Review: Scorching, modern love romance with lethally attractive men = WOW!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2014
What a fantastic book! I absolutely adored this story with its wisecracking, snarky, and looking-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places lead character, Mackenzie Williams. And it is Mac who gives this story life. It’s his sharp, near-bitter commentary, his surly self-analysis, and his gutsy bravado to forge once more into the treacherous waters of love despite impossible odds, which makes this story a winner.Bitter from the failure of his latest long-term relationship with—country bumpkin/college roommate, turned friend, turned lover, turned got rid of accent/got sophisticated/became corporate man, turned “I think I may be straight after all”—all-around dick lover, Trevor, former policeman turned private investigator, Mackenzie Williams despondently tears through memories of his previous relationships trying to understand why he always ends up with the short end of the stick… and in this instance, sans dog. Depressed when no answers are forthcoming, he withdraws to his free spirit ways: smoking, chasing the surf, self-negligence and antagonism towards others, and uses his job, his friends, and his broken-down truck Bessie to distract him from his pain.Mac is on a surveillance gig when he first encounters straight man, Jordan Channing, who happens to be parked behind him doing a little reconnaissance of his own. Antsy from long hours of vigilance with little to show for it, Mac concludes that the car behind him contains a second PI and makes his way over to give the man the what for. When the car window rolls down, he is confronted with the hottest man he’s seen in a while, but more—the slam of chemistry between them is like nothing he’s ever experienced. Which is impossible because sure as Sherlock the dude is straight.What follows is a whiplash-paced roller-coaster ride through the bittersweet love song of a man who desperately wants to love and be loved in return, but on his own terms. A man who has yet to understand that perhaps his own criteria is what is keeping love at bay. Mac’s life is revealed in bold, colorful passages that detail his life experiences and showcase an assorted cast of well fleshed-out supporting characters, all of whom want the best for him. Each holds a piece of the puzzle to the question of why all of Mac’s relationships fail. When a dazzled Jordan hires Mac to check up on his girlfriend, Mac takes the job on despite his misgivings, after all what’s a little more torture to his already tormented life? For me, from that point on there was no putting this book down.Beautifully paced, the mounting passion between these two men makes for some truly HOT reading. This is a tutorial on how a male/male romance book’s passion is supposed to be written, in my humble opinion. I happen to like wise-mouthed guys, but I dare anyone to not find the character of Mac insanely lovable. Personally I wanted to smack him around a little and stay to soothe the pain. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair and mess it up. Hell, at times I wanted Jordan to take a belt to his bubble behind, but the author had Jordan do other things—better things—to his fine ass.Jordan made for one staggeringly seductive, bewitching, and bewildered heroic romantic lead. Struggling with new to him Mac-inspired passion, he admirably took a bull-by-the-horns approach, after a brief bout of denial, and strove to do the right thing all the while navigating Mac’s prickly nature.Fast, funny and sizzling hot with plenty of emotion, testosterone and action to make it contain a weird element of realism, the book blasts off and mounts in intensity like Eminem’s song, 8-mile. I sure hope S.E. Harmon is secluded somewhere writing like crazy because I can’t wait to read another work by this author. I’m going to read this one again (and again), but not right now, I’m afraid I’ll combust!Thank you S.E. Harmon for giving my mind one of the best three-hour (reading) rides it’s taken in a while.“Burning Inferno, um…a hunka-hunka burning Love!”