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You and Me
Some loves define you. Others destroy you.
You and Me
is a haunting, lyrical debut novel that captures love in its most intimate, raw, and unforgettable form. Scott Godwin explores the fragile beauty of connection, the weight of trauma, and the piercing ache of loss through the lives of two men whose bond is as tender as it is profound.
The story begins in a quiet rural town in Ontario, January 2024, as an early morning run turns into a nightmare. The narrator is left to confront grief, guilt, and the unimaginable void of life without the one who made him whole. Godwin’s narrative then unfolds in a relationship that began years earlier in a bustling city gym, where guardedness met vulnerability, and affection blossomed amid curiosity, longing, and shared histories.
Through non-linear storytelling, Godwin traces the evolution of a love that is playful, steady, and transformative. From pre-dawn runs and shared silences to intimate conversations about identity, fear, and past wounds, the novel illuminates the quiet rituals that define a life together. Moving between city and countryside, past and present, joy and heartbreak, You and Me reveals the courage it takes to love fully and the devastation of losing someone irreplaceable.
This is a story of queer love in all its complexity—intimate, flawed, and beautiful. It is a meditation on memory, masculinity, and the fragility of life, capturing the moments that make a relationship endure in the heart long after it ends. Readers will be drawn into the tender, vivid, and at times devastating world Godwin creates—a world where love, once found, leaves a mark that time cannot erase.
You and Me is for anyone who has loved fiercely, lost deeply, or wondered how we carry those who have shaped us. It is a celebration of intimacy, resilience, and the enduring power of memory and affection. With stunning prose and emotional precision, Scott Godwin delivers a debut that is at once heartbreaking, unforgettable, and depicts love as both an anchor and a wound.
For fans of Hanya Yanagihara's emotional scope and Garth Greenwell's lyrical intimacy.
The story begins in a quiet rural town in Ontario, January 2024, as an early morning run turns into a nightmare. The narrator is left to confront grief, guilt, and the unimaginable void of life without the one who made him whole. Godwin’s narrative then unfolds in a relationship that began years earlier in a bustling city gym, where guardedness met vulnerability, and affection blossomed amid curiosity, longing, and shared histories.
Through non-linear storytelling, Godwin traces the evolution of a love that is playful, steady, and transformative. From pre-dawn runs and shared silences to intimate conversations about identity, fear, and past wounds, the novel illuminates the quiet rituals that define a life together. Moving between city and countryside, past and present, joy and heartbreak, You and Me reveals the courage it takes to love fully and the devastation of losing someone irreplaceable.
This is a story of queer love in all its complexity—intimate, flawed, and beautiful. It is a meditation on memory, masculinity, and the fragility of life, capturing the moments that make a relationship endure in the heart long after it ends. Readers will be drawn into the tender, vivid, and at times devastating world Godwin creates—a world where love, once found, leaves a mark that time cannot erase.
You and Me is for anyone who has loved fiercely, lost deeply, or wondered how we carry those who have shaped us. It is a celebration of intimacy, resilience, and the enduring power of memory and affection. With stunning prose and emotional precision, Scott Godwin delivers a debut that is at once heartbreaking, unforgettable, and depicts love as both an anchor and a wound.
For fans of Hanya Yanagihara's emotional scope and Garth Greenwell's lyrical intimacy.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 23, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 22, 2025
This book wrecked me — in the best and worst ways. It’s a raw, unfiltered account of love, loss, and the unbearable ache of surviving what once felt unbreakable. The author takes you inside the kind of relationship that defines a life — imperfect, passionate, sometimes painful — and then shows you what it means to live in its absence.
The alternating timelines are brilliant and brutal. One moment you’re wrapped in the warmth of connection, and the next you’re suffocating in the emptiness left behind. The shifts keep you suspended between hope and heartbreak, clinging to the past while drowning in the present — just as the narrator does.
It’s not a story that offers easy comfort, but it’s one that lingers. You feel every fracture, every desperate breath, every moment of quiet resilience. It made me grateful for love, terrified of loss, and in awe of the strength it takes to survive both.
The alternating timelines are brilliant and brutal. One moment you’re wrapped in the warmth of connection, and the next you’re suffocating in the emptiness left behind. The shifts keep you suspended between hope and heartbreak, clinging to the past while drowning in the present — just as the narrator does.
It’s not a story that offers easy comfort, but it’s one that lingers. You feel every fracture, every desperate breath, every moment of quiet resilience. It made me grateful for love, terrified of loss, and in awe of the strength it takes to survive both.
October 27, 2025
This book was different than anything I’ve ever read before. It was captivating from the beginning. Gut wrenching, painful, hard to read in parts and so incredibly beautiful.
Stories like this one are not for everyone. Some people will read this and think it’s just two damaged people who others would find “hard to love”. But to the people who read this and see themselves, the people who struggle with mental health issues, the people who struggle to find how they connect and fit into other people’s lives. To the people who have been told they’re “crazy” or “hard to handle” because they have anxiety, this book is so raw and real and relatable.
