CWs and CNs at the end.

EM Lindsey is back with book 2 in this Words We Never Said series featuring single dads and friends, oooooh this one was delivered with all the spice and all the feelings! 

We first meet Frey in the previous book when he is discussing his terrible boss who is a surgeon at the hospital at which he is a nurse. Doctor Dickhead, Frey so aptly christens him, refers to Renato, swoony silver fox Italian doctor who has…a bit of a reputation at work for making people cry and generally having the demeanour of an angry bear. And Frey can’t stand him…or so he thinks. 

I am usually not a fan of the true enemies to lovers in which the two characters actively dislike each other, but as usual, Lindsey handles this aspect of the trope in a way that really works. While they do begin the story truly despising one another, it soon becomes clear that both men have some badly conceived preconceptions about each other. I really loved how both of them have to really sit with the ways they saw the other and acknowledge that making assumptions is just not done. And underneath Renato’s snappy attitude, and Frey’s chaos, both of them have layers of complex feelings. My heart hurt at the pasts that both characters are trying to still process several years later, and the varying degrees of armour they had cultivated to go through the motions. Their path is not easy and Lindsey incorporates all those messy, complicated ways people feel and really allows space for them to confront their own shortcomings while also helping each other heal. The HEA feels really well won at the end and I loved seeing this incredible arc for both characters. The spice was SPICING, and the angst was ANGSTING which of course makes for a hell of a great read! 5 stars! 

CWs: death of a spouse (in the past) and grief; cheating and divorce (not between MCs); ableism and homophobia; parental abandonment; slut shaming language; brief instance of police aggression towards a Deaf character. 

CNs: This is the second book in the Words We Never Said series and can be read as a stand alone. It features a workplace, boss/employee romance between a surgeon and a nurse who has a Deaf child. This book is enemies to lovers and is high-heat featuring several on-page sex scenes including, light domination, aspects of humiliation, and praise kink.