Review: Great continuation of the Life Lessons series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2013
Great continuation of the Life Lessons series. In this book (#3), Mac is working on a case of a murdered addict and finds it ties into something much bigger. Meanwhile, he's also enjoying life as being out and having something that he never thought was possible--a loving man and a family to raise.Like in #1 Life Lessons and #2 Breaking Cover, Kaje Harper's writing is overall smooth and immensely readable. I really like her style, especially how she slides a character's mental asides into the action and story. It's been a year since I read Breaking Cover, but it was easy to get back into the groove, and Mac & Tony are wonderful characters, so it was great to revisit them, their chemistry, and their very obvious love for each other. (This is also one of the few series with kids that I've read and like. Harper does a good job of keeping her kids realistic without being too sweet. At the same time, they don't dominate the story, nor are there times when they're just conveniently missing so the MCs can get it on. I always appreciate Harper's attention to details, consistency, and realism. The MCs do find time to have sexy times, but it's at times around family obligations.)If I had a down point, it's that a lot of the book felt more focused on Mac and the case, so in a way, it reminded me more of a gay mystery with Mac as the lead detective, and at times Tony felt like the waiting boyfriend character that Mac could go home to and bounce ideas off of. Things change up later, especially during the last quarter, but it didn't feel as balanced between Tony and Mac as the other two books. (I still liked it, but I guess I missed more Tony Time.)With that being said, I don't think Home Work suffers the syndrome that can hit later books in a series. I enjoyed it a lot; it adds new developments so is not unnecessary of "filler", and I would happily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the other books.I will say that this IS NOT a standalone book. I'm sure it could work well for you if you did dive into this one, but I strongly recommend that you check out the first book, Life Lessons, if you want to try this series. Each book is great, and you'll get all the story about how Mac and Tony meet, etc.Very enjoyable installment, and I dug the development and progressions, both the romantic-kind, and the kind that means that Mac and Tony have more work to do, but they're so committed to each other, I'm not too worried about them.Looking forward to book 4! But until then, I still have the 3.5 freebie short story Compensations to read. (That can be found on the author's website or on Smashwords.)