Jack, Gray, and Mason have accepted that loves comes in many flavors and settled into a three-way relationship. Things haven’t been easy, and now that Mason has gone back to school and Gray is interested in a detective position, Jack is feeling lonely. His lovers aren’t around very often, and he misses lying around in bed, enjoying the benefits of living with two hot men. But Jack has secrets. He’s uncomfortable every time he puts his uniform on. He’s never recovered from seeing Mason held hostage, and he’s no longer sure he was meant to be a cop.
While stressing over his own future and facing pressure from Gray and Mason to bring their relationship out of the closet, Jack is severely wounded in the line of duty. His recovery, both physical and emotional might be more than their unconventional relationship can bear. Jack is going to need all the courage and support his lovers can give him if he’s going to bring himself back from the dead and create the life he wants to live.
I have to say I was put off a little bit in the beginning with “the misunderstanding”. It really wasn’t that big of a deal to warrant a sobbing hissy fit and Jack threw a sobbing hissy fit. I know it was a big deal to Jack, but it didn’t seem to fit in with what I remembered from his personality in Fitting In. When I read about a grown man throwing a pan of caramel corn across the kitchen, then slamming the door to his room so he can sob, not cry, sob, I just can’t buy into it. It’s a crime against snacks and kind of embarrassing. Not for any fully functioning adult do I buy that reaction. Man, woman, sad panda, honey badger, nothing. I just want to tell him/her/it/they to “sac up for cripes sake”. This is totally my own personal beef, it’s just one of those ridiculous things that puts me off. So, when there was grown up sobbing right at 4% I was not hopeful.
Then, the outside conflict came around and the story and the characters got much better for me. Jack was really the center to this story and I understood his confusion about his job and the stress of coming out publicly at work. It took outside forces and characters to give him perspective. He starts doing volunteer work at a youth shelter and there I got to meet Andy, who runs the center, and Henry who Jack will be mentoring. I liked both Andy and Henry a lot. They both contributed realistic voices that gave the story some depth. Henry is 17 and homeless, living at the shelter. He was a great character who had been through the wringer and came out wiser on the other side. Honestly, given the conflict Jack and Grey were going through, Henry was the mature voice of reason. I purposely didn’t mention Mason in the conflict there because Mason wasn’t really conflicted on any of the issues it seemed to me. Throughout the story he was more centered, knew what he wanted and was supportive to both his partners. In the relationship, he was the rock this time around.
It can be confusing reading a book about a ménage relationship, especially during rapid fire conversations and sex scenes. I can say, once you get your bearings, this author can write dialog and sex that I don’t need a schematic and a compass for, which is much appreciated. It helps that the three characters are very different and it’s easy to keep them separate in my head. The distinction is quite helpful, because sex is how these guys connect. I have to say, the dialog ran to the cheesy side, I just can’t imagine real people talking like that, but they got off on it, so who am I to complain?
If you liked Fitting In, you will definitely like this one too. Everything was wrapped up with a minimum of angst and felt just a little too glossed over, but it was good to get some resolution in their relationship and to see how far they’ve come.
A copy of this story was provided by the author for an honest review.
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