REVIEW: The Barkeep and the Bro (Single Dads Club #4) by AJ Truman

- May 25, 2022

Review:

I have a major soft spot for the single dads of Sourwood, who admittedly can’t exactly call themselves single by the end. I really do love this series. Not just the dads, but their kids, and the small town.

I love AJ’s writing style, it’s light, low angst, and witty. And he writes such wonderful, thoughtful, hardworking, and loyal characters.

The story of Mitch and Charlie has some of the best tropes... grumpy/sunshine, age gaps, forced proximity, employer/employee. So many opportunities to play the 'we should/we shouldn’t' game. Oh, how I love grumpy older men!

It was great to see Mitch get his story. Stoic and hard-working, owning a bar doesn’t leave a lot of time for a personal life. Then in walks Charlie, the young good-time bro. A guy who hasn’t spent much time figuring out who he wants to be. But having someone steady in your life, who believes in you can make you realize there is more to life than partying. It’s lovely to watch Charlie come into his own and for Mitch to let himself let happiness in.

“Righ now, I felt alive and strong, a type of youth that wasn’t measured by years on this earth”

Stars: 4

🕮 The Barkeep and the Bro by AJ Truman
📚 Add to your TBR ➟ https://bit.ly/3MIAb3S

Synopsis:

I’m his boss. He’s my daughter’s ex-boyfriend. This has nope written all over it.

For twenty-five years, I’ve been in an exclusive, all-consuming relationship with Stone’s Throw Tavern, my family’s local bar.

I don’t need a boyfriend. What I need is a new bartender.

And what I get is Charlie, my daughter’s old college boyfriend, a guy who still acts like he’s chillin’ at the frat house. He was canned from his Wall Street job and escaped to small town Sourwood for a fresh start.

He knows bupkis about bartending, but he makes up for it with his cocky charm…and the tight shirts he wears, which secretly drive me wild. Now I’m making up excuses to hang by the bar during his shifts.

There’s a pile of reasons why I can’t cross the line with an employee. Especially this one. He’s twenty years younger than me, and I’m a foot taller than him. Even on a purely mathematical level, this can’t work.

And yet…

The growing heat between the fratboy and me burns like a shot of whiskey. I just need to keep my beer can in my pants, or else I could lose my business and my daughter.

The Barkeep and the Bro will serve you up a glass of age gap, size difference, boss/employee, grumpy/sunshine, small town romance goodness, garnished with humor and lots of heat. And it won’t even ask for ID. This is the third book in the Single Dads Club series, but can be read as a standalone.