I didn’t put this book down, I devoured it. I shed so many tears. From the mental health representation to the grief aspect, it was heartbreaking. But no love story is perfect, and the strength is in the healing. The strength is in the learning and journey and the fight for love. The true love story comes from seeing the flaws in someone else, but loving them anyway. I loved this book, it was so incredibly powerful and I cannot wait to see what comes next from Scott.
Thank you for writing this story, thank you for showing that you can feel broken and at your lowest low, but STILL be lovable. To still be WORTHY of love.
This is not an EASY read, but holy sh!t it’s a beautiful one.
Stories like this one are not for everyone. Some people will read this and think it’s just two damaged people who others would find “hard to love”. But to the people who read this and see themselves, the people who struggle with mental health issues, the people who struggle to find how they connect and fit into other people’s lives. To the people who have been told they’re “crazy” or “hard to handle” because they have anxiety, this book is so raw and real and relatable.
I didn’t put this book down, I devoured it. I shed so many tears. From the mental health representation to the grief aspect, it was heartbreaking. But no love story is perfect, and the strength is in the healing. The strength is in the learning and journey and the fight for love. The true love story comes from seeing the flaws in someone else, but loving them anyway. I loved this book, it was so incredibly powerful and I cannot wait to see what comes next from Scott.
Thank you for writing this story, thank you for showing that you can feel broken and at your lowest low, but STILL be lovable. To still be WORTHY of love.
This is not an EASY read, but holy sh!t it’s a beautiful one.
March 16, 2026
2.5 stars, rounded up.
This review is going to be a little less organised than some of my other reviews because it’s a little difficult for me to put all of my thoughts into words, but I will try my best.
Firstly, I did quite like the writing style. There were a few instances of odd word choices being used (e.g the sentence ‘allowing the contact to penetrate me’ when talking about eye contact, not physical contact) but I don’t feel these were distracting or took away from the realistic dialogue.
Secondly, I really enjoy stories that are told in a non-linear way, going back and forth between past and present. I haven’t seen this in many books before but it is always a treat when I do. In the case of this book, the reader gets to experience grief as they go along the story, rather than like in Afterlove (another queer story with grief and death) where the process of forming a relationship is told first and then the fatal incident occurs and we learn of what happens after. I think this way of telling the story worked well and I am not sure that the story would have been effective if told chronologically.
Thirdly, I like that none of the characters are named. It feels more real this way, as though this is not a story but a circumstance that could happen to any queer couple, and is not a fictional event. It is easier to connect with and relate to the events on the page, which is especially important when dealing with topics such as grief. I do also like the fact that the characters are flawed, as human beings generally are.
Fourthly, I appreciate that the author did not shy away from heavier themes, and not just in reference to grief. There is a competent exploration of anxiety through the character of the love interest,
My large issue with this book, and the reason I have given it the rating I have, is that whilst I do appreciate the attempt to show love as being flawed and imperfect, but there is a difference between being flawed and being toxic and bordering on abusive. The narrator is, at times, manipulative in his words. He intentionally says things that he knows will keep his love interest close, and he doesn’t seem to respect boundaries at all. The main character also doesn’t seem to fully care about his love interest’s needs and prioritises himself and what he wants out of the relationship. Later on in the story, the way the main character approaches the topic of asking to move in together leaves a bad taste, The love interest seems to be almost fearful of being affectionate at times, especially because the narrator is consistently acting in a way that suggests affection is conditional. This is not to say the love interest does not also do toxic things in the relationship, but they seem to come with the anxiety he feels and are likely the result of not having proper mental health treatment, as well as the result of feeling like he has no control in the relationship and feels like the narrator gives him mixed signals, hot and cold in a way. This is worsened by the narrator’s irresponsible and possessive behaviour, This sort of behaviour repeats again and again throughout the book, The love interest constantly puts himself down after these incidents and it’s never seriously addressed and is usually followed by a joke. The narrator is largely responsible for the arguments that take place and often refuses to acknowledge this, to the point where the love interest is now second guessing his experiences. Whilst I do like stories that highlight the difficulties of relationships and the ups and downs of falling in love, I don’t think the relationship presented in the book was a healthy one at all. I understand that the characters both love each other very much, but love is not enough when a relationship is not good for one or both of the people involved.
Overall, there is much more to like about this book than dislike, and I think Godwin has the potential to be a very talented writer. It’s just a shame to me that the one problem I had with this book was so significant. I would recommend it as a queer story that deals with grief, but I would not recommend it as a love story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This review is going to be a little less organised than some of my other reviews because it’s a little difficult for me to put all of my thoughts into words, but I will try my best.
Firstly, I did quite like the writing style. There were a few instances of odd word choices being used (e.g the sentence ‘allowing the contact to penetrate me’ when talking about eye contact, not physical contact) but I don’t feel these were distracting or took away from the realistic dialogue.
