Gregory Ashe (1)Rezensionen

Very similar to the first book in the series, the other one I've read. Some of the same characters were involved in the murder investigation, in this small town.

Hazard and Somerset know each other better, so there isn't the suspenseful reacquaintance. Hazard is recovering from a head injury, something that is giving him killer headaches in this book - so he's even more grumpy and wild. Somerset puts up with it all, placates Hazard, is there for him ... and bemoans his cowardice in not being able to tell Hazard what he means to him. Although it must be so obvious, and Hazard is plenty smart when it comes to finding the murderer, he surely must know Somerset's feelings.

So the HEA, so long in coming - 4 novels? - is a drawn out illogical, unsatisfying, tortuous tease. There was no equivalent Nico character to add another thread to the Hazard and Somerset tension; Nico's role in this concerns his place in the murder mystery.

The murder mystery is quite well done, but not enough of a drawcard to plough through the longish book. And the sparks between the detectives are still brilliant but too few and far between.½

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.½

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.½

I honestly expected to really like the neurodivergent wilderness vet and be a bit iffy about the con-artist-ish one. But it ended up exactly the opposite. In this first book I'm not that big of a fan of Tean actually. I'm not sold that he's worth all the effort Jem puts in (throughout the book not just on their date). But, I was very interested in how things would play out until right near the end, so I'm going to do 4 stars and give him another try in the next book.

I hadn't liked Tean in the first book, and the beginning of this one didn't start out great for him either, but, by the end he managed to gain some ground. About halfway through their relationship it seemed like it might backtrack all the way to the beginning, which would have been so exasperating, but thankfully that rebounded quickly, so overall I'm pretty happy with it.

1.5 stars rounded up. I was happy to go along with the first two books (4 stars each), the characters weren't growing very much and their relationship wasn't progressing all that much (or rather it was sort of a 'one step forward two steps back' situation). Not ideal, but I had faith it would all come together in the third book at least. But, I'm not satisfied by this one at all.
The characters were still going through all the same bullsh*t mistakes and drama, up until the very last pages! What is Jem doing *still* lying to Tean about every little thing, and swindling people for money, and taking pills when he's upset, and hooking up with questionable randos?! And why is Tean *still* seeing the worst in everything, and shutting down all Jem's attempts at rebuilding even their friendship, and jumping to conclusions without hearing him out, and still fighting over the same stuff with his family? Why is he like *3/4s of the way through this book* STILL nearly choosing toxic A**hole Ammon instead?!? wtf? It made this whole trilogy feel like just a single 1200 page book that just happened to have 3 different mysteries in it. They decide to try to make it work in the end, but they've done that multiple times already only to crash and burn spectacularly and have to start over at square one, so it just gives me no confidence whatsoever in their happy ending. Their lives and relationship are just kinda messed up for like 98% of the story. I'm more concerned for them than I am pleased in the end, which is super disappointing.

This series is incredibly good!

But Holy Hannah... the UST!!!

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

Hazard and Somerset, as detective partners and having worked out some of their issues from the past, drop into an Agatha Christie like setting outside Wahredua in the middle of a fierce snowstorm just before Thanksgiving. Bodies gradually start to deplete the strange, assembled group that have come together to participate in “trust building” murder mystery solving in a staged setting on the ground of a huge Victorian manor. I really like the characters of Hazard and Somerset. Both men could use a good shake or a solid slap up the side of the head every now and then, but they both have their reasons for their defense mechanisms. One has a nice boyfriend and the other a wife that he's working on patching a strained marriage up with...but they are still making advances to one another, without much success. I really don't feel that I fully understand what makes them tick but I know I'm going to read the next book in the series to see what happens next. Overall, a really good addition in the series.

Just excellent. It ticked every box. I couldn't help but fall in love with Shaw and North. Even wacky Pari was well thought out and developed. I'm jumping right on Triangulation.

YES!

I loved this series! Mr. Ashe could have cut back on some of the apologies and running away in this book. Very well written and definitely character driven. Highly recommended!

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.)

