Criminal Intentions S2E1 – The Golden Ratio by Cole McCade (audiobook) – Narrated by Curt Bonnem

This title may be purchased from Audible via Amazon

The boys are back, and an old face from Seong-Jae’s past plunges BPD Detectives Malcolm Khalaji and Seong-Jae Yoon from a two-month suspension right into the depths of hell—and into one of the most horrific, grisly cases of Malcolm’s life.

He’s never seen anything like it. Macabre ritual killings, and the only one who’s ever been able to crack the killer’s pattern has been his partner and lover.

But Malcolm and Seong-Jae aren’t the only ones tracking this case.

And with the return of FBI Division Chief Aanga Joshi, Malcolm may have to contend with more than a rogue killer.

A jealous ex. More of Seong-Jae’s buried secrets. A prison break turned into a blood-soaked crime scene.

And two men, far from home, standing on the brink. Where nothing may be safe. Not even each other.

Rating: Narration – A; Content – A-

The second season of Cole McCade’s enthralling Criminal Intentions series takes a slightly different format to the first one. In Season One, the cases to be solved were mostly standalones although some were loosely linked and there was an overarching plotline that gradually became clear as the season progressed. In Season Two, there are individual crimes to be solved, but they all link into one major plotline – the search for the so-called Golden Ratio killer, a serial murderer who has been dormant for a number of years but who has resurfaced to go on a killing spree the like of which Malcolm and Seong-Jae have never seen.

As in the previous books, the author doesn’t shy away from showing violence and the results of violence, and the opening chapter of The Golden Ratio is possibly one of the goriest yet and absolutely not for the faint-hearted. But I wouldn’t say it’s gratuitous; it’s there to show us just what – who – Mal and Seong-Jae are up against, just how twisted their mind is and how utterly depraved they are.

The story begins as the two men – now romantic partners as well as professional ones – are still on the suspension meted out to them at the end of the last series. An unexpected phone call from their boss sees them heading into the office to find a blast from Seong-Jae’s past waiting for them. FBI Division Chief Aanga Joshi from the BAU – Seong-Jae’s former boss (and ex) – wants Seong-Jae’s help with the unsolved case of a serial killer who has eluded capture for decades. Seong-Jae absolutely does not want to be drawn back into that life, but Joshi knows exactly what buttons to press and how to guilt Seong-Jae into agreeing. Backed into a corner, he reaches for the one thing he hopes can keep him sane through what he knows is going to be a total mindfuck of a case and insists that he and Malcolm come as a package deal.

This first instalment covers a fair bit of ground with Mal and Seong-Jae heading out to the crime scene in Arizona to get a first hand look at what went down, trying to work out what the killer’s next move will be and who he might be. The plot is compelling, but so is the central relationship; just because they’re together now doesn’t mean they don’t still have some work to do, and in this season, a lot of the emotional heavy lifting is Seong-Jae’s. We get to learn more about his time with the bureau, how terrified he is of being sucked back into the creeping dark that lets him project himself into the minds of the worst murderers and understand them, and how he doesn’t want to return to that cold, emotionless state that was the only way he could function. This time, though, he has Mal at this side to ground him and remind him of what’s truly important, that whatever happens, they have each other, and it’s a measure of how far he’s come since we first met him that he’s now willing to open up and allow himself to be vulnerable with Malcolm. They’ve both grown as individuals, but their coupledom is still relatively new so there are still doubts and insecurities hiding in little corners of their minds, and this new case is really going to put them to the test, both personally and professionally.

Although I’ve read this story – this season – with my eyes, I was really looking forward to listening to it because Curt Bonnem does such an outstanding job with the narration. He absolutely IS Mal and Seong-Jae, Mal’s gravelly tone and Seong-Jae’s smooth, deep notes depicting them perfectly, and he completely nails their emotional connection, whether it’s in the sex scenes or in their banter or simply in the way they care for one another. We do get to spend a bit of time with some of the Baltimore gang in the book even though Mal and Seong-Jae are elsewhere, and the recurring characters – Sade, Anjulie and Gabi, for example – are all consistently voiced. I also liked that Mr. Bonnem adjusts his ‘narrator voice’ when he’s reading different PoVs, so that the narrative portions of the story sound different when they switch. I don’t hear narrators do that very often, so kudos!

The Golden Ratio is a gripping (and gruesome!) start to Criminal Intentions’ second season and I can’t wait to listen to the rest of it.

Just a reminder that this is Season Two of a long-running series, and that it’s essential to have read/listened to Season One first.

Frostbitten (Deep Ops #6) by Rebecca Zanetti (audiobook) – Narrated by Stephen Borne

This title may be downloaded from Audible via Amazon

Enigmatic. With a wildly gifted mind, and an untamed head of hair to match, petite powerhouse Millicent Frost is brilliant when it comes to gadgets and electronics—less so with people. After an attempt to bust a bank scam goes awry, Millie is in hot water with Homeland Security and targeted by lethal enemies. In the midst of the trouble, she heads home to help out with the family hunting and fishing business. But when their rival competitor and Millie’s ex is murdered, she’s the number one suspect . . .

Irresistible. Former Marine turned lawyer Scott Terentson devotes himself to getting his clients out of tricky binds. A loner, the last thing he wants is to belong to any team, yet the Deep Ops group considers him one of their own—and he pays the price by getting shot at by their enemies. Now Millie is seeking his help—just as he’s dealing with a brutal fail regarding a recent trial. Both are a headache, yet he’s drawn to Millie in spite of himself. They’re opposites, but maybe the old adage is true . . .

Electric. Working together, Millie and Scott soon have more on their hands than they bargained for as the danger escalates—along with the sizzling heat between them. And when a disappearance is thrown into the mix, all bets are off . . .

Rating: Narration – C+; Content – C

I’ve enjoyed listening to the five previous books in Rebecca Zanetti’s Deep Ops series of romantic suspense novels, so when I saw there was a sixth book on the way, I made a note to look for the audio. I was pleased to see there was going to be one, although sad to see that Roger Wayne wouldn’t be narrating it. He did such a great job in the other books and I knew he’d be a tough act to follow; his replacement, Stephen Borne, isn’t someone I’ve listened to before, but I’ve seen his name around quite a lot and Audible shows he has well over a hundred titles to his credit, mostly in romance and romantic suspense, so I thought I’d be in a safe pair of hands as far as the narration was concerned.

