Book Title: His Custody
Book Author: Tamsen Parker

Introduction: I'd be lying if I said Tamsen Parker wasn't my favourite author. There's many reasons why I love her (in a nerdy, fangirl type way) and many reasons why I respect her (as another female working their butt of in this funny world of business) but listing them all here wouldn't do it justice. So, for a small introduction all I have to say is this: I LOVE supporting Tamsen and reading all of her books and posting my silly, little reviews for everyone to see. You can tell Tamsen is passionate about her books and she does an incredible job (she constantly raises the bars! She doesn't stick to one topic and pump out fifty books of the same, old story. She changes it up!). I'll continue reading every book she throws out until I can't read anymore, and then I'll find an audiobook and continue to devour every single novel she throws at me.

So thank you Tamsen for being such a wonderful author! From your little tweets that make my day, to the Valentine I got in the mail, to the very first time you offered to send me the rest of the Compass series to binge on. You are fantastic and I adore you and I appreciate everything you do (I don't think people say that enough to anybody...so here's my little appreciate two paragraphs to remind you ;D )! Keep up the great work!

Now it's review time.

Review:

His Custody changes up the pace from Tamsen's other books. We've seen the BDSM-type of novel, the voyeur novel, the F/F novel, and now this book is just a teeny bit different. And by teeny bit, I mean it's a full 180. His Custody is what it sounds like - immediately you are thrown into this strange custody battle-esque scene where Jasper is trying to get custody of Keyne until she turns 18. I did NOT expect that, not at all. The title should have given it away, but hey, I'm not always looking for the most obviously reason behind the titles. I thought it might have been some sexy metaphor- but nope! Tamsen gives away the first scene in the title. She loves throwing me a loop, I swear sometimes she does this on purpose just to drive me insane! (Insane in a good way ;) She's keeping me on my toes...).

Bonus Marks: Jasper leaving Keyne a note. A hand written note! Oh, Tamsen loves playing with my heart strings.

Jasper is the knight in shining armor who is totally not the knight in shining armor. Drugs, kinks, all of that jazz that makes someone NOT the perfect knight in shining armor is Jasper. Yet he's sexy as hell and works his butt off for Keyne. He's not your typicaly goody-two shoes love interest, but that's what makes him interesting! He's not perfect, he has flaws. Slowly we're seeing Tamsen develop her characters into bigger and better, and I love that!! Was he my favourite out of all her characters? No, but he's still incredibly developed and written beautifully! (I still love the Compass series. Nothing has passed that yet...Cris from the Compass series fits my aesthetic).

Bonus Marks: "Mumbo jumbo" is used in this book. Finally someone else who uses my terminology!

This book is definitely another home run for Tamsen. She grows in her field, which is wonderful. I haven't found many authors who continue to grow and share the knowledge their gaining without doing the same, old boring storyline over and over. She tries new things and experiments, which makes me respect her even more as an author. She goes above and beyond (and without spoiling), she goes to greater lengths to show pain, love, trust and other feelings in these characters where she hasn't gone before. This book is pretty deeper in it's storyline and consequences. It's a nice change to see a story with a little more pain than the past books, and it's interesting to see how Tamsen deals with that in her stories.

Bonus Marks: "Hey, that guy has a penis". The strangest yet funniest quote I've ever seen in a book.

There's, of course, lots of sexy time in this novel. How would it be a Tamsen novel without the sexy time? It's a splash of different compared to the other books. This book is harsh and intense, and the scenes between Jasper and Keyne fit that bill. It all ties in well with the dramatic scenes of this novel.

Frustrations: My frustrations are always silly with books like this. For example, my BIGGEST PROBLEM in this whole book is the name Andersson. Why is it two S's? Why am I so annoyed by this? Why is this the BIGGEST issue in the whole book for me?! Who knows. It's a great book! If I can say the spelling of a name is the biggest frustration of a book, you've done a good job!

My second frustration isn't a book frustration - I know a female dog named Jasper, and for whatever reason I was not convinced that Jasper was the male leads name for the first twenty pages of this book. Silly frustration? Obviously. But again, if silly frustrations like this are my biggest frustrations, the book has to be good. Or at least on my level, it's great. ( )

This is a gorgeous tale about love, grief, and kink (a lot of kink). Some side storylines were dropped or not expanded on, and I didn’t care. While both Jasper and Keyne’s POVs are told here, I would say this is really Jasper’s story as he takes in Keyne. There is overwhelming grief here due to everyone they love having died, but it’s also muted in a way and preserved in discretion. Tamsen Parker writes a story that is hard but beautiful, and I loved it. ( )