Review: Loved Dan's story but where was the romance?
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2011
My true rating of this installment is: 2 for the romance/love story and 5 for the story of Dan's evolution and family, so really a 3.5.  Since 3.5 isn't possible and since Maxfield is one of my favorite m/m authors, I rounded up.  Dan's part of the story was very well done.  His inner struggle and his growth as a person were moving and inspiring.  His relationship with Jake is one of the best brother relationships I've read in this genre.  Again, very powerful.  In the face of Dan's excellently executed inner storyline, the romance just did not measure up.  Cam did not get his due!  Cam is supposed to be "larger than life" - and in the previous book he IS - but in this one, the one with him as a main character, he faded into the background.  I actually found the scenes between Dan and Bree to be more powerful and authentic than those between the Dan and Cam.  It was jarring that Dan and Cam had a semi-adversarial relationship in the beginning of the book and then wham! Dan is all the sudden pursuing Cam and Cam goes along with it.  The romance played fifth fiddle to Dan's evolution, which in some ways is fine - Dan's story is powerful - but I really loved Cam from the previous book and wanted to see much more of him in this one.