In my review of the previous book, Unforgiven, I made a comment as an aside that “I certainly wouldn’t mind more of Scott the hot lawyer” – and lo and behold, here he is! A former marine, Scott Terentsen now deals with bad guys through the courts, and in the previous book, he was shot when helping out the Deep Ops team on one of their operations. While he’s recovered physically, he’s still a bit of a mess on the inside and has been on autopilot ever since; his work keeps his mind agile, but he’s lost interest in it and just goes through the motions.

Millicent Frost has appeared in some of the previous books as a secondary character who has sometimes worked with the Deep Ops team. Her speciality is gadgetry – she’s often referred to as their version of James Bond’s “Q” – and when we meet her again here, she’s working undercover as an air conditioning engineer, planting surveillance equipment in the office of high-powered investment banker Werner Dearth. The same investment banker with whom Scott has an appointment. Millie is the last person he expects to see there, but he doesn’t blow her cover; after his meeting with the deeply unpleasant Dearth, he waits for Millie outside and then insists on driving her home while questioning her about what she was doing in that particular office. She can’t tell him anything – and unfortunately, their association creates a serious problem for the HDD a couple of months down the line when, during his divorce hearing, Dearth alleges that Millie and Scott were conspiring against him, which exposes the HDD’s investigation into his activities.

Millie is already on shaky ground with the HDD, and this could get her fired. But before she can worry about that too much, she gets a call from her brother, JT, telling her that their Aunt Mae – who brought them up – has had a heart attack. All Millie wants to do is get home to River City to be with Mae – but before she can make her way out of the courthouse, Dearth grabs her and threatens her: “I take out my enemies and you just became one. You won’t see me coming.”

The next time we see her, Millie is waking up in a room not her own, her head pounding, her mind groggy and her body naked. She looks down at herself to see blood on her chest – and then notices the man in her bed, an ex she hasn’t seen for years, together with a fishing knife of her own making, both of them covered in blood. The man is definitely dead and Millie has no idea of what is going on. She doesn’t remember coming home with him or getting into bed with him – she doesn’t remember anything of the previous day after she left Mae’s bedside at the hospital. The only thing she IS certain of is that she didn’t kill anyone.

Scott is surprised when he gets a call from the chief of police in Shalebrook County and even moreso when he learns that Millie is suspected of murder. Scott – accompanied by Roscoe (he’s dog sitting for Angus and Nari while they’re away in Europe) – drops everything and makes his way to the small town of River City to do whatever he can to help Millie to clear her name.

Frostbitten gets off to a great start, quickly bringing Scott and Millie back into each other’s orbits and setting up the mystery, but the story is nothing we haven’t seen/heard/read before, and the author doesn’t do anything to freshen up a very tired trope. Millie’s being this crazy-smart inventor-type is woefully underused – we never see her inventing anything new or having to cobble something together on the fly to get them out of a tricky situation, and honestly, she’s kinda dull. And for a supposedly intelligent guy, Scott does some really dumb stuff. Right at the beginning when he corners Millie outside the investment bank, he insists she gets into his car or he’ll make a scene. Seriously? A grown man and tough lawyer and he’ll make a scene if she doesn’t do as he says? And he never thought they might be caught on camera before they get inside? (Which is exactly what happens and tanks the HDD’s case.)

The story is overlong and overly busy, and the chemistry between Scott and Millie is barely lukewarm, so the romance falls completely flat. There’s no growth for either character (Scott still has largely untreated PTSD by the end) and apart from a late-book appearance from Wolfe, the Deep Ops team is largely absent which, as their camaraderie and interactions are some of the things that made the previous books so entertaining, left a really big hole. And the ending… no spoilers, but it made no sense.

Sadly, I can’t say that the narration helped make listening to Frostbitten less of a chore. Stephen Borne has a naturally deep voice with an attractive huskiness to it that is a good fit for the romantic suspense genre, but there’s a kind of monotonous quality to his performance that often had me zoning out and having to rewind. I checked to see if any of the Gals have reviewed him before – and while I agree with Kaetrin’s observation about his ability to differentiate well between male and female characters, the problem is that there’s a fairly large secondary cast here, and almost all the men sound the same, as do almost all the women. And he reads Scott’s dialogue in his ‘narrator voice’ so that it’s sometimes hard to tell if Scott is speaking or if Mr. Borne is reading a narrative passage. I doubt I’ll be rushing to listen to him again.

If this is the final book in the Deep Ops series, I’m afraid that Frostbitten ends it with a whimper rather than a bang, and I’m going to pretend the series ended with book five.

The Family Man (The Mind Hacker #1) by AJ Rose

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Special Agent Jon “Ice Man” Anderson is one of the FBI’s best monster hunters, catching predators using their darkness against them. It’s his purpose, and he’s relentless.

Rookie Special Agent Tracey Smith is Jon’s opposite, shining light in the shadows and counteracting the dark with hope. Together, they may be the perfect combination to catch The Family Man, a sniper terrorizing St. Louis, dealing death through the scope of a high-powered rifle.
They can’t afford distractions.

Jon can’t ignore the feelings Tracey has evoked.

Feelings he hasn’t allowed himself in years.

Jon’s not the only one compelled by Tracey…

In a city held hostage, the FBI races to stop the killing.

Before the sniper finds them,

And they lose everything.

Rating: B

The Family Man is a promising start to a new romantic suspense series, The Mind Hacker, from new-to-me author AJ Rose featuring a small team of special agents who work for the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit. There are a few stock-in-trade tropes here and the author sometimes gets bogged down with too much description and explanation, but I enjoyed the story overall. The action sequences are tense, the sex scenes are hot and the two leads are interesting and likeable. Their relationship is in the early stages here, but that’s pretty much what I expect from book one in a same-couple series, and the eventual HFN feels right and promises more to come.

Special Agent Tracey Smith is the youngest agent ever to join one of the FBI’s elite NCVAC (National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime) teams within the BAU. He might be young, but he knows he’s good at what he does and he’s no stranger to hard work, having worked as a police psychologist for three years while also earning his PhD. The small, four-person team he is assigned to is headed up by Supervisory Special Agent Jonathan Anderson, and Tracey has barely had time to get his feet under his desk when they, together with their colleagues Sarena Mercado and Perry Vaughn, are sent to St. Louis on the trail of a serial killer – a sniper – who is picking off victims seemingly at random and often in broad daylight.

I’m not going to say too much about the plot, save that it’s intricate, clever and well-executed, with some really tense moments that are nicely balanced with humour, character interaction and the slowly unfolding attraction between the two leads. The author has clearly done their research about the way the BAU works and what their role is within an investigation such as this one, but the downside of that is that there’s the odd step into a bit too much minutiae and an occasional ‘flabbiness’ in the pacing, but I appreciated the attention to detail for the most part.

