Guest Review: Fighter (Survivor #3) by T.M. Smith

Dedication and smarts have given Blair Cummings a leg up in the Bureau. His job is all-consuming but rewarding. It doesn’t leave much time for a love life though, not that Blair believes in love. In his early thirties, he’s only ever been in one long-term relationship due to his inability to commit to anything other than his job and his family.

Born into a family that’s as successful as they are hateful, Howard Manning Tullor Junior ran so far away from his last name that he wound up in the arms of Satan himself. Freedom comes at a high price but it’s one Mannie is willing to pay, setting him on a path that leads him to a quiet, laid-back FBI agent.

Their attraction is unexpected, and yet, welcomed. Blair seems to have finally found something worth fighting for, but Mannie, still haunted by ghosts of the past, wonders if he’ll ever be able to move on. The two are working toward their future, but can a budding romance survive when past and present collide?

Reviewer: Shee Reader

I adored the first two books in this series and couldn’t wait for this one to land on my kindle. I was already invested in Blaire and Mannie’s relationship and couldn’t wait for their full story. The tale crosses over with the other books in the survivor series and I really like that in a book series, that events intertwine as they do in real life, rather than being rebased on relationships that develop in a consecutive way. Of course, some events follow in sequence, but more than one relationship can develop at once, and I really enjoy the concurrent nature of life replicated in a series of books.

Mannie has experienced a huge amount of hardship in his life, from a difficult childhood, abusive father and grandfather who tried to beat the gay out of him, then being preyed pun by a serial offender in the form of a sadistic lawyer with a taste for underage men. Mannie has managed to survive all the atrocities that have befallen him, including being left for dead, and has begun to build a chosen family for himself and a life that can support him. Enter Blair the FBI agent who has been working on the case that includes Mannie as one of two survivors. (The other survivor Shannon’s story is told in an earlier booking the series)

Blair and Mannie have the complications of how they met with Mannie as a victim and Blair the investigator, the fact that they live in different states, and the horrific experiences Mannie has had and can he learn to trust Blair? There is lots of challenge for a new relationship in the story, but much less of the exterior threat that is included in the first two books since one of the villains is in jail and one is dead. The only added threat came from Mannie’s grandfather who turns up near the end of the story.

This is an emotional tale with the struggle for the relationship coming from the characters themselves and whether they can work out their issues, and I found this to be very engaging and I really was rooting for the guys from the outset. My only complaint, If I’m going to be picky, was that Blair seemed a little to good to be true! He had no real character flaws to speak of and as such, this made him a tiny bit one dimensional, but that really is a tiny niggle!

Highly recommended.

I was given a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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