Twice Shy

Very slow burn romance (the MCs aren't even on a first-name basis until the 25% mark). Ollie is just wonderful, a grad student who dropped out of school to parent his two young nephews after their parents were killed in a car accident. Joel has some mental health issues and is petrified of falling in love and getting hurt again, yadda yadda yadda. But he says some almost unforgivably cruel things to Ollie that precipitate the third act breakup, and I'm not convinced his grand gesture at the book's climax should be considered sufficient groveling. Despite the blissful epilogue, I think these guys have some major issues to resolve before I can buy anything more than a tepid HFN ending.