The central pairing is something of a staple of procedurals – the old hand and the rookie. Jon is one of the BAU’s top agents and is enigmatic and inscrutable, nicknamed the ‘Ice Man’ because he’s so focused and tightly controlled. He’s an excellent mentor though – I really liked that he so strongly encourages Tracey to pursue a life outside the bureau for the sake of his personal well-being, and his willingness to let Tracey take the lead in certain areas of the investigation once he’s shown a real aptitude for them. Jon compartmentalises his life for a very good reason – some of the stuff he has to deal with is the sort of thing no human being should ever have to see – but it’s led to the break-down of his few personal relationships because his desire to keep his loved ones away from the darkness that is a part of his everyday life means they’ve felt he’s shutting them out. (I get it – but the profiler-who-feels-tainted-because-he-has-a-knack-for-getting-into-the-minds-of-killers is such an overdone stereotype.) Jon has resigned himself – for the time being – to casual hook-ups that don’t require any emotional investment, until the newest member of the team starts to get under his skin. But getting involved with a colleague – and a subordinate – is a very bad idea, and he is determined to keep his distance.

It doesn’t take long for Tracey to develop a serious case of hero worship over his mentor. Although when the man starts to appear in his dreams, he quickly works out that it’s not just Jon’s keen mind, work ethic or solve rate that is drawing him to the older man, and that he – Tracey – is clearly not as straight as he thought he was. It’s just a crush – or that’s all it can be, because the bureau’s fraternisation policy is very clear – but, sensing Jon’s deep loneliness, Tracey thinks maybe he can be what the other man might need in another way. A friend.

I really liked the progression of their romance. It’s a smoldering slow-burn with sexy almost-kisses and lots of longing – and it doesn’t feel implausible (there are no ‘we’re under fire so we must shag’ moments, here!) or get in the way of the plot. Jon and Tracey have strong chemistry and the author does a good job of developoing their emotional connection; they hook up a couple of times and the book ends on a firm HFN, but they still have a way to go – and things aren’t going to be easy because they’re going to have to keep everything on the downlow at work if they’re going to try having an actual relationship.

I liked both characters a lot – there’s a bit of a grumpy/sunushine vibe going on and they’re very different in many ways, but the intellectual and emotional connections they form feel very real. I enjoyed the secondary characters and their chemistry and interactions, too – Sarena and Perry are not just window dressing and are important to the investigation. One niggle, though – I was surprised at finding out that Jon is thirty-five, because that seemed young for him to have the experience and the seniority that he has; I’d expected him to be early forties at least. Maybe the author didn’t want a big age gap between the leads (Tracey is twenty-eight), but having Jon ten or twelve years older would have felt more realistic.

Despite my criticisms, I was pretty much glued to The Family Man from start to finish, and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new romantic suspense series to try.

This review originally appeared at All About Romance.

Curio by C.S. Poe

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Llewellyn Cooper and his aunt Julia run Curio Cabinet in New York City’s West Village, where the clientele is as strange as the junk being amassed in their secondhand shop. Llewellyn and Julia have been as thick as thieves his entire life, and Llewellyn can’t imagine being anywhere else six days a week—even if Julia’s bizarre habits and inappropriate conversations drive him crazy. That’s family, though, right?

When Llewellyn drums up the nerve to chat with a routine customer—in part due to curiosity, as Henry McLaughlin returns time and again to purchase nothing but old photographs, but also because the bearded and bow tie–wearing man is the finest thing to ever step foot inside Curio—it seems like Llewellyn will finally have a plus-one for future RSVPs. But just when things start looking up in the romance department, it turns out Henry might be too strange for the Cooper family.

And that’s saying something.

Rating: B+

C.S. Poe’s Curio is a superbly-crafted little gem. The author packs a lot of story and characterisation into a mere sixty pages – it made me smile and sigh and swoon during the less-than-an-hour it took me to read it.

Llewellyn – Lew – Cooper helps his wonderfully eccentric aunt Julia (“Remember the summer you took up performance art in the park and destroyed all your panties in front of picnicking families?” “It was art, Lew. I was making a statement.”) to run the Curio Cabinet, a small second-hand odds-and-ends shop in the West Village. For months now, a good-looking, well-built, well-dressed man Lew and Julia have nicknamed “Professor Bow Tie” has been coming in regularly to look through the thousands of old photographs they have in the shop, occasionally buying a few; Lew would love to know what he does with them and his name – and maybe even to ask him out – but after so many months…

…we’d blown past that window of opportunity in which to make small talk.

It was too late to ask his name.

We’d have to keep up the gauche silence for every visit until either he or I died first.

Although it seems Lew’s mouth is way ahead of his brain, because, amid an awkward spew of verbiage about his aunt’s fondness for potatoes and a cannibal murder-mystery from the 1980s, he does, in fact, ask for Professor Bow Tie’s name. It’s Henry.

Julia insists that Lew and Henry would make a great couple, although Lew thinks he’s probably scared the guy off with all the verbal vomit, especially after telling him he was intimidated by his beard. But fortunately, for Lew, Henry isn’t easily put off, and after a rather lovely first date, it’s clear that Julia was right and that they really are a good fit.

There’s a little bit of mystery, a touch of steam, plenty of humour, and a rather poignant story at the bottom of Henry’s fascination with old photographs to be found here, as well as glimpses of the author’s always impeccable research and knowledge of her home city. Curio was a joy to read – an entertaining story featuring loveable, quirky characters (Aunt Julia is Da Bomb!) and the beginnings of a tender, caring romance between Lew and Henry. If you’ve got an hour to kill – or if you just want a quick but satisfying read – I urge you to give Curio a try.

Where All Paths Meet (The Adventures of Holloway Holmes #3) by Gregory Ashe (Audiobook) – Narrated by Greg Tremblay

This title may be downloaded from Audible via Amazon

Holmeses. Moriartys. Adlers. What’s a Watson to do?

When Jack Moreno receives an anonymous invitation to the Zodiac anniversary gala, he’s inclined to ignore it. His best friend (and more), Holloway Holmes, vanished from his life five months ago, and Jack has no desire to bump into Holloway’s terrifying father, Blackfriar. But included with the invitation is an offer Jack can’t refuse: the promise that he’ll learn what really happened to his mother.

