Review: sweet, sad, funny with a touch of gore!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 24, 2013
3.5 starsThis is the story of Jack, a former fire fighter injured in the line of duty. He now owns a cleaning company that specializes in crime scenes.I had never thought of that before. What happens after a crime has taken place? Who comes in to clean the blood and what not that was left behind? In this story, The Brothers Grime do. It was interesting actually.A couple parts of the story were a little gruesome, with all the talk of "blood splatter" and "brain and bone matter". yuck But that was only part of the story.The rest is about Jack. He has a secret he keeps from everyone, except his closest handful of friends some of which also happen to be his co-workers.This secret, regarding his first love Nick, is brought to the surface when he gets a phone call informing him of Nick's suicide.Attempting to bid for the suicide clean up job, Jack meets Ryan.. Nick's cousin.Jack and Ryan begin to immediately form a bond. Their relationship picks up pretty quickly and some steaminess emerges!I loved Jack's character. He craves love and companionship, but he also fears it.He overcame such  tragedy not just once, with what happened in high school, but twice, with his accident. Going from a rough and tough fireman to living with a knee replacement, constant pain and scars.This story is about loss and love, but also about the problems the characters face with their homosexuality (whether it's being ostracized from family, being bullied and beated or afraid of coming out to others).It isn't all sadness and gloom though. Jack and his friends have a great brotherhood/bond that is present throughout. I enjoyed the other characters as well and can see future books! Dave's story should be told next!There's also plenty of joking and laughter. And lets not forget about the "Token Chick"!!I liked Grime and Punishment but felt like a few things could have been different. I would have liked the ending to not have come so quickly! I wanted a little more of Jack and Ryan's romance.. it seemed to happen so quickly. Also, I wanted more about Nick. Did his suicide have anything to do with Jack? Will we ever find out?*copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review