Whaaaat the heck, I read over half this novel just today because I couldn't STOP. Shaw and North are two of the most often-charmingly but holy carp terribly f*cked-up heroes I've ever met, and now I must go buy the next book so CW: domestic abuse, CW: flashback/PTSD and they're PIs so CW danger of all sorts. But if you're okay with those then RECOMMENDED *zooms off to buy another book*

Best book two of three I've ever read.

They are such ragged, misshapen cogs in the clockwork jaws of life, misaligning and janking off kilter, nearly linking only to get knocked sideways again.... But finally.

Finally.

AND THEN.

(On to book 3 RIGHT NOW.)

I have spent a little time thinking how to review this one. I'll start with the obvious. Our MC is sixteen, and so this romance is happy-for-now, which is perfectly fine. And I'll warn you, while the mystery is solved, this is not the end. This author is quite good at ongoing series, so I will probably read what comes next. It's gonna be weird.

Our MC is not only an abused kid, but one with a paranormal ability he uses, but hates and fears. He's defensive and stubborn and in a bad situation, fresh out of a worse one. But he's also basically a good guy; he takes on the task to find a killer when a maybe-friend is blamed. He's gay, and it does affect some things, but it is just part of him like the need to act out or go running. Great representation. He works his way to answers with all the flaws and insights any sixteen year old brings to a challenge, and his paranormal ability is as much hindrance as help.

It is a long book, but the many chapters are mostly short, so it was easy to dive in and out, until I hit the point where I needed to know what happens.

I enjoy detective and PI stories, I've read a lot of them.

Since discovering that Romance has a whole m/m and gay segment of this type, I've read many of those, too.

And yet, somehow, Shaw and North take the dangers and twist them up past 11, in part because now that they're together, I REALLY don't want them threatened. Even by each other. This one resolves a few things, but... Not everything.

Oh boy.

If you enjoyed the series, you will enjoy this collection. There are four stories, all fun. At the end there are six cut scene vignettes. If you ever want to know how to write great sex scenes, those are ...well, honestly it was hard to pay attention to technique because I kept grinning like an idiot at these two, but I'm sure I can learn a few things if I read them again. :)

This is a love-collection for fans of the trilogy.

DNF

I tried. I'm stopping at 31% in because I'm still bored. The first of these also had too much detail and not enough action, but this one drags much more. Oh well.

IMPORTANT: this is not a romance OR not a complete one. If you require a HEA or HFN, wait on this until the arc is more complete. That said, I AM INTRIGUED. They are weird and funny, poignant at times. The plot is confusing and a bit scary. That wraps up, but I wish I had the next book right now. THEY ARE SO MESSY.

I meant to make this last a bit longer, so it would end a little closer to when book 2 comes out, but that couldn't happen. I abandoned all the other books to finish this one. It includes the first 3 chapters of book 2, and... Oh. Oh dear. Buy this one and preorder book 2. Be smart, like I wasn't! :D

I hated book 1, so it took me a long time to even look at this one. Since I dissed #1, I have read other series that are series romances, rather than each novel classifying as a romance. Okay. I still feel the procedural aspect of #1 wasn't good. I still dislike the bully-as-love-interest trope in the first place. And I'll never reread it. But I enjoyed Transposition.

The plot is good, the circumstances terrible and dangerous, the actions made sense given those circumstances and dangers, plus the emotional states of these idiots. I guessed some things, others were surprises. And the series plot arc is interesting/concerning, so onward to #3.

This one is tortuous.

This book's plot is murky and twisted and slathered in memories and angst and missed changes and habitual lies and... Gah! I don't-- I just want-- ARGH.

I'm late to this party. I haven't read other reviews of this book. But I imagine they share a certain teeth-gnashing frustration. I'd stop, but Ashe is too good a writer.

DNF at 53%, after once again trying to regain any interest. I'm bored. It doesn't matter how vividly scenes are written if nothing much happens, most of the time. I'm glad it's clear early on that I'll find Cian tedious and Irene boring. I want the story to move at least 60% faster than it does.