Tragedy brought us together, but something stronger made me want to stay.”
Julian was the boy next door. My brother’s best friend, he fit with my family in ways I never could. While he and Rhett went on to play house, I left the only life I knew, desperate for a fresh start.
Until everything changed.
Heartache came along, and the aftermath of my brother’s death was here to stay. I was now face … to stay. I was now face to face with Julian more than I ever wanted to be.
Being around him brought up all my insecurities, forced me to deal with hard truths, and conjured up feelings I had no business entertaining. He wasn’t the man I thought I knew. He was complex and layered, and inherently beautiful in all the ways I’d never noticed.
Not on another person.
Not on another man.
Not until him.
more
Words. I have none. Marley Valentine poured all the beautiful ones onto the pages of Without You, leaving me speechless. Stunned. Emotionally wrecked. I don’t even know where to begin. All I know is she wrecked my heart and then stitched it back up in the most perfect way ever. This book made me bawl. I felt every crushing emotion these heroes went through. Every single one of them. I bled when they bled. Cried when they cried. Laughed when they laughed. Marley blew my mind, shredded my soul, and bruised my heart with this book. This book wasn’t a simple read. It was an emotional cyclone that I was caught up in. Nothing mattered but the love in the story I was desperately rooting for. This book is pure poetry of the heart. It’s not just my favorite read this year, but one of my favorites ever. It’ll be a long time before I stop thinking about this book. Maybe not ever. FIVE BROODY BOYS STARS!
Without You is Marley Valentine at her finest. She weaves an honest story of forgiveness, love and learning to live after loss in this emotional MM romance. From the first chapter to the last, I could not put it down! I highly recommend this book.
This was my first Marley Valentine listen. This story was amazingly beautiful. It took us on a journey with a grieving family and partner. Little did Deacon & Julian know where their mutual love for Rhett (Deacon’s Brother) would lead them. Teddy Hamilton & Tim Paige did an exquisite job bringing them to life for the audiobook. This book is on my permanent re-listen list!
A story about love and loss, the complexity of families, and dealing with grief and guilt.
“Love me back to life”
To see these two strong men who had been felled by shared grief find each other, take solace in each other, find their own love with each other is so heartbreaking, and heartwarming. Stripped down, with nothing but raw emotion and hard truths between them, Deacon and Julian are the epitome of moving on. Of forgiveness. Of family. A stunningly beautiful story.
You know, it’s not often I see a book cover and think I absolutely have to read that, whatever the blurb says. The cover of Without You blew me away with how stunning it is, so there were a lot of expectations. Let me tell you, it met every one and gave me more! It’s as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. It has given me such a warm feeling inside, I loved it!
As for the book, it is a heartwarming, gut wrenching, emotional, wonderfully written story about two broken, grieving men, finding love and happiness in the most unexpected of places.
Julian is lost, wracked with guilt about simply living, following the death of his childhood best friend and boyfriend, Rhett. Deacon is Rhetts older brother. He’s broken too, aloof and angry, full of the insecurities he’s grown up with, believing he’d never lived up to expectations. They’ve never gotten along in the past, but when Deacon comforts Julian in his desperate time of need, a small spark ignites.
“Missing him doesn’t mean you have to be miserable, and being happy doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten about him.”
I loved this book, how sensitively but realistically it dived into the emotions of these two beautiful souls. This wasn’t an easy relationship for either to understand, accept and make work, with Deacon never having been interested in men before, as well as being the surviving brother and Julian struggling and alone. My heart broke for both of them, then swooned at the way they were there for the other when it was most needed. And hot, I love MM, there is an amazing dynamic to it, different to MF and these two had amazingly sizzling chemistry as they started to accept each other.
“Deacon, I’ve had my whole life to get used to being attracted to men.”
“I’m not attracted to men,” I say boldly. “I’m only attracted to you.”
It’s the first book I’ve read by this author, but if this book is anything to go by, I’m going to love reading more!
5* Beautiful Broody Love Stars
From the first page I was captivated emotionally in the story of Deacon and Julian. Both of them are navigating and coming to terms with the death of a loved one. For Deacon it is the loss of his brother Rhett and for Julian, Rhett, being his boyfriend. When Deacon and Julian reunite at the 1st anniversary of Rhett’s death, Deacon, having recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend, starts having feelings for Julian who he has disliked most of his life. Added to Deacon’s sorrow is his toxic relationship with his mother, who has always treated him as the black sheep of the family. My heart bled for him and the cruelty his mother bestowed upon him. Together Deacon and Julian learn to heal each other through friendship and their growing feelings towards each other. Their journey was a slow burn and the chemistry between them undeniably hot.
The feels are so powerful, they will tug at your heartstrings. It is a story of finding love after loss, letting go of the past and embracing the future.
The cover of Without You is drop-dead sexy and what is written beneath it is such a magnificent heartfelt love story.
Sometimes a book comes along and turns you inside out. It doesn’t happen often but Without You is definitely one of these rare books. This beautiful MM story will capture you from the first page. Your heart will bleed for the mutual loss Deacon and Julian share. The magnetic pull between them is spellbinding to see come to life on the pages. The chemistry they have is so raw and sensual that you will need a cold shower or two to cool down. This book is amazing, it has everything you could want and then there’s that something extra special that I can’t quite put my finger on. This is my first Marley Valentine and I can promise you it won’t be my last.
Highly recommended.
My words are not going to do this story justice. I know this because I’ve sat here for over thirty minutes trying to put words together about my feelings and I HAVE FAILED! If you only get one thing from my review it should be this .. This is not a story you will just read. This is a story that you will experience!
From the synopsis, you should already be prepared for an emotional ride with this journey, but you won’t be, because the emotional tsunami Marley Valentine brings us with this story is not something anyone can see coming. Okay, I didn’t see coming. The passion and growth in this story I did not see coming. Honestly, I didn’t see most of it coming and it was phenomenally glorious!
There are so many dimensions to Julian and Deacon’s journey that I find it hard to pick which ones I should or should not share with you as to not spoil the read. The connection and chemistry they shared as friends and lovers was on point. Their grief and healing and growth was superbly evolved thru the story. Their passion and determination for better for each other and with each other was a thing of beauty to read.
An incredible story of loss and healing, growth and realization, family, friendship, love and hope that everyone should read. #TRUST
Sidenote: Can we talk about this cover for a second? #HolyJesus #JustLickIt #ALLTHEWINS
This book left me in tears and tore my heart out! Elizabeth @ Carolina Chic’s Read
Swooning & Stunning story filled with a slow burning romance has left me feeling so muck LOVE!
This story tells the tale of a broken family due to the loss of a sibling. Two utterly broken men find a way to heal within the grieving of this man, they also find a beautiful love.
I am in Awe of this story and it has made my Top list for 2020!!
This book is hands down the best MM book I have ever read! The emotion that this author makes you feel is incredible! This is story is about love, hate, loss, and so much more. I wish I could give this story more than 5 stars because it deserves so much more. Never has a book made me feel so much and this book was just incredible!!!
5 Stars!
The book starts right after the burial of Deacon’s brother and Julian’s boyfriend/BFF, Rhett, and right from the start, the author throws us into the deep end with all the grief and sadness that losing a loved one can cause, while showing us tidbits of Deacon’s family dynamics, which aren’t all that healthy. The story moves forward to one year later, with Deacon being guilted into joining his family to remember Rhett and from then Deacon’s life is thrown into a turmoil when his feelings for Julian start to change and his own insecurities due to his strained relationship with his mother come to the forefront.
I loved Deacon. I wanted to hug him and make it all better for him. GFY is one of my favorite tropes and Deacon was a great example of why. His attraction and growing feelings for Julian were progressive and realistic, with a healthy dosage of guilt and feelings of inadequacy, of never being enough. And once he realized he felt more for Julian than just friendship, he embraced it without much fuss. I liked Julian a lot, although it took me longer to warm up to him. Understandably, it was more difficult for him to move on from Rhett, even with as much as he liked Deacon once they got over their initial animosity, but once he gave in, he went all in and I really appreciated that. They had more than enough angst from outside sources to have more in their relationship. The chemistry between them was undeniable and a bit insta-lovey, but it didn’t feel forced. It was very easy to see they were meant to be and God, the UST nearly had its own pulse.
I liked Wade, Christy, Victoria, Hayden and Lia, who was totally adorbs and provided some very much needed lightness in some very heavy moments. I liked Bill, Deacon’s father, most of the time, and while I could see he was between a rock and a hard place, I was so mad he didn’t react much during a certain scene near the end and when he did, it was almost too little, too late.
I hated Deacon’s mother with the fire of a thousand suns, the woman was horrible and I totally understood why Deacon moved away to Seattle as soon as he could, alienating himself from his family just to avoid her.
There are not enough words to express how much I loved this book. It’s angsty as all hell and the first half and the ending had me crying several times, but it ends in a good place, with a swoon-worthy, believable HEA, which is one of my main concerns when reading H/C books. While there are very little moments of happiness in the book, I treasured the ones we got and frankly, couldn’t put the book down after I started it. Just be aware that this is not an easy book to read, so stock on the tissues.
Highly recommendable!
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn’t a requirement. ***
I just finished and I don’t know what to do with myself. Marley Valentine wrote a phenomenal love story that breaks your heart but puts it back together in the best way. Two lost souls come together and heal each other, and Deacon and Julian’s journey is beautiful to watch. Without You is everything you could hope for in a romance.
A beautiful love story about two men, seemingly opposites, who slowly bury their animosity after the death of a loved one.
Deacon has never been able to do anything right by his mother. It never helped that his brother Rhett’s continual battle with leukemia or Rhett’s perfect boyfriend, Julian, took all the spotlight.
After Rhett’s death, Deacon does the brotherly thing and checks on a grieving Julian, the man he’s always resented for taking all of Rhett’s attention. How he feels about what he finds unsettles him – he never expected to feel compassion toward the man, and more confusing is how that concern and interest starts to grow. How could Julian of all people be the first person to understand him, and how has Deacon so poorly misunderstood Julian?
Grief and attraction are unique emotions to each of us. They way Valentine presented them for each character was masterful. In a book that contained serious issues, the story had an incredible balance of heartache, joy, and love. Definitely going down as one of my top reads.
Why did I wait so long to read this book? (Finished November 22, 2020)
It’s everything it was promoted as being and then some. Romantic, sexy, emotional…just so good that I didn’t want it to be over and I will now have to devour all of Marley Valentine’s books because she’s so good of a storyteller.
I cried, I laughed, I got angry, I was sad and then so, so happy.
Read this book. Seriously. Just read it.
All the stars for this breathtaking book. I cannot count how many times I have seen this book recommended, and it definitely held up to the hype. It was beautifully haunting and so real and raw. I felt every emotion and indecision and just war that was going on through this entire book. Now, this may not work for some, as it is a dead brother’s boyfriend getting together with the other brother, but at no time does it ever feel that way. It just feels like two broken people finding their other half, so they could be whole and grow together. Also, I believe another saving grace is we never see on page how Julian and Rhett were together, so there was no contending with the other. You just saw how Julian and Deacon maneuvered their way through new friendship and confusing feelings, and then how they just fell so deeply for each other. I cried throughout the whole book, but it was still uplifting and never felt too heavy. Tim Paige and Teddy Hamilton killed this narration. I was bawling reading the one and only letter we got of Rhett, but I am happy to have only gotten one, and I love the one we got. Now, going to go read this extended epilogue!
WITHOUT YOU by Marley Valentine is a book I’m still speechless about. Deacon and Julian find love in the most unlikely way and place. They are both so low when the book starts. My heart felt the pain with them. Their journey hit me like a ton of bricks! I’m still trying to find the words to adequately describe how beautiful this book is. Bring the tissues! Highly recommend!
This is a beautiful love story about finding your person where you least expect it. It’s not about gay romance at all. In fact, finding love in a person and wanting that person in all the ways is what this is about. They have obstacles in their way, but when you find your person that’s it. I really enjoyed this story of healing after loss, finding your person, acceptance, respect, and finding happiness by embracing that love. Tim Paige and Teddy Hamilton did an excellent job in this emotionally charged story of love and loss. They are favorite narrators for very good reason and I would recommend this book to anyone you loves a story about finding love!
This read was so delicious!!!
GFY is my crack and this one definitely hit my addiction in all the right places.
This new to me author was a great recommendation by Book Boyfriend Hoarder Mari.
Heard the audiobook and everytime I hear anything by Teddy Hamilton, I know It’ll be drenchinly delicious.
That voice is melted chocolate to my libedo. Yummm.
Overall a deeply emotional and all consuming read.
Floved it!!!!
Read: 08/03/2020
“I’m not attracted to men,” I say boldly. “I’m only attracted to you.”
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Without You is a heartbreakingly emotional romance about finding your way after loss.
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Deacon and Julian have tolerated each other because of Rhett, Deacon’s brother and Julian’s boyfriend. When Rhett passes away, it breaks everyone. One year later, Deacon returns to Montana for the anniversary of Rhett’s death and when he and Julian start spending time together, things between them change.
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Deacon and Julian’s story is emotional and pulls at all your heartstrings. After reading Ache, I had to go back and read/listen to Without You. I loved how they bonded and their relationship grew once they talked and got to know each other. I could not believe Deacon’s mothers’ reaction to Deacon and Julian. I am excited to read more books by Marley Valentine as she grips your attention right from the beginning of the book and keeps your attention through the whole book.
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Audio … Teddy Hamilton and Tim Paige were amazing at bringing Deacon, Julian, and their romance to life.
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“You’re the beat of my heart, the blood in my veins, the strength in my bones. None of me works without you. And if you need me to tell you every day for the rest of our lives, then I will, because you are more than enough. You’re everything.”
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4.5 Maple Leafs … Without You by Marley Valentine is an m/m brother’s best friend romance told from the first-person point of view of Deacon and Julian.
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*Triggers … Death, Cancer*