This book is going to be the death of me! I was so engrossed in one chapter that I didn’t realize I had stepped too far to the left on the treadmill and almost fell off! I was drinking hot tea when a well-timed idiom mix-up had me choking. In short, “Say It Again” is funny! It’s not just hilarious, it is so full of emotion that if you are not bent over in laughter, you are fanning your face to keep the tears from streaking your cheeks while reading it in public and receiving sidelong glances.

Daniel Greene has enjoyed the pleasure that dance has offered for over twenty years. The expression, the freedom, the desires one fluid movement can evoke are intoxicating. Unfortunately, despite all that dance has to offer, a sustainable lifestyle and decent income aren’t at the top of the list. Making the most of his life as a dance instructor at St. Louis School of Dance, Daniel ignores the constant whispers of his disapproving father and pours all he has into working with his students. He also tries to avoid his best friend’s off-the-cuff requests to help with her business venture, After The Pumpkin. Failing to avoid her latest request to help at a party, Daniel somehow finds himself behind the bar, with zero bartending experience, staring into the most icy blue eyes he has ever seen. Thrown off his game and feeling foolish, Daniel can’t believe it when the gorgeous lawyer asks him out on a date. Lady Luck doesn’t stop there; his mentor offers him a chance of a lifetime, to buy the dance studio he has loved since he was 18! Unprepared for the sudden turn of events in his life, Daniel must decide if he is ready to grow up and make the most of the sudden gifts coming his way.

Aaron may not have the most conventional job in the world (understatement of the century), but it affords him a comfortable lifestyle and the opportunity to pursue his real passion, interior design. It doesn’t, however, make room for deep, meaningful relationships. If the men in his life aren’t clients, they are only interested in getting a taste of what his clients are offered. They don’t want to know him, just what he can do between the sheets. So when Aaron encounters Daniel at a house party that he is attending with a client, he can’t believe his luck. Finally, he may have met someone with whom he can build something real. His intuition is correct, and he quickly finds himself falling more and more for Daniel. That is until Daniel asks him to review a contract for a potential business deal, seeing that he is a “lawyer” after all. Suddenly, Aaron’s world is turned upside down as he struggles to reveal his true self to Daniel without losing the first person who has completely captured his heart.

The humor in “Say It Again” was off the charts. I think if all of us had an ounce of Daniel’s personality and sass, we would be happier people! His use, or rather misuse, of idioms were the essence of this book for me. Alongside him, the overall array of characters undoubtedly added a special charm, from his best friend Olivia, to the wise and wonderful Madeline, to Aaron. Even in the short time that we interact with secondary characters, it feels as if we know them and understand their importance in Daniel’s life, or feel the absence of someone that significant in Aaron’s.

Speaking of Aaron, dear sweet Aaron – you couldn’t help but love him, feel for him, and want the best for him. All he wanted was to love and be loved. He had so much affection and passion inside him, and his only ask in life was to be allowed to love someone, to show them love, and maybe – just maybe – feel that love, need, and want returned. He was so alone, so isolated, you just wanted to hold him, cradle him, and assure him that it would be okay, that he had a friend. When you can empathize with a character this intensely, you know you have a good story on your hands from a writer that can make three-dimensional characters anyone can relate to.

One thing I’ll admit, the “mister/kid” terms of endearment had too much of a daddy/baby girl vibe for me. While it’s not really my thing and initially created a bit of a cringe factor, I am not one to yuck on anyone’s yum but thought I would mention it, just in case. I do appreciate Daniel explaining why he called Aaron “mister” but kinda wish Aaron provided a reason he called Daniel “kid,” especially when there was only a three-year age difference. I’ll note that Daniel does make fun of calling Aaron “Daddy” later in the book, so that did ease up some of the association for me.

