C. Travis Rice, is the son of writer, Ann Rice, so I was interested to see if the genes were past on. The writing is good, it's the believability of the plot that lowered the rating. I see that this is the 2nd book in this series, so I plan to look for the first one, {Sapphire Sunset, to see if the entire series contains these beyond damaged men. It's the characters past with one another that makes the plot of this story extremely hard to believe. Naser is the controller for the Sapphire Cove resort owned and managed by his best friend, Connor. One night during a party at the hotel he sees Mason, one of guys that bullied him through high school. Mason hasn't changed much. He's still a diehard, partier and raging alcoholic, living and slowly destroying his life with the bottle. Part of this could be because he has always had to tolerate horrible verbal abuse from his father who is also his boss and doesn't have a redeeming, likeable bone in his entire body. He is a despicable, homophobic and somehow Mason has picked a best friend (?), Chadwick, who is just like his father (another hard to imagine scenario). Chadwick was one of Naser’s other bullies. Naser and Mason start to spend more time together due to a business transaction...and as hard as it is to believe, one thing leads to another. I thought the very ideas of this was preposterous. I just can't see or accept that Naser had a crush on and fantasized about Mason during high school while Mason and two friends were actively bullying him daily, nor can I fathom why, after three years of hard-core bullying, the very sight of Mason wouldn’t trigger him or lead to thoughts of PTSD. It's by no means a bad book and there are positives such as really likable secondary characters like Naser’s mother and sister, and Mason’s next-door neighbor. The alcoholism subplot is interesting and seemed realistic. I will assume that the author researched the subject before writing about it, particularly the ins and outs of AA meetings, rehab, and recovery. A lot of time is spent on Mason’s alcoholism. There are numerous, compelling chapters devoted to Mason and his father’s relationship along with Mason’s drinking. I found these parts of the book more interesting and believable than I did the romance that would have gone beyond enemies to lovers. If you can take these scenes at face value, you will certainly enjoy this story. ( )