Nick is a paramedic. Like all cities everywhere, enough money to go around is the big issue in everybody's face...so when the city's budget cuts created a hopeless situation that made emergency workers like himself have to take care of an area that was far too big and too far away...the result is that people often just don't get the help they need until it's way too late, and difficult decisions have to made in a heartbeat. This is nothing he can do anything about so he just does the best he can by treating the ones that he can save which often means leaving the ones that are so badly wounded that they wouldn't have survived anyway...and he often has to make this decision in a matter of seconds. At the scene Nick is confronted with two-gunshot victims...both still alive but one so badly injured that she was nearly dead. He had no idea that the one that he decided had the best chance was a police officer that had been shot confronting the one he left to die. Nick was threatened and held at gunpoint at the scene for making that choice. Now he has a stalker threatening to kill him for it. He seeks out Detective Andrew Carmichael. It was his work partner that Nick saved. It turns out they have a lot in common and eventually hook up as more than just friends. The man that threatened Andew at the scene is out to hunt him down and kill him. Of course, everyone has an opinion about what he did and a media circus over whether he did the job that they know nothing about, "right". They are now following his every move. Andrew wants to continue to do the job, but sometimes his presence just makes things worse, and this includes his budding relationship, but neither he nor Andrew are sure what they mean to each other, or where the danger to Nick may come from next. I liked the characters, and the story moved along smoothly. The ending was not a big surprise, except in the details, and the conclusion to the romance happened really fast. It had a few plot issues...especially the department and the city putting Nick in the position that they did knowing that he was being stalked, but then I have never written a book, so I'll trust the author on that one. I understand there is a sequel. ( )

This was an interesting read. The paranoia was amped up and move the story along more than any real action, though there was a good deal of that too. It gives an interesting take on dealing (read repressing) stress and trauma. I was a little disappointed that the story ends without really overcoming any of the major issues that deal with them as a couple and in fact introduces a new one at the eleventh hour. This is part of a series though so I guess that was deliberate to be dealt with in a later book on the series. ( )

This was not good. I got almost through chapter 3 but gave up on the story. ( )

Cover Me by LA Witt is a complex and gritty novel at 107,000 words from Carnal Passions (Champagne Books). It features a first-person viewpoint and several red-hot sex scenes as well as a detailed, insider look at the high stress world of paramedics and cops. I had two small regrets – first, that the setting was never specified beyond a nameless North American city. Second, the narrative, while fast-paced, seemed slightly overwritten with Nick’s tendency to overthink events.

However, Cover Me more than compensates with its strong points. The realism and intricate detail of Nick’s day-to-day work as a paramedic had me fascinated. His distinctive behavioral traits, which include a tendency to suppress emotion and to seek stress release constantly through sex, struck me as very believable for someone in his profession. Nick, while extremely likable, has a personality ripe with potential for interpersonal conflict, and the novel explores this beautifully in his relationship with his coworkers, supervisors, and past lovers (male and female), who have all failed to understand him until he meets his match in police detective Andrew. When Nick and Andrew come together, the sexual chemistry almost burns up the pages.

The novel starts with an intensely suspenseful scene when Nick and his partner rush to the scene of an accident in a ghetto infested with drug dealers. Nick has to make an unbearable triage decision, which literally results in one person dying while he saves another. This act results in his own brush with death in the next few minutes, even while he struggles to perform his job. But his troubles are just beginning. His decision will have far-reaching consequences, including career-threatening accusations of racism and medical incompetence.

As Nick struggles with guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder, he realizes that someone is stalking him, intent on making him pay with his life. Meanwhile, Nick experiences an immediate, intense mutual attraction with Andrew, the police detective assigned to his case. It seems that a cop understands his volatile profession and unique personality as no previous lover ever has. However, Nick fears repeating the mistakes of his past, and losing Andrew – if his stalker doesn’t kill them both first. Can Nick and Andrew find a future together, despite the internal and external pressures that they face?

Val for AReCafe ( )

Paramedic has to make a difficult choice when offering aid: while he saves one woman, another woman dies. Her lover threatens to kill him and another drug addict also becomes a threat to Nick, who just doesn’t know who to handle with the situation. Fortunately he meets Detective Andrew Carmichael at the scene … and falls for him.
While the death threats keep coming in, Nick is also accused of being a racist because the dead woman was Afro-American. Is it possible to have a good start with a relationship when everything just falls apart? Well, at least the sex between those two men is good. The suspense part is rather good but the relationship part lacks sincerity, I’m afraid. ( )