At the gala, an anonymous text sends Jack on a collision course with an amateur thief and, more importantly, with Holmes. Together, they must race to recover what the thief has stolen—information not only about Jack’s mom, but about the Holmes family. Information that could bring down Blackfriar’s empire.

By the time they reach the thief, though, she’s dead, and the stolen information is missing. To recover it, Jack and Holmes will have to learn who killed her. But other people, powerful people, are searching for the information too, and someone has already tried to kill Jack once. He’ll need luck and quick thinking to stay alive. And, of course, he needs Holloway Holmes.

Rating: Narration – A; Content – A

Note: This review contains spoilers for the previous books in the series.

Where All Paths Meet is the exciting finale to The Adventures of Holloway Holmes – an intricate, gripping mystery entwined with a heartfelt and endearingly sweet romance – which sees our heroes up to their necks in trouble again as the author pulls together all the plotlines he’s threaded through the series so far – so you need to have listened to the previous books before tackling this one –

At the end of The Old Wheel, Jack discovered that he’s actually a Watson (on his mother’s side) and that Holloway had been keeping it a secret from him, which led to a huge row and to Holloway completely disappearing from Jack’s life. Time hasn’t healed any wounds and five months later, Jack is still a mess of emotions; angry at Holloway for keeping secrets, angry at himself for falling for it – and for him – hurt and upset at the way Holloway just cut him out of his life so easily, and miserable without him.

Then, completely out of the blue, Jack receives an invitation to an event at Zodiac (a multinational tech corporation in which Blackfriar Holmes is the major shareholder and CEO, and Maggie Moriarty is the chief of AI), which encloses a note saying: “Come if you want to know the truth about your mother.” No way is Jack going to pass up the opportunity to find out the truth about his mother’s death or about what he now realises were several attempts on his own life over the past few months. After he arrives, he quickly finds himself confronted by the Holmeses – Blackfriar, his icily beautiful and enigmatic wife and Holloway’s sister, Noneley – and as they drift away, he receives an anonymous text telling him to go to Maggie Moriarty’s office straight away. Still hoping to receive the information he’s been offered, he’s just exited the elevator when the power goes out. As he’s making his way cautiously along the corridor in the dim emergency lighting, a young woman carrying something small in one hand hurries past him and crashes through the fire exit door; after she disappears, Jack enters Maggie’s office to see a figure standing on her desk and then notices the open wall safe. The thief runs; Jack gives chase and corners them, but in the tussle that ensues finds himself caught in a very painful – and very familiar – wrist lock.

There’s no time to savour their reunion or for Jack to let out all his months of pent-up frustration by having a good yell at Holloway because shouts from above are followed by bullets and the shriek of alarms. It’s not until they’ve managed to evade their pursuers and are once again on the road in Jack’s beat-up old truck that he unleashes his anger and demands an explanation. And, at last – and in bits and pieces – Holmes tells Jack the truth. That before Sarah Watson was killed, she’d left something important (Holmes doesn’t know what) in a portable safe with instructions that Jack should open it; that he’d hidden the safe in Jack’s room from where it had been stolen; that he was at Zodiac that night to steal it back… and Jack realises what the woman who’d passed him in the corridor earlier must have been carrying. They head to her apartment to see if they can retrieve the safe only to discover it missing and the woman dead – murdered, but staged to look like a suicide.

Once again, Jack and Holloway have got themselves tangled up in something dark and dangerous, going up against powerful people who will stop at nothing to prevent them from finding and revealing the truth. The mystery contains all the author’s trademarks; it’s clever and twisty and gut-wrenching, but the beating heart of these stories is the relationship between Jack and Holloway, the depth of the affection and love between them leaping from every page. But even though they fall back into their established patterns fairly quickly – Jack teases and talks shit, Holloway blushes and takes things too literally – there’s a new tension to their relationship, the cause of which can be summed up in one word – Blackfriar. Jack knows he’s responsible for Sarah Watson’s murder and suspects he’s responsible for many others, including that of his mother; he’s seen what Blackfriar has done to his son, how his insistence on perfection and control has forced Holloway to become a ruthlessly efficient, emotionless shell which, without Jack’s humanising influence, he would probably have continued to be. But whenever Jack voices his suspicions, Holloway shuts him down; he believes that his father has his best interests at heart and has been so hard on him to help him to eliminate his weaknesses. It’s tough to hear, especially when it puts them at odds; Holloway – perhaps understandably – is unable or unwilling to see himself as a victim of abuse, and it’s heartbreaking to see Jack so desperately wanting to help him and Holloway stubbornly refusing to be helped – especially as we know that Holloway is too intelligent not to see the truth and is clinging to his beliefs because to believe otherwise would hurt too much.

Jack and Holloway are fascinating, loveable characters, Jack’s humour, honesty and big heart providing the perfect foil for Holloway’s logical mind and tight control. They’re smart and funny and kind and screwed-up, but although they’ve been through things that have forced them to grow up quickly, the author juxtaposes that early maturity with typically teenaged antics (on Jack’s part) or innocence (on Holloway’s) that reminds us they’re still in that weird space between adolescence and adulthood. And even after serious disagreements and heartbreaking betrayals, there’s no question that they’re devoted to each other or that they make each other better – just as every Holmes and Watson have done for each other over the decades.

Greg Tremblay is always good, but it seems to me that this series has afforded him the opportunity to really exercise his acting chops – not only because of the large number of characters and the different accents involved, but because so much of the heavy lifting in these stories is done by the emotions. Jack’s rage and anguish over Holmes’ abandonment are visceral and the vulnerability he works so hard to hide is closer to the surface than ever and very present in his voice; Holmes’ speech – which was stilted and almost robotic when we first met him – is more frequently infused with emotion and frustration, and Mr. Tremblay does a magnificent job with his portrayal of Jack’s dad later in the book – a terrified father desperate to keep his son safe but furious with him at the same time. The performance is perfectly paced, superbly acted and absolutely spot on in every single respect.

I admit that I wasn’t convinced this series would be for me before I started it. YA isn’t a genre I usually enjoy and I’ve never been a big Sherlock fan, but I am a Gregory Ashe fan and he hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Where All Paths Meet is an exhilarating and compelling finale to The Adventures of Holloway Holmes – and keen-eared listeners will no doubt have picked on a couple of hints that there may be more stories to come for this Holmes and his Watson. I’ll definitely be here for them.

This review originally appeared at AudioGals.

The Evening Wolves (Iron on Iron #4) by Gregory Ashe

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Every victory comes at a cost.

