Review: Tarot's Touch (Investigating Love 3) by LM Somerton

DI Alex Courtney and his lover, DC Conor Trethuan are under enormous pressure as their team investigates an arson case and a murder.
It soon becomes apparent that the two cases are linked and the race is on to find a vicious killer. A tarot card is placed with the first victim and the detectives are left to interpret the clues it provides. When Conor receives a note from the killer making reference to another card, the whole team is shaken. Their worst fears are realized when a second body is discovered, along with another tarot card.

Conor suspects he has been followed then a hit and run leaves him injured. Alex wants nothing more than to wrap his lover up in cotton wool and protect him from the world. But is Conor the killer’s target or just a pawn in a much more sinister game? As the clues come together, it seems that the motive for murder might be revenge.

Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of genital bondage.

Book three in the Investigating Love series was an enjoyable read. I had real problems with the first book of this series, it didn't work for me at all, I certainly enjoyed book two more and this one was good too. LM Somerton has a nice writing style, easy to read and the plots are pretty well thought out..yet, while I've enjoyed the books in this series for he most part, I haven't loved them. So I spent a while trying to figure out exactly what it was that was holding me back from becoming fully immersed in them. The conclusion I came to is I just don't like Alex (one of the MC's) very much and don't totally believe the relationship between Conor and Alex.

I'll come back to that in a minute though, because what I'd like to mention first is the crime plot in this book. In each book I've enjoyed the plot and I really wish the author spent more time on this than the MC's sex life! I enjoyed the possibilities of the crime, the twists and turns it took, but it didn't feel quite fulfilled to me. LM Somerton has some really well thought out plots but it felt as if everything was resolved a little too easily...I think I wanted to read this as a crime book with a side helping of relationship...a bit of which was the Dom/sub relationship, but the author focuses quite strongly on the D/s aspect.

Which of course isn't wrong, it's the author's story to tell how the author feels it needs to be told, it is probably just a case of it's me not you. I didn't get quite what I was hoping for but, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, reading is a very personal thing and what doesn't work for me may be exactly what the next read is looking for.

Okay, so Alex and Conor. Yep, while I appreciate them as characters and I actually like Conor, I just can't take to Alex. It's the little things. As well as being Conor's partner and Dom he is also his boss. After Conor is involved in a hit and run Alex insists he stays at home - fair enough, I liked the caring aspect, but then when Conor does return to work doing a desk job/research after a while Alex insists he returns home. The bit that got my goat? No sooner had they walked in the door than Alex was bending over the kitchen table shagging him. Now excuse me, but if you were worried about him surely sitting at a desk is a lot less stressful than being fucked senseless?

It is all these little things that really irritate me. It's not that I don't like sex in my books, I do and I like BDSM books just fine too, but I always feel Alex is more of a bully than a Dom. He'll say one thing, then do another. Sometimes the sheer amount of sex gets on my wick, I start to feel it is there just for the sake of being there. Personally, when I'm ill or in pain, the last thing on my mind is shagging, far less bondage and toys...Maybe that's it, I just don't understand the characters. For whatever reason I can't connect fully to Alex and this does have an impact on my enjoyment of the story. It is very possibly just a me thing though. :)


For more information check out Goodreads.
A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.

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