Detective Hazard returns to his hometown and his partnered with one of the bullies who tormented him and likely drove his high school boyfriend to suicide. Didn't inspire me to bother continuing with the series. ( )

Haven't heard of this author even though he has 83 books listed on Library Thing! But glad to discover him now.

This has romance strung like lights over a detective suspense novel. I like it, but as I went along and certainly by the end, I questioned whether it was a romance novel? Maybe it is more accurately a romance series, with each book - from what I've read of the synopses - a step towards a HEA.

Found it hard to follow the audiobook at the start, and Tristan James is a fairly good reader, but sometimes I couldn't tell who he was speaking for. He did a great job of doing a deeper voice for the reserved Emery Hazard. And his tone suits a crime story delivery.

Never have I read such a slow burn romance as this book! The old attraction between Emery Hazard and John-Henry Somerset that had briefly sparked in high school, flares to life when they meet many years later as detectives on the same case.

Emery has good reason to distrust and even hate "Somers" but this is hard to maintain as Emery works alongside the optimistic, smart, friendly, deferential, likeable Somers.

Nevertheless, Hazard is determined to hold Somers accountable for past wrongs. It's more scary than the murder investigation, to think that Hazard would set out to destroy the glimmer of happiness in his life at meeting this new version of Somers, in a misguided effort to get justice for the past.

This is a riveting relationship novel, and a fairly good crime story, but unfortunately the latter takes up the bulk of the novel. I can't wait to read more, though I fear that the author is going to string us along a few more books before there's any HEA for these two MCs.

I'm giving this an extra half star simply for the sublime intensity built into the relationship side of the novel. Hazard and Somers dance an excruciating one step forward and 0.99 steps backwards. This push and pull creates more tension than the race to catch the murderer!

Afterword; I've now read the comments by Claudiereads, terriaminute, and Connorz - spot on - it's always a buzz to find others of like mind about a book. ( )

Well done police procedural. Interesting characters. Not a romance as such. ( )

This book could have been a five star read but all of the typos hurt it too much. Both Hazard and Somers are terribly broken and that damn town is not healing them. There were some good secondary characters and a couple that should never have been created. Pretty good mystery and an even better personal story line. ( )

I bought this assuming it was a romance, but it isn't. Don't read it assuming it is. (I returned it, because that nopes me out of anything by this author.)

Oh, the two guys are attracted to each other despite their nasty history, but it isn't even a Happy For Now (HFN) ending, let alone a Happily Ever After (HEA). One or the other is the only Romance requirement. That's bad enough. But it's also not a great police procedural story, though there is a pretty good confusion plot that sorts out satisfactorily. That might have earned this another star, but I am annoyed about the mislabeling of the book's genre, so no. Not good enough.

I also have an 'ick factor' problem with both characters. Neither has much of an emotional backbone, so much of the time I was reading with warning alarms going off in my mind. A good author can use that well, but this author overused it, for me. (Read the Seven of Spades series if you want a great example of reader-angst used well.) ( )