It took a few minutes to get into this book but when I did, I was grinning through to the end - it has a wicked sense of humour.

The story is set in the small town of O'Leary, and centres on policeman Silas (Si) and art teacher Everett (Ev), who are both great characters. The supporting cast of O'Learyians is the main generator of laughs - Ev's grandpa and Si's many family and friends.

Read it. I hadn't even heard of May Archer. I've now put her on my list of read-more authors, but aside from Hoopla, she has no audiobooks in my usual libraries - not sure why? ( )

This is a good example of enjoying a book despite one of the protagonists being ...the polite word is 'misguided.' Ev will never be my favorite character because to me that mental trap he set for himself makes him untrustworthy. But lucky for him, Si needs him. I knew who the bad guy had to be, but it was a really good scene. This is one of the better series set-up novels I've read; I wasn't beaten over the head with who the next love interests would be. I appreciated that. I'll probably read the whole series. ( )

The first half was promising, but the second half fell flat. Decent themes that were handled okay, but the romance ruined it for me. It started off nice, and it raised my hopes for this not being an insta-lovey corn fest. Alas, it was not meant to be.

I did like the characters and the close knit small town vibes, so I'm probably going to give the second book a go, regardless.

This was far from the worst romance I've read this year, and has some nice cozy vibes (which is good for the season.) ( )

At first, I wasn't at all sure about this book. Not only was it the first book that I had read by May Archer, but the setting was a smalltown in New York. I have not had much love for M/M romances that are set in small towns since most of them present the townsfolks as homeomorphic and not particularly open minded. Not that that's true by any means, but it's usually how the story goes. First, we meet Everett Maior, an art teacher that had two-years ago, lost his husband of nine years. Everett is on his way to O'Leary, New York to help his grandfather who had recently broken his leg. It didn't appear that he was very excited to be doing this, but his overwhelming, and demanding mother made the case that he would be perfect for this task. He wrecks the car when he thinks his seen a ghost in the road, and was rescued by Police Chief, Silas Sloane who is loved by almost the entire little town. Now we have our two main characters that were not very charmed by one another...yet. To say these two are complicated would be a major understatement. Everett is trying to get control over his new life as well as that of his grandfather Henry (Hen) who is humorously cantankerous, and nothing like Everett remembers him but then Everett had only been 9-years old at their last meeting. Silas has his flaws and troubles to conquer also. He is a commitment-phobe whose first encounter with Everett sets the stomach and other parts rumbling and roiling and which eventually drives him into something that can certainly be described as more than lust. These two spend almost the remainder of the book dancing around each other. I just wanted to glue them together and lock them in a room. There is a mystery here as well that involves the disappearance of two young men in the area where Evertt had his car crash/ghost spotting. These events provide the set-up for a disturbing, but cleansing and healing, in the end... and our two guys get the chance to work out what we all knew was going to happen along. ( )

This was more about grief and overcoming it rather than love story. Romance was okay and small town vibe was ridiculous but also sweet. ( )