Tere Michaels - Love and Loyalty

Seattle Homicide Detective Jim Shea never takes work home with him—until now. A judge banged his gavel, declared a defendant not guilty, and laid waste to a family. The emotional fallout of the trial leaves Jim vulnerable and duty-bound to the victim’s dying father.
It’s that man’s story that screenwriter Griffin Drake and his best friend, actress Daisy Baylor, see as their ticket out of action blockbusters and into more serious fare. But to get the juicy details, Griffin needs to win over the stoic and protective Detective Shea. Their attraction is immediate, and Daisy encourages Griffin to use it to their advantage: secure the man, secure the story. Neither man has had much luck when it comes to love, and when their one night together evolves into a long weekend of rapidly intensifying feelings, both Griffin’s fierce loyalty to Daisy and his very career is put to the test.
Because the more Griffin is drawn into a new life with Jim, the more his Hollywood life falls apart. Secrets and broken trust threaten Griffin’s relationships, and he’ll have to choose between telling the truth or writing a Hollywood ending. 

Comment: I've read the first book in this series almost two years ago and after finishing, I knew I'd eventually read this sequel too, considering how interesting the character of Jim was, even if he only appeared for a little while.

This sequel has him as a protagonist and I had hopes to see how he would be developed.

In this book we follow Jim Shea, a 45 year old cop who leads a very lonely life despite his small group of friends. Jim is very dedicated to his job and all the concerns of t take much of his time, and he can't help but to aid a couple whose daughter was killed and when the book starts the trial is ending and the accused is acquitted. This makes the mother not bear the pain and she dies of a massive heart attack. Now years later, the widow husband. Ed, is also quite sick but Jim is still present to help. 

One day Ed gets the request to authorize the rights for a film to be made, with the story of his daughter, something still present in people's minds because of the attention it got. The main actress and the screenplay writer show up in Ed's house, in the role of producers too, to convince him it will be a good idea. Griffin, the writer, really wants the film to be made and to be a success but he understands Ed's wishes for it to portray his daughter well and he also likes Jim is there to help. As he asks Jim's help with details, their lives get to become more and more mixed up. 

Can they overcome external issues in the path to happiness?

As it happened it the other book, I liked this one as well. The story itself was interesting enough to make me feel like reading more pages and I especially like the personal side of things between Jim and Griffin.

I think the best detail about this book was how both guys weren't looking for a relationship but they still saw themselves in one, even if it was something they didn't want to label.

The story was well thought, I'd say.

I liked how Jim and Griffin's relationship developed and how sweet things were, how both guys didn't think too much of themselves but sort of got to be special for the other, in a believable pace. I think their both inner thoughts, their personalities and how we got to see how they really were when it was time for them to face some issues individually made this a very good read and I was always interested in knowing more about them.

I especially liked how Jim was professional but not indifferent and how Griffin really struggled with what he felt was not going on well.

The romance is sweet. I really liked the little scenes with them, how the focus was more on how they complemented each other or why they were attracted to one another and not as much on the sex scenes. I also liked that, when the movie sub plot and the couple's relationship reached its peak at some point, both reacted accordingly but neither acted as a fool or as a naive person. I liked how both were honest and things didn't go towards conflict and separation areas.

The movie plot has something to be said...  I liked how it didn't overpower the romance, how we got to see the domestic side of the guy's lives even with the movie plans on the background. It gets to be pretty obvious how and why some things happen they way they do but I was positively surprised by how everything was solved in regards to the movie issues, even with the more emotional details included and some were quite emotional.

The story isn't perfect though because in the end Jim makes a decision and I kind of would prefer to think of him as he was through the whole book. It's nothing bad but...ehh, it does make things feel a little different.

Nevertheless, the HEA is sweet, not perfect but suitable and it finished well an already good story.

Grade: 8/10

Tere Michaels - Faith and Fidelity

New York City Vice Detective Evan Cerelli has lost his wife, the only person he ever loved and slept with. He's trying to get on with his life, build a life for his children. Former Homicide Detective Matt Haight is a ladies’ man, all sex/no commitment. He's depressed, having a midlife crisis, and not sure where his life is headed.
The two find friendship in the bottom of a shared bottle. When the friendship turns to love, it shakes two straight men to the core and flips their lives inside out. Kids, families, careers that are not gay-friendly -- can all the love in the world overcome the obstacles to faith and fidelity?

Comment: I've had this book to read for a long time. For some reason I never picked it up but this month I decided to just start it and see if I'd like it now as much as so many readers did when it was released. Thankfully, this was an engaging story for certain.

In this book we meet Evan, a recent widower who can't seem to grasp he's alone with four children after losing the only woman he has ever loved. In a party for a colleague about to retire, he meets Matt Haight, an ex cop who isn't well seen by most his ex colleagues because of what he did when he found out a cop was dirty.  

Matt is a very lonely man and his work isn't fulfilling, he has no close family and is terribly depressed. At first he and Evan only got together tot alk about each other's sadness and to drink. With time, their nightly drinking meetings get weirder and weirder and it looks inevitable the two guys start sharing more than their problems.. but how can this be when none had ever think about men like this? 

Well, this story wasn't as difficult to believe as I imagine when I saw it would feature a GFY (gay for you) trope, where one or both protagonists have never been gay of had gay inclinations but now fall in love with a man.

I think the author did a good job in letting thing happen very gradually, which means the reader had some time to bet used to what was happening between the to guys. However, I also think the steps from just being to new buddies talking and drinking to being in emotional love (and not an obvious case of lust) wasn't that obvious. Perhaps one or two more scenes where they both monologues for themselves these new feelings or the idea of them might have made it easier to visualize.

The two main characters seemed very interesting but I confess I felt Matt was better characterized and my sympathy towards him was easier to find. It was very easy to feel empathy when thinking about how depressed Matt was because his loneliness and sort of isolation wasn't his choice, he did his job and he was punished because of those rules no one should break in the force but...Matt privileged his honor and working professionalism and he was punished. I get it but I felt more because of him.

Evan had a terrible thing happening to him and I can commiserate but his character was always more difficult for him because I felt he struggled more to process what he was feeling. Understandable of course, but still. The way he dealt with everything, however, was credible and that is why I could see things with a positive impression about their relationship.

The plot had some weaker moments but all books seem like that at some point. There are different conflict points in this book, some were dealt with in quite reasonable ways, I did find the situation regarding the perception by both of what would happen, how would others react to this to be believable but the process was a bit too dramatic. I can totally understand in real life it's certainly so but the path in the book made some scenes feel a bit too much. Just my impression.

Paradoxically (for me), some reactions weren't what I expected and the end was too much abstract and subtle but since there are more books in the series I suppose some things might be addressed there.

All in all, this was an interesting and emotional story, I liked reading it. I don't think I'd say it's a favorite ever but it was easy to appreciate the stronger scenes so... a positive reading, all things considered.

Grade: 8/10