Once this is taken as an essential point of the plot, the book goes relatively smoothly, and Ronan and Seth make quite a sexy-yet-dysfunctional pair.

Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.Īnother absorbing romantic thriller that takes a certain amount of suspension of disbelief to enjoy: This time, the reader has to accept that Ronan and Seth belong together. Contrived relationships aside, I’m willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief to get to the promised happily ever after. It won’t be for all readers, but I’m pleased that I stumbled across this series. This novel touches on dark subjects, such as child abuse and underage prostitution. Moving forward, they prevent Mace from delving farther into his own darkness. Together, Cole and Jonas are able to lay some of the ghosts in their past to rest. In contrast, Cole isn’t necessarily the hero they need, being fairly settled in their lives by the time the story starts, but he’s the hero they deserve. Jonas and Mace both have darkness in their lives Jonas by circumstance and Mace by choice. The lives of Jonas, Cole, and Mace intertwine in a multi-layered storyline that involves their histories and their present, bringing the three men together in a world where they would probably never have otherwise crossed paths.

Except isn’t all fiction, including romance, escapism? If so, this was a great, fast-paced story to get lost in. Did I mind the romance? Only a little bit, because the suspension of disbelief involved a bit of insta-love that bordered on contrived (especially for the character who had never experienced attraction to another man before).

The funny thing about this book is that it probably would have worked perfectly well as a thriller without romantic elements.

Defiance by Sloane Kennedy