The men at the Vanguard Towers call themselves "brothers"...and they are, only not by blood. They all grew up in foster care...and the Vanguard Towers is an old building that several of them bought and restored into apartments in the first book. It's home to all of them and their ever-growing family of significant others. This is one of the brothers, Owen, and his "love interest"...Howie's story. They are two men who find love in this edition of the series. This series is one of the first M/M Romance series that I acquired... but it hasn't by any means been my last. I bought this series, book by book when it when it first came out and am now rereading it for probably the fifth or sixth time. There were hints in books 1-4 books that something was going to happen between these two, but you don’t need to have read all 4 of those to completely understand this one. It nicely stands up on its own. Owen and Howie get the story started with a hook-up that afterward each man thinks was more than likely a bad idea. Their attraction for one another brings them back together, but they try to keep it casual. The more time they spend together though, the more they’re starting to realize it’s much more than just casual. Howie is ready to jump into the commitment. but Owen, is much more cautious. He has a lot of trauma, which is why he's in Howie's office to begin with...caused by an unprofessional shrink, long ago. He's never properly dealt with it and now when he finds love its holding him back from trying to have a relationship with his current shrink and the personal friend of all the guys at the Vanguard Towers. One of Aiden Bates’ best themes is "found family". He adds scenes that include all the Vanguard Towers "brothers" (and significant others) interacting with both Howie and Owen. These are some of my favorite scenes. Bates also keeps things low-angst and sweet. If you’ve read and liked previous books of this series; or others like it... you’ll enjoy ‘Rise and Fall’ also. Although I have all the books, I decided it would be fun to hear the guys, so I listened to the audio. Guillaume Dubois, the narrator...did a fantastic job on the voices. It was quite the experience to hear the voices of the individual men. ( )