While I loved the characters Tessa created, I will say the structure of the book is what made this a five-star review for me. My favorite type of books are the ones that make me nervous. It means it isn’t following the standard formula, so I can’t predict what is going to happen, especially if the fallout has happened earlier in the story. Tessa did an excellent job with this. Each time you thought the worst was over – they overcame it, were stronger for it, and nothing could keep them apart. At about 68%, I was on pins and needles. I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop because she had already proven wishful thinking was for chumps and there was no way she was going to make it smooth sailing for the remainder of the book!

On a lighter note, the one scene that will have rent-free space in my mind is the birthday party! Oh my – it was so good, I read that part twice! Aaron for the win! I felt so bad for Daniel when you were able to truly realize how much his father disowned him – his coworker didn’t even know he had a son, his father wouldn’t let him be around other people, and then to just let a complete stranger rip on your kid but get offended when someone tells them to stop! Argh! The overall impact parents had on the protagonists in this story was astonishing but I will get to that a little later.

Tessa balanced the steam in this book very well. While it was spicy, it wasn’t smutty. Although Daniel definitely walked the edge, the moments they were together were more about the feelings and connections provoked than a description of what was actually going down (well, except for the car scene; that one was pretty hot!).

Getting into the “heavy” of the book, the undercurrent of emotion was ensnared by three little words: “I love you.” We always think of the impact but never consider the detriment they can cause – especially between parents and their children where unconditional love is supposed to live and thrive. For twelve years, those three words branded Aaron’s soul, marring him as a failure, a worthless being, never enough. For twelve long years, the words that should bring such joy when uttered only drowned him in sorrow and pain. To have such a visceral reaction shows just how damaging his father’s departure was and how unresolved the aftershocks still were.

Tessa did not skirt around the subject either; in fact, she went full throttle on the paternal impact on the main characters. Daniel’s father “accepted” him only as long as none of his boys’ club knew he was gay and frowned upon his career choices because they didn’t align with what he believed was a traditional, viable career. Then there was Aaron’s father, who, to put it simply, broke him. The intensity of the ending showed just how deep those wounds went.

Going even further with Aaron, we are shown that he couldn’t give up escorting because he convinced himself that without money, he wasn’t nothing – easy to discard. The lack of money, in his mind, was why his father left, so as long as he had money, Daniel would stay. He didn’t realize that it was going to be the reason that he would lose everything that mattered. It was a brilliant twist of how much it was never about the money, but about the person. With or without money, his father was never going to stay – it had nothing to do with anyone but his father’s own selfishness. With that being said, with or without money, Daniel wasn’t going anywhere, but Aaron couldn’t see the truth in that, the reality in that because to him – he was the common denominator and was convinced that Daniel was only with him because he could take care of him. If he took care of the people he loved, they would never leave. He couldn’t take care of his father, who left. He did everything he could to take care of his mother and still lost her but was able to give his family whatever they needed to be happy. He was so absorbed by self-sacrifice that there was nothing left in terms of his own needs and wants; he could only give, be used, be a vessel, be something to someone else, otherwise again – he was nothing.

I will preface this by saying I am not a crier; in fact, out of the hundreds of books I have read, while some have come close – only Abby Jimenez and AK Landow have made me shed tears, until now. You will need a box of Kleenex, especially for the ending. It was the most intense, heart splayed wide open, gut-wrenching moment in the book. In layman’s terms: the ending, I needed a minute. It may not be the same experience for others who read it, but for me, I was so entwined with these characters, there was no way to win the emotional turmoil the book was taking on me, I was going down. The author did an amazing job with her character development that you didn’t feel like a friend or an observer; you were them – you were in their heads and their hearts, embodying their thoughts and their feelings; you hurt when they hurt, you broke when they broke, and when Aaron finally had his moment, there would be no saving you from crumbling like a sandcastle when the tide comes in.

I can’t believe this is Tessa Hatfield’s first book! She has come out of the gate strong and I hope she keeps up the momentum. There are a few authors that have auto ARC approval from me and Tessa will be one of them. I can’t wait to read what she writes next. Topping this one will be a challenge but with her talent, I strongly believe she can do it!