The trail has gone cold. For months now, Emery Hazard and John-Henry Somerset have been trying to find something—anything—that might help them uncover the truth about the criminal organization operating out of the Cottonmouth Club. But every lead has turned out to be a dead end, and every step forward has cost them two steps back.

Until, one night, John-Henry is arrested for a terrible crime.

As their friends gather again in Wahredua, Emery and John-Henry must rush to prove John-Henry’s innocence. The falsified evidence used to implicate him provides them with fresh clues, but as the charges against John-Henry ripple out into the community, they find themselves without their usual resources, and facing new and unexpected opposition.

Putting an end to this evil, they discover, might be possible.

All it will cost them is everything.

Rating: A

Gregory Ashe brings his compelling Iron on Iron series to a close with The Evening Wolves, a gripping and gut-wrenching read that ties up the overarching plot while also circling back round to where-it-all-began for our beloved Hazard and Somerset.

The story picks up several months after the events of The Spoil of Beasts, when it looked as though the guys were never going to get to the bottom of exactly what was going on at the Cottonmouth Club. Someone – who always seemed to be one step ahead – had been doing an exceptionally good job of cleaning up and disposing of any loose ends and the trail had gone cold. And then, one day just before Christmas, John-Henry is accused of being in possession of child pornography, and arrested. Obviously, he’s been set up, and obviously it’s somehow tied to their investigations into the trafficking operations run out of the club – but with no real leads, how is Emery (and, by extension, North, Shaw, Theo, Auggie, Tean and Jem) going to prove it and find out who is behind it all?

This is very much a Somers book (which suited me down to the ground because while I love Hazard, John-Henry Somerset has always held a special place in my bookish heart) – and it’s a tough one. He’s come such a long way since we first met him in Pretty Pretty Boys, and in this series in particular, he’s shown just how good he is at what he does, treading a very fine line between being chief of police, husband, father and friend (especially when some of those friends are somewhat… lively.) But he’s always known, deep down, that he’s led a charmed life – courtesy of his parents’ wealth and position, and the good looks and charisma that have always bailed him out of the tight spots he got himself into – and wrestles with a tightly-lidded sense of self-loathing because of how easily he’s been able to coast through life. So when he’s accused of a truly horrendous crime there’s a little voice lurking at the back of his mind telling him that now he’s paying the price for all those years of using his privilege and popularity to get away with all the shit he pulled.

I’ve said several times in reviews that one of the (many) things that continues to impress me about this author’s work is the way he continues to find new ways to explore an established romantic relationship and to have his characters working through things in a completely organic way, because the issues that arise are never manufactured and are always there because of who the characters are. After thirteen full-length H&S books, several novellas and short stories, and the four books in this series, this still holds true for Emery and John-Henry, and in this novel, with his life crumbling around his ears, Somers is forced to examine what it means to be John-Henry Somerset in ways he has never done before, to think about the man he was raised to be, the man he’s needed to be and the man he wants to be. The high point of the story is the way it revisits – with a more mature, experienced perspective – Emery and John-Henry’s origin story, while also showing how they’ve grown as men and as a couple.

My heart broke for John-Henry as his deepest fears become reality and he goes from respected and well-liked member of the community to pariah overnight. His sense of self, his career and his reputation are in tatters, and the author’s descriptions of his feelings of despair and helplessness are intense. But despite the pressure this brings to their relationship, his and Emery’s love and commitment to one another doesn’t waver. Seeing them working together so seamlessly was one of my favourite things about their first story arc, so it was wonderful to see them slipping so easily back into that dynamic.

Of course, as soon as the news reaches North and Shaw and Jem and Tean, they all make their way back to Wahredua to do whatever it takes to prove John-Henry’s innocence and support him and Emery however they can. Their interactions bring some much needed lightness and love to the story, and as has been the case throughout the series, the scenes that feature all eight of them are an absolute delight. I love seeing the smaller groups and pairings – North teasing Auggie, the quiet, introspective moments between Emery and Tean… these guys have become family and you just know that they’re going to be a constant part of each others lives from now on.

(And that scene near the end with Emery and …. (spoiler!) was completely unexpected and breathtakingly brilliant.)

The Evening Wolves is painful to read at times – the emotions are raw and close to the surface and it was very hard to read about someone as essentially decent and kind as John-Henry going through what he goes through in this book – but it’s completely gripping and had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It’s an outstanding finale to what has been an absolutely fantastic series.

Solstice (Lake Prophet Mysteries #1) by Eli Easton & R.J. Scott

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Gabriel is a former undercover cop haunted by the things he’s seen and done. He returns to his small hometown of Prophet, taking on the role of sheriff, hoping to mend his fractured relationship with his estranged brother and rebuild his life. But when a chilling murder occurs at Sentinel Rocks, a sacred Makah site on Lake Prophet, Gabriel’s dreams of peace and reconciliation are shattered.

Gabriel navigates a web of intrigue, where suspects abound; from local tribal elders to fervent Solstice worshippers and even those hunting the elusive Big Foot. When the brutal murder leaves Duke, a loyal Labrador retriever, as the sole witness, Gabriel stumbles upon an unexpected ally—a local animal behaviorist named Tiber.

Tiber, a newcomer to Prophet, seeks refuge in this remote haven, attempting to escape his own inner demons. Armed with his extraordinary ability to communicate with animals, he offers his expertise through video consultations, helping pet owners with their beloved companions. While he attributes his skill to his academic background, his intuition and flashes of insight owe as much to his Navajo heritage as to science.

With the relentless rain washing away sins and good intentions alike, Gabriel and Tiber must begin to confront their own vulnerabilities and unravel the truth.

Rating: B-

I’ve become a fan of Eli Easton’s over the past couple of years, and although I wasn’t wowed by RJ Scott’s foray into romantic suspense (the Lancaster Falls series), I decided to give this first book in their new Lake Prophet Mysteries collaboration a go. I enjoyed Solstice on the whole – the mystery plot isn’t especially complex and the bad guy is telegraphed a mile off, but having an animal behaviourist as one of the leads is unusual and I liked that the mystery has a slightly different angle as a result.

Gabriel Thompson, a former undercover cop in LA, has returned to the hometown he left after his religious father disowned him when he came out as gay. He’s still haunted by the time he spent deep undercover and the things he had to do – many of them things he isn’t allowed to talk about. He’s returned home to Prophet in search of a quieter life, and in hopes of repairing his fractured relationship with the two younger brothers he left behind when he walked out – one of whom, Ezra, was only ten. Ezra is now in college, but the middle brother, Sam, is full of boiling resentment towards Gabriel, who left him to deal with their increasingly difficult father as well as to run the family business single-handed.