Secondly, I really enjoy stories that are told in a non-linear way, going back and forth between past and present. I haven’t seen this in many books before but it is always a treat when I do. In the case of this book, the reader gets to experience grief as they go along the story, rather than like in Afterlove (another queer story with grief and death) where the process of forming a relationship is told first and then the fatal incident occurs and we learn of what happens after. I think this way of telling the story worked well and I am not sure that the story would have been effective if told chronologically.
Thirdly, I like that none of the characters are named. It feels more real this way, as though this is not a story but a circumstance that could happen to any queer couple, and is not a fictional event. It is easier to connect with and relate to the events on the page, which is especially important when dealing with topics such as grief. I do also like the fact that the characters are flawed, as human beings generally are.
Fourthly, I appreciate that the author did not shy away from heavier themes, and not just in reference to grief. There is a competent exploration of anxiety through the character of the love interest,
My large issue with this book, and the reason I have given it the rating I have, is that whilst I do appreciate the attempt to show love as being flawed and imperfect, but there is a difference between being flawed and being toxic and bordering on abusive. The narrator is, at times, manipulative in his words. He intentionally says things that he knows will keep his love interest close, and he doesn’t seem to respect boundaries at all. The main character also doesn’t seem to fully care about his love interest’s needs and prioritises himself and what he wants out of the relationship. Later on in the story, the way the main character approaches the topic of asking to move in together leaves a bad taste, The love interest seems to be almost fearful of being affectionate at times, especially because the narrator is consistently acting in a way that suggests affection is conditional. This is not to say the love interest does not also do toxic things in the relationship, but they seem to come with the anxiety he feels and are likely the result of not having proper mental health treatment, as well as the result of feeling like he has no control in the relationship and feels like the narrator gives him mixed signals, hot and cold in a way. This is worsened by the narrator’s irresponsible and possessive behaviour, This sort of behaviour repeats again and again throughout the book, The love interest constantly puts himself down after these incidents and it’s never seriously addressed and is usually followed by a joke. The narrator is largely responsible for the arguments that take place and often refuses to acknowledge this, to the point where the love interest is now second guessing his experiences. Whilst I do like stories that highlight the difficulties of relationships and the ups and downs of falling in love, I don’t think the relationship presented in the book was a healthy one at all. I understand that the characters both love each other very much, but love is not enough when a relationship is not good for one or both of the people involved.
Overall, there is much more to like about this book than dislike, and I think Godwin has the potential to be a very talented writer. It’s just a shame to me that the one problem I had with this book was so significant. I would recommend it as a queer story that deals with grief, but I would not recommend it as a love story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 22, 2025
I enjoyed Scott Godwin's exploration of romance and relationship. He did not shy away from the conversation dance that often occurs or away from the unspoken fears that sabotage lovers. Over and over lovers will tolerate behaviours, hit their limit, and then explode. In brief relationships, that is the end. In committed relationships, explosion is not the end. The dance of this conversation occurs many times, often over the same issues. The technique of moving forward and back underlines these repeated conversations and the regrets that can accrue. It also underlines how love and loyalty cushions the hurt and allows relationships to continue.
Throughout reading this I was reminded of the deep doomed love explored in Wuthering Heights and of Dan Levy's Good Grief where grief forces Marc to unpacks secrets and face hard truths. I suspect I'll think more about this book as time goes on.
Throughout reading this I was reminded of the deep doomed love explored in Wuthering Heights and of Dan Levy's Good Grief where grief forces Marc to unpacks secrets and face hard truths. I suspect I'll think more about this book as time goes on.
Read
October 29, 2025This is a story of love. An intense love, shared by two people who are strong individuals trying to live together in harmony.
Exploring how two individuals become one, it also asks the question what comes after such an intense relationship.
I found it hard to put down, while also finding it emotionally intense.
An excellent read.
Exploring how two individuals become one, it also asks the question what comes after such an intense relationship.
I found it hard to put down, while also finding it emotionally intense.
An excellent read.
November 6, 2025
A beautiful novel exploring themes of deep connection in love that most of us can only dream of, the challenges of navigating that love and life and also loss and regret. I cried and I laughed. This is the kind of book that will get you thinking about you own past, present and future for days after finishing it.
November 6, 2025
This book is heartbreaking but also a deep dive into what love between soulmates is like. Your deepest happiness and sometimes your deepest heartache. The first part grabbed me and held on while I ate up the rest of the story and only unveiled itself as a metaphor when I was about 3/4 through the book. Happiness can be a chore but it is so worth it!!
November 11, 2025
I love this book! What starts as a sweet and compelling love story becomes so much more as you are drawn in to the complexities of mental health and a gripping expose on loss. The portrayal is so raw that you want to turn away but the pull of the story and the beauty of its rendering are too captivating to let you go. The writing is lyrical and yet so accessible that you are drawn quickly and happily down the path to its surprising finish. Don’t pass up on this once in a decade gem.
May 15, 2026
The first 40 pages so far are a hard read. Well written!!!! tackling a difficult emotions and human frailties
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews