READ: May 2023 

FORMAT: Digital 

BRIEF SUMMARY: 

In this contemporary romance, Peter finally has a few weeks of leave from his work and all he wants to do is get home to unwind – until Theo gets a hold of him with an urgent request to track down Maggie’s brother, Sean, and make sure he’s doing alright in the face of their father’s death. Sean has inherited a problem of overwhelmingly shocking proportion, and his primary instinct when things get difficult is to make a literal run for it. Peter knows he’s in over his head, but he is driven to see Sean through to the end of this tough situation, borrowing from his own newly-founded system of support in order to help however he can. 

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3 / 5⭐ 

On reflection, I didn’t connect with this book very well and my recollection of it feels a bit more like ‘a series of events that happen’ more than a well-told story. Peter is compelled into a situation he wants no part of, then over the course of a handful of days falls in love with Sean, whom he hardly even knows and who would not typically turn his head. Peter then dedicates all of his free time to helping the guy handle an overwhelming situation, despite Sean’s constant hot-and-cold attitude towards him, pushing Peter away time and time again. 

Every now and then, a romance comes along where things go poorly and the pairing go their separate ways, and my reaction is to say, “Great! That’s over. This clearly wasn’t working out. Let’s move on to better things.” Then, they get back together only for the events to replay themselves, to my eternal frustration. This was one of those books. I had great hopes for Peter, but no patience for Sean. I would have preferred an entirely different love interest for our man, if I'm being honest. 

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.5 / 5⭐ 

As mentioned, I didn’t really feel like this book was well-structured, although I admit I could have been blinded by my impatience. Peter’s entire re-connection with his father felt incidental, and I’m not sure how (or even if) it furthered Peter's growth with Sean. Peter giving up his house very clearly only existed as setup for book three, and it feels a bit strange to me to offer up your residence to two people you don’t know the first thing about, no matter how generous your soul is. Sean’s boss is ostensibly there to cause jealousy and competition, but it has no teeth and comes to nothing; the guy leaves the story every bit as abruptly as he comes into it. 

Many of Riley’s romances that I’ve read so far tend to involve the main character experiencing a tough set of circumstances while the love interest simply exists to support and cheer them on through it. They don’t tend to solve all of our lead’s problems, but more, they facilitate conditions where our lead can find success by their own hand, I love that, but it can also leave me feeling like their relationship was never earned; it just happens. In this book, the roles are reversed. Sean is going through a terrible time, and Peter is just there to support him through it. This is especially strange to me, because now the reader is in the position of just sort of... observing from the side while a different story is getting told to someone else, if you follow what I’m attempting to say. 

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3.25 / 5⭐ 

I don’t know if I needed this book. I definitely needed Peter to find love after getting shafted in the previous story; I just didn’t enjoy how it happened for him, or whom he found love with. Heck, the almost-hookup firefighter might have made for a more compelling story, what with his empathy in need of an adjustment.

This book has representation for gays. There isn’t much else in the way of diversity. 

 

This book contains: a whole lot of suicide-related discussion and recounting, through the eyes of first responders – some sympathetic, others frustrated, still others flippant; discussion about domestic abuse incidents; injuries (road rash, severe scrapes); attempted abduction, attempted vehicular assault, threats of violence; manipulative behaviour that could be argued as gaslighting; homophobia, homophobic slur, brief mention of bullying; mental illness (OCD, hoarding); description of dangerous house fires; alcohol use; and, past deaths of multiple parents (car accident, cancer, stroke).