The mystery kicks off when the dead body of a park ranger is discovered in the nearby national park, spread-eagled with an X carved into his chest. Any potential forensic evidence has been washed away by the rain, and the only witness to the crime seems to be the man’s traumatised golden labrador, Duke, who appears to be standing guard, but runs into the undergrowth whenever anyone approaches him. Gabriel is directed to Tiber Russo, a specialist in animal behaviour who lives on the outskirts of town and who has, in the months since he came to Prophet, pretty much kept himself to himself.

The pacing is leisurely, but I didn’t mind that because I liked the characters and getting to know a bit more about them. There’s just a hint of romance here, but I’m used to same-couple romantic mysteries so I wasn’t expecting a full-on HEA (and I’m glad there isn’t one because that would have been completely wrong in context). Tiber is extremely cautious about letting someone into his life again after getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship; he’s become something of a recluse, surrounded by his animal menagerie, and although he’s attracted to Gabriel, he doesn’t want to be. Gabriel is similarly smitten and would love to be more than friends, but despite a passionate make-out session late in the book, Tiber insists on their staying firmly in the friend-zone.

The very light supernatural element – can Tiber read animals’ minds because of his Navajo heritage? – feels a bit hokey and unnecessary, but otherwise, Solstice was an easy read and I liked it enough to continue with the series.

No Angels Wept (Angelo Perotta Mysteries #2) by Frank Spinelli

This title may  be purchased from Amazon

In this arresting second installment of Angelo Perrotta Mysteries, Angelo agrees to appear on the widely controversial satellite radio crime show, A Thorny Mess, to recount his tragic first year in private practice.

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he becomes entangled in a string of murders at the hands of the No Angels Wept Killer.

An investigation leads him to Doctor Reverend James Jarrett, the spiritual leader of the Seven Spirits Church. A man the LA Times called “effusively charming” and a “psychiatric chameleon.”

When Angelo’s boyfriend, Jason Murphy, joins him in LA, they decide to confront the reverend after learning his congregation is luring unhoused gay youth to their shelter under false pretenses. Then, a shocking discovery uncovers a conspiracy more depraved that either could have imagined.

Rating: B-

I really enjoyed Frank Spinelli’s Perfect Flaw, a compelling mystery featuring a somewhat naive young doctor whose dream job quickly turned into a nightmare when his ambition and insecurities caused him to overlook some very serious flaws in the people around him to such an extent that he almost tanked his career. Angelo was a complex and engaging protagonist whose mistakes made him relateable (even as I wanted to smack some sense into him!), the book tackled some serious issues around healthcare in the US and the author did a great job of building the suspense and slowly injecting a growing sense of unease throughout the story.

Two years later, Angelo is still working in New York and living with his boyfriend, cop Jason Murphy, but is still struggling to deal with the guilt he continues to feel over the murder of Mia Garcia, one of his first patients at the Stanzione practice (Perfect Flaw). In the intervening time, he’s become somewhat obsessed with the the serial murderer the media has dubbed the “No Angels Wept Killer”, who has been targeting gay sex workers in LA. So when he’s approached by the producer of a well-known radio show/podcast and asked to talk about the murders, he jumps at the chance and prepares to fly out to LA, even though it means leaving Jason behind. (I had to ask myself why Angelo would have to fly all the way across the country for this – surely he could have hopped on Zoom or gone to a local studio and done the interview down the line!)

The show – A Thorny Mess – is presented by self-proclaimed “patron saint of the invisible LGBTQ+ community” Rocky Thorn, a shock-jock who is incredibly rude, extremely aggressive and completely full of herself. She ignores Angelo throughout the show and when she does finally speak to him, she asks him outright about the one thing he’d said he wasn’t willing to talk about – Mia Garcia’s death. By this time, Angelo has had enough and prepares to walk out, but not before he’s made his feelings clear on air – but afterwards, Thorn and the show’s prodicer, Wes, are so pleased with his take-no-crap attitude that they ask him to stay on as co-host for a couple of weeks. Angelo is torn – on the one hand, he wants to go home to Jason, who is currently on sick leave following an injury sustained during a chase. On the other, he can’t help being intruged by the mystery, and has a strong desire to help to maintain public awareness of the case and perhaps even to help solve it and get justice for the victims. When Jason unexpectedly shows up in LA, it starts to become clear that perhaps the NAW killer has a wider reach than Angelo had originally thought, and when the name of one particular evangelical church keeps cropping up during the investivation, Angelo takes a harder look at its founder – a former scientist and renowned ‘expert’ on conversion therapy – and it isn’t long before he’s being told, in no uncertain terms, to back off.

Like its predecessor, No Angels Wept deals with some difficult issues and contains a well-conceived, well-executed mystery with plenty of twists and turns and red herrings, but the character work just didn’t gel for me as well here. While Angelo has acquired a better sense of self-awareness over the past couple of years and thinks things through more than before, he’s still prone to making poor decisions, and the author once again does a very good job of conveying his increasing confusion. Angelo’s need to see justice done for the murder victims makes absolute sense – but the one element of the story that really didn’t work for me is fact that he considers Rocky and Wes (the show’s producer) his friends. The request for him to co-host the podcast because of how well he and Rocky gelled on air is ridiculous given that she does little but ignore and insult him. The three of them hardly know each other, yet within days – hours even – are calling themselves the “three amigos” and acting as though they’re ride-or-dies in their determination to get to the bottom of the murders. We’re in Angelo’s head for the whole story and it’s clear that he’s not completely comfortable around them, so I couldn’t understand why he would feel any sense of loyalty towards these people (especially after Rocky physically assaults him!) and I just did not buy that they were friends of any stripe.

Despite the slightly implausible set up and the fact that I disliked Wes and thought Rocky was certifiable (!), I enjoyed the story – it’s clever, well-paced and suspenseful, with a nail-biter of a climax. There are a few implausibly ‘jumped-to’ conclusions and the couple of sex scenes are pretty clunky (fade-to-black might have worked better), but the mystery is gripping and kept me eagerly turning the pages.

Julian and the Ghosts of Moorcliffe Hall by Rowan McAllister

This title may be purchased from Amazon

A crumbling manor house by the sea. A taciturn, enigmatic earl. Things that go bump in the night. What could be more diverting?

