Lose You to Find Me

By: Erik J. Brown

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

USA Today bestseller!

A romantic, heartfelt, and hilarious queer coming-of-age story from All That's Left in the World author Erik J. Brown, perfect for fans of What If It’s Us and If This Gets Out.

Tommy Dees is in the weeds—restaurant speak for beyond overwhelmed. He’s been working as a server at Sunset Estates retirement community to get the experience he needs to attend one of the best culinary schools in the world. And to make his application shine, he also needs a letter of recommendation from his sadistic manager. But in exchange for the letter, Tommy has to meet three conditions—including training the new hire.

What he doesn’t expect is for the newbie to be an old crush: Gabe, with the dimples and kind heart, who Tommy fell for during summer camp at age eleven and then never saw again. Unfortunately, Gabe doesn’t remember Tommy at all. The training proves distracting as old feelings resurface and the universe seems to be conspiring against them.

With the application deadline looming and Gabe on his mind, Tommy is determined to keep it all together—but what if life isn’t meant to follow a recipe?

©2023 Erik J. Brown (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

A breath of fresh air

I did not expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. It was so cute, cozy, and lighthearted. The ending seemed a little abrupt but I didn’t mind it. These characters were very lovable, and I would not mind dipping back into this world for more stories with them.

A story with a unique, yet predictable twist.

Let me start by saying, I listened to What If It’s Us & Here’s To Us multiple times before giving this a listen. So it’s very possible I was spoiled by Froy Gutierrez and Noah Galvin’s performances. I expected more life from the narration, but once I moved past the performance I got to the heart of a story that was amazing. What Thomas went through and his relationship with Gabe, was so interesting and relatable for the most part. There are a decent amount of loose ends by the end of the book simply because the focus deters from Thomas and Gabe to Thomas’s friends, but I wish there was a little more about them featured. Whether that means more story or less time spent on Thomas and Gabe is uncertain, but overall and really sweet listen and the ending is for sure one of the cutest

Enjoyable

Enjoyable, entretaining and easy to listen to. Fun, heartfelt and unexpected. What could have turned into a drama has a possitive outcome.

YA Gay Romance Cooked to Perfection

If you swoon for YA romance à la “Carry On,” “Red, White and Royal Blue,” and “The Charm Offensive,” this will be 100% to your palette

I would’ve liked a better ending

I liked it. Made me laugh, gasp and swoon during a few of the scenes but it left something to be desired, especially with the ending. As someone else pointed out, the cast is way too big and I found myself lost sometimes with what was going on and who was who. Again, i liked it but having previously read All Thats Left in the World, I was expecting more from this book.

Cute Story

A great book for easy listening, the story is pretty tame, but still entertaining. Perfect to play in the background

Been there, sister

I am uniquely positioned to be biased towards this book as someone who has a lived experience shockingly similar to the main character. I think one would hope this is just a charming YA romance, I probably did when I started, but what it’s really about is a lesson. It’s about learning to not expect things and decide for yourself. I learned the same lesson through the same heartbreak in this book and I found I really really connected to what was said. I’m still processing certain parts of myself and this opened a line of questions I really enjoyed being asked. I don’t wanna make it sound like it was Shakespeare, it was still mostly charming and silly, but the main relationship is so realistic in the way it unfolds. Again, I’m biased, but I think there’s a really clear vision here that in the end, allows for a lot more growth rather than just quick satisfaction.
I really enjoyed the characters, and I felt that the performance for this was excellently done. I am leaving one star off for the beginning of the third act feeling a little drawn out. There’s maybe a shorter version of this that’s just as effective.

The fingerrrrrs!

A cute story with fun characters, a satisfyingly frustrating love interest, and en ending that felt very fitting.

Long story

While the story was good, not great. the narrative was excellent! But this was a long, drawn out story (with 42 chapters) but each chapter lasting about 5-8 minutes each. I would like to see a possible follow-up to this book, but with not so short chapters.

Little slow

It was a good story but it all sewed together a little late .. that’s my only concern