Hot and sexy, passionate and sizzling! When Darcy, the totally-oblivious-about-himself nerd meets Caleb, the Cajun bad boy with the wounded soul, both are irrevocably transformed. I really liked these characters and loved watching them open to the possibility of each other.

The most serious problem I had was the pronoun dilemma inherent in this genre. I found myself pulled out of the story too frequently, trying to figure out who was doing what to whom.

The main characters in this story were truly its strong point - a quiet nerd struggling with a sudden change in his sexual awareness, and an artistic bad boy with a Cajun drawl, a passionate nature, and a traumatic past. The sex was sweet and hot, and the story-telling was lush. Watching them together was a pleasure. There were small issues with plot, with facts, and with pronouns, that were distracting and kept this from being a five-star read. I had trouble with the character of Bailey, the ex-girlfriend, and definite reservations about the speed-of-light progression of Darcy's relationship with Caleb, both in and out of bed. But the author made it work with a smoothly-written fast-moving story that I read in one sitting.

3.75 -

Oooh the heat and not just in Nola!

Loved this book and I'm glad Mercy Celeste had the chance to go back and add the extra as it neatly brings the story to a proper close for these four people.
It's an odd story but one that works out well in the end and while Caleb was all ends up a seriously mixed up guy, his relationship with Darcy does read as true.

This pair have a great dynamic all the way through their story. It is heady and intoxicating, unsteady, but so strong. Reasons are convoluted, revealed only under duress, and at cost. I loved it. It freaked me out a little at the end, it could have ended at three different points, but each addition was good. By the actual end I was grinning. That particular reprisal of promise was perfect.

2 stars - 1 for some scenes, 1 for N'awlins


Dang, what the hell happened here?

I read my share of Mercy Celeste's work, and I already know that her writing and her characters are somewhat... unusual? I like that about her. Most of her stories really work for me, even with a lot of purple and cheese and sugar.

But this one?! Boy, did I really just read that?!

But first, the good part. New Orleans is a great place and a wonderful setting for stories with a little "bite", some sultry love and dirty little (and huge) secrets. I've never been to Oregon, so I can't say the same about that place, but New Orleans - when described good - really does it for me. And it worked fine here.

I also liked to read about Darcy in the beginning. Marcy Celeste knows how to write jaded, complex characters and Darcy wasn't an exception. Life is seldomly black and white, and it reflects beautifully in his musings about his private life, his professional decisions and his regrets. I liked that.

And I was happy with some of the sexy scenes.

Unfortunately that also brings me to one of the two things that absolutely ruined this story for me.

Darcy never consciously even LOOKED at another man, yet he let's Caleb fuck him BARE WITHOUT LUBE after knowing him for two days?! Really? There are so manny things wrong with that, I can't even... NO! What really killed it for me though, was the situation after their break-up. You KNOW you've been with other people, and you didn't get tested afterwards. I don't give a flying fuck how careful you think you've been, you don't go bareback after something like this! It enrages me to no end how actions like these are described here, and without even a hint of doubt, of danger, of fear afterwards. Wihtout even thinking twice about it. You say you were careful, and I have no reason to trust you other than I want to, so let's do it. What the hell?! Nail -> coffin for the story.

The other problem I had was the dialogue. I love the accent, even though I don't understand everything when it's spoken. But it sounds beautiful to me, and I like to read it, too. Nevertheless, the sentences should make some lick of sense in relation to each other. But half of the time I felt like people just threw words and phrases at each other without listening, without any kind of logic to it. I was more confused and skipped huge parts of it in the end. Especially this whole drama with the two ex-lovers. And babys, and families, and death, and moving, and murder and the mob and god knows what. Usually, I love Mercy Celestes own brand of crazy in her stories and the history of her MCs, but this time I was just annoyed. I didn't feel a thing for these guys even though their stories should have broken my heart. Not cool.

I'm very disappointed, the sex-thing pissed me off something fierce and I cannot recommend this book.