One night, I won the Super Bowl, and then I ran into a girl at a bar.
With her purple toenails, all-around “I’ve got it handled” vibe, and stormy eyes that seemed to see straight through to the twisty core of me I’ve always tried to hide, Caitlin Parker was everything I never thought I could have, and she instantly had me on my metaphorical knees.
Until I messed it all up, and six months later, she won’t even speak to me.
But when my past comes calling and forces us together, I start to see there’s way more to Caitlin than she shows the world. That hidden behind her scarily efficient, take-charge exterior is a heart as bruised and broken as my own.
I’ve never thought I could be anyone’s forever, and we both have scars that aren’t easily healed. But as we open up to each other one day and quiet night at a time, I fall deeper until I know without a doubt that we are each other’s missing pieces.
That with her, I can have the great love I never thought would be mine.
That together, forever can belong to us both.
(ARC Read)
I am truly at a loss for words for how beautiful Fearlessly Us was. Two broken people, broken in completely different ways, coming together to build each other up and slowly let each other in. Samantha Brinn wrote their love story with so much tenderness and emotional depth that I don’t quite know how to adequately explain what Drew and Caitlin did to my heart. Samantha, I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.
Caitlin Parker and Drew Ellicott don’t exactly begin on solid ground. After Drew gets his chance with her and spectacularly blows it by standing her up, Caitlin blocks him and spends the next six months treating him exactly like she thinks he deserves. But when Drew’s past comes calling and he needs the help of a very beautiful, very capable lawyer, they’re forced back into each other’s orbit. Drew’s feelings for Caitlin never went away, and this time, he isn’t about to waste his second chance.
And there is so much to Drew Ellicott.
Drew is an acts-of-service man with the biggest, most beautiful heart. He has spent his life showing up for everyone around him despite growing up without anyone consistently showing up for him. Beneath the former playboy persona is a man carrying wounds very few people have ever been allowed to see. His past has convinced him that the kind of love and family he sees his friends building isn’t meant for him, even as he’s quietly created a family around himself without realizing it.
But what made me fall hardest for Drew was the way he notices Caitlin.
“Princess, you’re badass, brilliant, and stop-my-heart gorgeous, and I think you might be the most interesting person in the world.”
Caitlin Parker is beautiful, brilliant, headstrong, resilient, fiercely independent, and so damn tired. She is the eldest daughter to a tee, absorbing everyone else’s problems and making sure the people she loves are okay while quietly carrying an enormous amount of pain herself. She is the “I can do it all by myself” girl because doing it herself is what she knows. People rely on Caitlin. Caitlin doesn’t rely on people.
Her struggle with endometriosis is such an important part of her story—not because it defines her, but because of everything she has been forced to endure while continuing to show up for everyone else. Caitlin has spent years living with debilitating pain and blood loss, knowing something was wrong with her body while doctor after doctor dismissed what she was experiencing. So she learned to push through. She works. She takes care of her family. She solves everyone else’s problems. She handles it because that’s what she’s always done.
Then Drew comes along and does something so incredibly simple that it becomes one of the most powerful parts of their relationship: he believes her.
“You don’t have to say anything now, but I hope if you ever do want to talk to someone, you know you can talk to me. I see you, Catie.”
He doesn’t question whether her pain is real. He doesn’t minimize it or make her prove how badly she’s hurting. He pays attention. He researches. He learns. He notices when something is wrong even when Caitlin insists she’s fine, and he finds ways to make things easier without ever making her feel incapable. Caitlin is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and Drew knows that. He just wants her to understand that she shouldn’t always have to.
That distinction meant everything to me.
And I loved the way that care extended into their physical relationship. Drew is the king of consent, constantly paying attention to Caitlin’s comfort, her boundaries, and what feels good for her. Their attraction is intense, their chemistry is ridiculous, and these two are hot and naughty as hell, but beneath all of it is an incredible amount of trust. He helps Caitlin reclaim her body and experience it as something capable of pleasure instead of only pain, and that was stunning to watch.
“You make me feel like maybe I could give you my broken body, with all its weirdness and pain and unpredictability. Like it would be safe with you. Like I…would be safe with you.”
But the caretaking between them isn’t one-sided.
Caitlin sees beyond the professional football player, the celebrity, the former playboy, and the easygoing man everyone thinks they know. She sees the scared, lonely pieces he keeps hidden and the boy who grew up without the love he deserved. Drew has spent so much of his life believing his past somehow disqualified him from having a forever of his own, and Caitlin shows him that where he came from does not determine where he gets to go.
That balance is what made their mutual caretaking some of the best I’ve read. Drew’s care for Caitlin is so often physical—learning her body, recognizing her pain, taking things off her plate, and giving her somewhere safe to finally stop being the person who handles everything. Caitlin’s care for Drew reaches the emotional wounds he’s spent his entire life hiding.
He takes care of her body while she takes care of his heart.
“Every day I get to be with you is a really good day.”
The found family surrounding them makes everything even richer. Drew has spent years believing he was somehow standing outside the kind of family he desperately wanted, while the people around him have been quietly loving him as one of their own all along. Watching him finally recognize what he already has, while beginning to believe he could build something of his own with Caitlin, was incredibly emotional. This entire family never fails to get me, and seeing familiar faces continuing to grow while rallying around Drew and Caitlin brought tears to my eyes more than once.
At its core, Fearlessly Us is a love story about two people who are exceptional at taking care of everyone except themselves. Caitlin has spent her life saying, “I can do it myself,” and Drew never doubts that she can—he simply wants to be the person who makes sure she doesn’t always have to. Drew has spent his life taking care of everyone around him while believing the love and family he wants could never truly belong to him, and Caitlin refuses to let his past determine his future.
He fought with her and he fought for her, while still knowing when the fight needed to remain hers and simply standing beside her. She gave him a place where he could finally believe he was worthy of being loved, chosen, and kept.
“I’ll always help you find the light. We can be fearless together. Fearlessly us.”
I think everyone deserves a Drew Ellicott in their life.
The number of times my eyes suddenly filled while reading this needs to be studied. Samantha Brinn gave Drew and Caitlin a story that hurt, made me laugh, made me cry, and somehow managed to be incredibly tender and ridiculously hot at the same time.
Fearlessly Us was beautiful, heart-wrenching, intimate, and full of the kind of love that doesn’t just tell someone they’re cared for—it shows them.
Five stars. Without question.
Release Date: September 3rd, 2026
Thank you to Samantha Brinn for the ARC read!