Clara’s Verdict
Us is the second book in the Him series by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy, following Wes and Jamie from their best-friendship and hockey-team chemistry in book one into the considerably more complex territory of a committed relationship conducted under a secrecy that is beginning to corrode it. It is, in my view, a stronger novel than its predecessor – the conflicts are less circumstantial and more structural, and the emotional territory Kennedy and Bowen are willing to cover (depression, anxiety, the genuine difficulty of hiding a significant part of your identity from most of the people around you) gives the romance real weight.
The M/M romance genre has matured considerably in recent years, and Us reflects that maturity: this is not a novel primarily about the novelty of two men falling in love, but about two specific men navigating a specific relationship under specific pressures. The hockey world is rendered with enough detail to feel authentic, and the character dynamics – Wes’s bravado concealing genuine anxiety; Jamie’s quiet steadiness concealing a growing grief about what they’ve had to hide – are genuinely engaging.
About the Audiobook
Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season in the NHL. He comes home every night to Jamie Canning, his former best friend and now the person he loves more than anyone else. The only problem is that nobody knows about it. The secrecy is Wes’s decision – he is not ready for the media scrutiny that coming out would bring to his already high-profile career – and Jamie, who loves him and understands, is nevertheless finding the weight of that secrecy increasingly difficult to carry.
The novel explores the practical reality of a hidden relationship with unusual honesty. Kennedy and Bowen are not interested in pretending the hiding is easy or romantic – it is corrosive, and they show it corroding. When Wes’s most inquisitive teammate moves into the flat above them, the carefully maintained fiction begins to develop structural cracks that neither of them can fix through individual effort.
The book also deals with a health scare and with Jamie’s struggles in his new coaching role – both subplots that ground the romance in the texture of two people trying to build a shared life rather than simply maintain a relationship. The resolution is, to borrow a genre term, HEA – happily ever after – but it earns it rather than assuming it.
The Narration
Teddy Hamilton narrates this audiobook, and he has the specific quality required for first-person hockey romance: an American voice with enough warmth to carry the emotional scenes and enough toughness not to render the athletic sequences implausible. At seven hours and forty-five minutes, this is a brisk, well-paced listen – the story moves, and Hamilton keeps pace with it. The dual POV structure is handled clearly enough that listeners always know whose chapter they’re in.
What Readers Say
UK readers have been thoughtful in their responses. “I fell in love with Ryan Wesley and Jamie Canning in book one. Their story continues in Us, and I read this book with yearning to see them both happy and safe in their lives together,” wrote one UK reviewer. Another described it as “a well-written, emotionally charged, and sexy read” that “masterfully blends emotional depth with passion.” Several reviewers comment on the book’s treatment of the coming-out process and the health scare – material that “took on an altogether different significance” for one reader in 2022 – as handled with unusual care and honesty. The rating stands at 4.5 from eleven reviewers.
Who Should Listen?
Readers who have finished Him and want more of Wes and Jamie, which is essentially everyone who read book one. This is not a standalone – the emotional payoff depends on the foundation built in the first book. For M/M romance readers more broadly, it sits at the literary end of the genre: more interested in emotional complexity and sustained character development than in heat alone, though the heat is present and explicitly handled.
Sports romance readers who don’t regularly read M/M fiction will find this an approachable entry point. Available on Audible UK, Kobo, Scribd, and Storytel. Listen to Us on Audible UK – and clear your schedule for the evening, because you won’t want to stop.
