This Guy: MM Small-Town Romance (Wood Hollow Stories, Book 1)

RATING 4.5 STARS This Guy is the first book in the Wood Hollow Stories series by Lane Hayes. This is a single dad, sports (football) romance. Silas Anderson is thirty six years old and is a pro football player for Los Angeles. It’s his final game before his retirement. He’s playing great but the game didn’t end the way he envisioned it. He felt he went out with a less than stellar ending. He needs to get out of the city to try to figure out what’s next in his life so takes the offer of a team mate that owns a house in Wood Hollow, Vermont he isn’t using. Some small town peace and quiet is just what he needs. Except he hadn’t planned on arriving the night before a blizzard. Or getting caught in that blizzard. Or getting rescued by the hot lumberjack that lives next door. Cooper McMurry is forty one years old. He runs the lumber mill in Wood Hollow and is single dad to two kids from a previous marriage, ages nine and eleven. The kids spend one week with him and one with their mom, shared custody. Cooper has to admit the new guy next door is easy to look at but also so obviously from the big city, with no idea how to handle a Vermont storm. Especially when he ended up rescuing him from certain hypothermia. These two become friends first. Silas falls in love with Wood Hollow. He makes friends, enjoys walking down the street, saying hello to people he actually recognizes. He becomes close with Cooper’s kids and even closer with Cooper. Their relationship is just for the…

This was a really good first book in a new series. I love small town and single dad stories, so I was excited to read this. It definitely didn't disappoint. I received an advanced copy and voluntarily gave my honest review.

This Guy By: Lane Hayes Could it ever be real? 📚💕⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💕📚 What if two people that on paper make no sense but somehow they do? Silas is on the outside of a 15 year pro football career. Cooper is a dad, a ex husband and a business owner but what starts as friendship and neighbors feels like it could be so much more. This was my first book from this author but definitely not my last. Definitely well put together, great character development and I wanted so much more. The author writing is flawless, and the words are so captivating, the plot had so many twists and turns and none that I was expecting, and many shockingly intimate I have become a huge fan of this author. The author writes with so much intensity and emotion pulled from each book it’s felt page after page. Some have quick witted story lines that are so perfect and lets you believe you have a front row seat. So being able to read this love story didn’t disappoint. The authors ability to have two separate individuals struggling in their everyday life and try to navigate someone else’s thoughts, needs and desires was intense and gives all the fills. Authors Blurb: The football star, the lumberjack, and a small-town love story… Silas Not to sound dramatic, but I can’t decide if I’m a hot mess, a has-been…or both. There’s nothing quite like being in the spotlight at my lowest point. I could use a break from LA and my agent just for a little while. But Vermont in the middle of a blizzard? Probably not a…

I’m a fan of Lane Hayes and am always willing to listen to anything the writes. I just finished her hockey series and was thrilled to see she’d moved on to small town Vermont. I love small town romances with just a touch of angst. This book was pretty low angst, but there were moments when I sort of wondered how everything was going to work out. Silas has finished his football career. He’s hung up his helmet for the last time and, upon the suggestion of a friend, heads to a house in Vermont to relax. Unfortunately for Silas, the LA guy doesn’t know much about snow. Fortunately for him, his new neighbor Cooper does. Silas isn’t sticking around long but after receiving help from Cooper, he finds a way to enjoy his short time in Vermont. And figures out a way to come back again. Cooper is a single dad sharing custody of his two amazing children. He works in the executive office of the local lumber mill. He’s not officially a lumberjack, but he does have the plaid shirt. He’s balancing all the elements of his life and didn’t exactly plan on having a sexy new neighbor. Silas is just the right kind of distraction, though, and Cooper’s happy to adjust. Only one thing - Silas isn’t out. And Cooper’s not certain he wants his kids to know the extent of his relationship with the football player. The closer they become, though, the harder it is to keep their secret. Then Silas looks at perhaps doing one final season and Cooper’s ex-wife drops a bombshell on him. Suddenly the men’s…

This is my first Lane Hayes book, and honestly I had no expectations. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I can't remember smiling so much while reading a book! That's how an M/M RomCom starring a retired football player and logger (not a lumberjack) should be! The small town sounded heavenly and if it was real, I'd want to live there. But let's talk more about our main characters. So, there's recently retired footballer Silas, from California. He's kind of in the middle of a PR ménage a trois with his ex-wife and her super famous actor boyfriend, much to his dismay. Despite his PR agent's insistence of using that to his advantage, he decides to take the advice from one of his former teammate+friend to stay in his house in Vermont for a little R&R. In Vermont, there's Cooper, who's a boss man at a logging company. He's also divorced and has shared custody with his two kiddos, Chase (9 year old boy) and Ivy (11 year old girl). Cooper loves his smalltown, Woods Hollow, and despite a little stress every now and then, life couldn't get better. That is until he meets his new, temporary, neighbor Silas. You can tell they find each other attractive by their inner monologue. There's just one problem; they're both bi and in the closet. Well, Cooper kind of is. Silas instantly falls in love with the quaint small town where everyone is in everyone's business, but it's kind of cute. During a snowstorm, Silas is stuck at the grocery store and tries to call a cab…