of these men had with their friends/coworkers/family.  It added to the story, without taking away from what I wanted most: the two of them together.

And now I want to Google where exactly Cornwall is, and see if the wagon wheels are the same that are my favourite (but that my hubby does NOT enjoy).  All in all a fantastic M/M romance, with great bisexual representation.