North Devon, 1889

Forced to flee London ahead of a scandal that won’t die, Julian Clere’s hopes of a winter idyll on the continent are severely hampered by a decided lack of funds. Yet, instead of taking pity on him, his aunt, Lady Viola, decides it’s high time Julian made himself useful to the family by sending him to the aid of a struggling, newly-ennobled distant relation.

Christmas in a country house at the seaside shouldn’t be too terrible, should it? Even if he might have to work for his supper.

Except Moorcliffe Hall is barely fit for habitation. The locals refuse to go anywhere near the place after dark. His erstwhile host, Lord Hugh Bingham, Earl of Excombe, hasn’t spoken more than two civil words to him since his arrival. And Julian has the strangest feeling something in the house doesn’t want him there.

Why are ghosts and handsome, brooding earl’s so much more romantic in the stories?

Julian only wants to prove he’s more than just a pretty face with excellent taste in clothing. But when Hugh finally allows Julian within his walls, other wants and desires he’d thought dead and long-buried resurface. Hugh and Moorcliffe Hall could be the keys to a new life and everything he’d ever yearned for… if the manor and its secrets don’t kill him first.

Rating: A-

Julian and the Ghosts of Moorcliffe Hall contains all the right ingredients for an entertaining and atmospheric gothic romance. A remote, dilapidated mansion? Check. Things going ‘bump’ in the night? Check. A gruff, taciturn (and handsome) earl? Check. A wide-eyed, innocent protagonist? Er… not quite, but the subversion of that particular trope gives our narrator a far more entertaining and amusing perspective than you’ll get from your average gothic ingénue.

In November of 1889, Mr Julian Clere is dispatched to the North Devon coast in order to avoid being caught up in a scandal in London. He’d much rather have weathered the storm in warmer climes, but he can’t afford to travel overseas, so his formidable great-aunt Viola, dowager Duchess of Leeds, comes up with the idea that he should make himself useful to a distant cousin who has recently inherited a title and the crumbing estate that goes with it. Hugh Bingham, now the ninth Earl of Excombe, has spent his entire adult life in the East Indies and has only recently arrived in England, where he has few – if any – connections. The dowager has the perfect solution to both their problems – Excombe will need a friend and help setting everything to rights about the estate, and Julian needs to be somewhere quiet and out of the way where nobody knows him for a while and where he can use the opportunity to take stock and think about his future. Julian recognises that his fate is sealed – and supposes a seaside holiday isn’t the worst thing in the world.

After spending an uncomfortable night at a dodgy inn in Ilfracombe because no coachman would drive him to Moorcliffe Hall after dark, Julian sets out the next day in a raging storm, hoping for some home comforts when he arrives. Those visions of a good fire and a warm bath disappear when he sees the overgrown, long-neglected gardens and at his first sight of the hulking Jacobean structure with its dark mullioned windows framed in dirty grey stone and the choking brown vines that have all but taken over the façade. There are no lights inside, and Julian is on the point of telling the coachman to turn back when one of the enourmous double doors swings open and a grizzled-looking man, dressed in grey plaid rather than in servants’ livery, comes down the steps. After a brief exchange, the coachman takes Julian’s trunks inside as Julian huddles down into his cloak and scuttles towards the door, only narrowly avoiding a falling roof-tile landing on his head before he goes inside.

The man in grey introduces himself as Dougal, the butler, and tells Julian that the earl is currently out on some estate business. As Dougal escorts Julian through the house and to a guest chamber on the first floor, Julian can’t help shivering at the draft which has somehow found its way under his greatcoat as the storm continues to buffet the outside. Then he hears a strange sound, a faint, melancholy wail, from deeper in the house, which makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Dougal suggests it’s just the wind – but Julian isn’t convinced. After Dougal has left to go and see about some hot water, Julian is pondering his clothing choices when a loud bang startles him – and when he goes into the hallway to see if he can work out where it came from, he hears that wailing sound again.

That evening, Julian joins his host for dinner in the great hall. The new earl cuts rather a romantic figure and Julian certainly likes what he sees – but unfortunately it seems Excombe’s personality isn’t as attractive as his looks, because he’s gruff and taciturn and clearly resents Julian’s presence. With his every attempt at conversation rebuffed, Julian has to work to maintain his pleasant demeanour – but when Excombe disdainfully asks what good the Dowager thinks Julian can do there, Julian has had enough. The epitome of scorned, icy politeness, he coldly bids his host goodnight – and plans to leave in the morning.

Well, of course Julilan ends up staying at the Hall, and it doesn’t take him long to discern that there’s a deep vulnerability and loneliness lurking beneath Excombe’s – Hugh’s – often brusque and moody exterior, and to become intensely drawn to him. After an eerie turn of events that sees Julian come dramatically to Hugh’s rescue, the earl’s attitude towards him begins to soften and he admits that he really does need Julian’s help. Together, they begin working to set the estate to rights and unravel the mysteries that have plagued Moorcliffe and its inhabitants for so long, and in doing so, find a very real companionship in each other. The pacing is leisurely and the book is perhaps a hundred pages or so longer than the average romance novel, but this is a slow-burn romance of the very best kind because Rowan McAllister allows her protagonists time to really get to know each other, to build a genuine friendship and then to fall deeply in love. I never felt bored or as though I wanted things to speed up because I was so engrossed in the story and the development of the romance; the mystery is detailed and well thought-out, and the author slowly ramps up the tension surrounding the supernatural elements of the story, incorporating some really spooky moments as new discoveries are unearthed. She also does a fantastic job when it comes to creating a pervsively creepy atmosphere – so much so that the house is almost like another character in the story. It’s gloomy and poorly maintained, which could explain all the drafts and creaks and thumps, but knowing the servants won’t stay in the house overnight and remembering how nobody was willing to journey there after dark finds Julian seriously contemplating the idea that the place is haunted or cursed. And the more he learns about the house and the history of the family who lived there, the more convinced he is that that is the case – and the clearer it becomes that one of the spirits is determined to remove him from the picture for good.

As I said at the beginning, while Julian’s character is sort of cast in the role of the beautiful newcomer who is attracted to the broody lord of the manor, he doesn’t entirely fit that role. He’s young and handsome, yes, but is far from innocent and virginal; he’s lived something of a debauched life, and as a second son, is in somewhat straightened circumstances until his next allowance arrives, which is why he ends up in Devon and not the South of France! He’s intelligent, good-natured and quick-witted, but has never really had much of a purpose in life, until he comes to Moorcliffe and realises he actually can do something to help – and not only that, but he’s good at it. I liked him a lot – he’s self-aware and upbeat and not easily cowed, with a nice line in witty asides:

“Had I but guessed I was travelling to the House of Usher, I might have chosen a different jacket.”

