“Guncle Rule number eight: Live your life to the fullest every single day, because every day is a gift. That’s why people die. To teach us the importance of living.” – 4.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: brunch and lumper, cocktails, Japanese washlets, the tooth fairy, grief, and taking care of family.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

This book was so good, I’m very surprised by how much I liked this!
I admit I never thought much about this book. I’ve seen it a lot in bookstores but I always looked at the cover and kept moving to the next book. It just never caught my full attention, so when I randomly picked it up, I wasn’t expecting it to be this good!
So this story follows GUP, also known as Gay Uncle Patrick. He is a movie star who peaked his career a while ago and spends his days now enjoying his best life. But after his nephews Maisie (9) and Grant (6) become temporarily under his care, his life takes a turn – for the better, of course!
Patrick is an incredibly funny character and since he has no experience dealing with kids, he often treats them as adults – which, as you can imagine, sometimes works… and sometimes it doesn’t. They follow him around everywhere, and for the first time, he’s learning how to be responsible for his nephews instead of focusing only on him and his needs.
I loved this book so much. It was the perfect mixture of sweet and funny, but also a unique breath of fresh air. It’s a story about growth and being there for the family when they need us. It’s also a story about forgiveness and patience. It was great to see that they all became better after spending time together – not only did the kids learn from their uncle, but the uncle also learned valuable lessons from the kids as well. It is wholesomeness galore with this one!
Also, I just found out there is going to be a sequel! I’m super excited to get my hands on it. I definitely recommend this one! Don’t walk past it like I did, give it a fair shot to steal your heart. As a side note, I also highly recommend the audiobook version of this book because the narrator did a great job with this one.