Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Annabella Michaels

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Death of Friend/Family Members, Family, Forced Proximity, Opposites Attract, Romance, Series, Small Town, Super Slow Burn

Length: 205 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

Bryson-

What were they thinking?

I thought I had my life all figured out—five-year career plan, ten-year personal plan. But all that shatters when my best friend and her husband die in a car accident. When I agreed to be the guardian for their baby, I never imagined I’d become a single dad to a six-month old. I’m supposed to be the one who spoils her rotten and sends her home, not the one responsible for raising her. I love my goddaughter, but I don’t know the first thing about babies.

Worse? I’m not Chloe’s only guardian. Her Uncle Tucker is my complete opposite, but the terms of the will are we have joint guardianship. How am I supposed to navigate the chaos of caring for a baby with a free-spirited world traveler who thinks I’m a stick in the mud?

Seriously, what were they thinking?

Raising a baby wasn’t part of the plan, but now we’re both determined to raise Chloe to the best of our abilities. Unfortunately, our talents aren’t at all aligned, and we’re both in way over our heads. Not to mention this pesky attraction to Tucker I’m trying my best to fight.

Dad News is a small town, single dad(s), opposites attract, terms of the will MM romance.

Review –

This starts with a prologue that shows Bryson at the wedding of his best friend Brooke and her fiance Zach. In the prologue, he thinks back to the first time they met when they were children. They’ve been best friends through thick and thin for years. Tucker, Brooke’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, is also introduced in the prologue, but this was really more about Bryson and Brooke. Being allowed to see Brooke on page before she died (it’s in the blurb, so not a spoiler) made her more real to the reader, which brings out a bit of emotion when it ultimately does happen.

It was heartbreaking when Bryson got the call about the accident. I knew it was coming, but still. He had to jump in to take care of Brooke and Zach’s seven-month-old, Chloe. Thankfully, or maybe not thankfully, Tucker arrives in town and jumps right in with helping.

Bryson has OCD, and suddenly everything is knocked off kilter. It doesn’t help that Tucker isn’t the neatest person on the planet, and he’s much more laid back than Bryson. Neither man has a clue how to take care of a child. Together they learn their way around changing diapers, warming bottles, and everything else involved in a baby’s care. They’ve barely gotten started when Brooke and Zach’s will is read. Bryson is Chloe’s godfather, so it was pretty much expected that he would be listed as her guardian. What wasn’t expected was how they made both Bryson and Tucker co-guardians.

Almost the entire rest of the book is about the three of them developing routines, somehow managing to work their respective jobs from home, and dealing with the joys (or not) of living in Small Town America where everybody knows everybody. There’s also a single dad’s group that meets once a week which also introduces upcoming main characters for future books.

This is a super slow burn, and while I get where the author was going with it, I felt that things moved much too slowly with these two. And when it did happen, it was kind of rushed and thrown together. Because of this, I had a hard time seeing Bryson and Tucker as anything more than just new (ish) friends who are co-parenting a little girl. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them together. They’re as different as night and day, but they somehow make it work – not just for them, but for Chloe as well.

I liked the townsfolk, for the most part. Having grown up in a small town where everybody knows your mother, I get it. And here, they did mean well. I didn’t see any of the people acting like nosy jerks. They were mostly caring and curious. They didn’t know Bryson and Tucker from anybody really, yet they jumped in with food and offers to babysit Chloe. It was obvious that they loved Brooke and Zach.

The sex scenes were written well enough. It’s just that by the time the author got to that part of the story, the book was pretty much over. I will say that the last chapter or two were really sweet and kind of emotional. I just wish the timeline of all that would’ve been moved up a lot so I could get a real feel for Bryson and Tucker as a couple.

Overall, Dad News is a nice read. I will be reading more in the series when they’re published.