Julian is the PoV character throughout, but the author does a good job of presenting Hugh through Julian’s eyes, and showing how his attraction grows through little signs we can see that Julian misses. He is, perhaps, not quite as well defined a character as Julian, but he’s a good man and obviously head-over-heels for him. Their chemistry and connection grow in a believable way and they’re a good match. (One teeny niggle – Julian is supposedly the second son of a baronet, but the author later says his father is a viscount.)

It’s been a while since I’ve read a gothic romance, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Julian and the Ghosts of Moorcliffe Hall is vastly entertaining – a great combination of tender romance and intriguing mystery full of ghosts and dark secrets, and I was glued to it from the first page to the last.

This review originally appeared at All About Romance.

A Power Unbound (The Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Jack Alston – Lord Hawthorn – would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. He renounced magic after the death of his twin sister. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual risking every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping its owner Violet track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross. Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. He’s loud in his hatred of the aristocracy and their unearned power . . . and unfortunately, he happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable magic power comes to a head on Jack’s own family estate, Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets and bloody sacrifice – and the foundations of magic in Britain might be torn up by the roots before the end.

Rating: B+

A Power Unbound is the third and final book in Freya Marske’s imaginative fantasy trilogy, The Last Binding, set in an alternative Edwardian England in which the existence of magic is carefully concealed from those who do not have it. Each book has followed a different couple to their HEA/HFN, but the plot is overarching, so I would suggest reading at least one of the other books before jumping into this one. (I confess I haven’t read book two, but I was able to follow this one without too much trouble.) There’s a lot riding on this final instalment; the author has to tie up all the plotlines, make sure the Bad Guys are defeated and write a believable romance for a new couple, and I’m pleased to be able to say that Freya Marske does all that with aplomb.

Note: There are spoilers for the earlier books in this review.

The trilogy’s plot revolves around the search for three magical items – a coin, a cup and a knife – that, together, are the physical symbol of the Last Contract, the bargain forged between humans and the fae which left magic in the hands of humans before the fae left the human world for good. The three items have been hidden separately, and in A Marvellous Light, Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey discovered that someone was intent on finding them and using them to construct a spell that could draw every last drop of magical power from every magician in the land, and relocate it into the hands of a select few. Robin and Edwin were able to locate the coin, only to have it stolen from them by Edwin’s brother, Walter, who not only works for the organisation that governs magical society, but is also part of the plot to invoke the Last Contract. The plotline in book two concerned the search for the cup, which is now in the possession of Maud Blyth (Robin’s sister) and Violet Debenham, and this story kicks off with our heroes trying to work out where the knife may be hidden so they can get to it before their enemies do.

Since their shipboard adventures in A Restless Truth, Maud and Violet have set up home in Spinet House, the enchanted dwelling Violet has inherited, and have roped in Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, (who was also on their voyage) to live there, too, as a kind of bodyguard. We met Jack in A Marvellous Light, when he came across as a bit of an arsehole; grumpy, broody and enigmatic, he wasn’t pleased at being asked for help after Robin was cursed and insisted he couldn’t help before showing Robin and Edwin the door. But he was telling the truth – after the death of his twin sister as the result of a magical experiment gone badly wrong (and which stole much of his own magic from him) Jack turned his back on the magical community and has, for the past sixteen years, lived the life of a ‘normal’ aristocrat. He wants nothing to do with magic, but has found himself reluctantly dragged back into its orbit courtesy of, first of all, Robin’s curse, and then becoming involved with Maud and Violet’s murder mystery aboard ship. And now, he’s in the thick of trying to keep the pieces of the Last Contract from being found by his cousin George – whom he holds responsible for his sister’s death – and Edwin’s brother, who want to use them to ‘siphon’ and redistribute magical power according to their own wishes.

And disagreeable as all that is, even more disagreeable is the involvement of journalist Alanzo Rossi – aka Alan Ross – whom Jack finds both maddeningly annoying and maddeningly attractive. Alan is Jack’s complete opposite, a working man from an Italian immigrant family who works hard for every scrap he gets and will do whatever needs to be done to keep his family safe, housed, and fed. As far as Alan is concerned, Lord Hawthorn is just another arrogant, overprivileged prick in a society full of them and he makes no bones about making Jack aware of exactly what he thinks of him. But right from the start, it’s clear that Alan is Jack’s match in wit and intelligence; their chemistry leaps off the page, their back-and-forth barbs and banter zing, and I loved their snarky dynamic. Thrown together to help prevent the destruction of the magical world while they strike sparks off each other and are not at all happy about it, it’s just a matter of time before all that lovely sexual tension boils over into some of the steamiest scenes of the series. Jack and Alan take their established power differential into the bedroom in a fully consensual way that absolutely works for them both, and I loved that they don’t stop sniping at each other even as it’s becoming clear to them that maybe there’s something more going on between them than just the slaking of mutual lust. I liked that the author addresses the class-differences between them head-on, and it was a delight to see these two strong, stubborn men learning to let each other in. Ms. Marske does a great job of using the sex scenes to illuminate moments of growing intimacy, trust and character development.

While Jack and Alan are the romantic focus of the story, the continuation of the plot is more of an ensemble affair, as they’re joined by the couples from the previous books – Edwin and Robin, Maud and Violet – and the redoubtable Miss Morrissey, all of whom have important parts to play in the story, and all of whom feel like fully fleshed-out individuals with their own weaknesses and strengths that are important to the story, rather than just a series of for-the-sake-of-it cameos. I really liked the found family aspect of the story, and watching Jack slowly allowing himself to make room for new relationships in his life as he comes to terms with the changes in his magical identity. The author builds the tension steadily throughout as the stakes become higher and the story takes a dark, dramatic turn before heading into a thrilling showdown which could change the magical world forever.

I really enjoyed the book, although there are a couple of things that pulled my final grade down just a little. The pacing, while generally swift, drags occasionally, and the climactic scene near the end has so much going on that I found it hard to keep track of it all, and it feels rushed. And there are some parts of the magic system that could have done with a bit more explanation and/or exploration.

Even so, A Power Unbound is a compelling combination of high-stakes, complex plot and snarky, sexy romance that provides a thrilling conclusion to The Last Binding series. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for whatever Freya Marske comes up with next.

This review originally appeared at All About Romance.