Mia and Luke are both forces to be reckoned with. Whether in business or pleasure, they attack the situation with everything they've got...including their hearts, no matter HOW MUCH they'll try to deny it. When they are together, the force is multiplied by 100 and windows can be blown by the sheer force of their chemistry. Even with time having passed, and hurts lingering from their shared history, those feelings were grounded in something stronger, and despite the fact that neither wants an entanglement with the other, the heart wants what it wants.

Watching these two play cat and mouse with their hearts are humorous, frustrating, and ultimately satisfying...and I'm not being masochistic. Seeing them knock down each others walls, struggle through the awkward times, and try to find their footing was a treat. Grant it, I think both them and I could have done without the creepy stalker activity and death threats, but hey, that's part and party to getting them to where they need to be...so I say bring on the hard times; these two (if they ever really get it together!) can take on anything life throws their way!

In the end, the potential couple to be was a perfect fit, and I really liked the familial aspect with Gus and Billy. My only regret was that I wish the stalker aspect was fleshed out more instead of the instant reveal and final outcome all in one...but it did have closure, so there is there. Recommended for adult Contemporary Romance fans who like some smoke AND fire in their nightly reading...


**ebook received for review; opinions are my own ( )

Forgive the Low Star Reviewers, For They Know Not What They Do. Apparently I had a *completely* different experience with this book than most of the other ARC readers, because while this thing wasn't mind blowing in the slightest, it was a solid romance with a crap ton of sex, characters who both despised and loved each other, and a solid concept for at least a short series. Really, it was fairly standard ish romance - which is all that I really expected here. If you're looking for LGBT romance, this isn't it - and never claims it is, despite the author being more well known in that space. If you're looking for sweet or clean or tidy... this isn't that either. There is a lot of hard core, rough, passionate, hate filled sex - because that is the space these characters are in after the way life has treated them over the last decade, and the last thing either of them wants to be dealing with is the one that got away all those years ago. And yes, there is an out and proud gay brother - and another brother whose sexuality is less clear in this text - who will be the foci of the next book in the series. Which alone merits reading this series, as *extremely* few authors have the balls to combine different sexualities into the same series - or even write books outside a set sexuality. I've actually already started the other book, since I'm also reading it early - for a blog tour, in fact - and so far it continues in the same tone as the others.

Ultimately, I would've read this one from the hate filled reviews alone - just because when a book gets *so* heavily panned, I find myself reading it for myself just to see if indeed the hatred is warranted. It wasn't in the most personally-famous case of me doing this (reading DIVERGENT trilogy because ALLEGIANT got this same level of hatred over its ending), and it isn't in this book either.

This book, and so far this series, is a refreshing change of pace in so many ways, and is therefore very much recommended. ( )