Jack
Horwood doesn’t do families. Or Christmas. From the time his mother sold him to
her pimp to the moment he walked out on the man he loved, Christmas has always
been about change and painful choices. This year seems no different. Helping
Daniel and Nico recover from their imprisonment and hunting down those
responsible puts Jack in a frame of mind he doesn’t want to inflict on anyone.
Least of all Gareth and the tentative relationship they’ve started to rebuild.
But
Gareth, for whom Christmas is all about new beginnings, won’t let Jack take the
easy way out. He makes him face his ghosts instead. Even when said ghosts
invade their bedroom.
When
Daniel’s parents are found, Jack is determined to settle the matter without
involving Daniel at all. But fate decrees otherwise, and it’s Gareth who helps
him finally understand that the strongest bonds are those forged together. Once
he gets that, Jack can step up and make a decision designed to lay his ghosts
to rest—for good.
My
Review:
3 stars
To
start with, this was much shorter than both the first and the third book, so I
knew that there probably wouldn’t be as much going on.
The
focus of the book was on Jack and Gareth’s furthering relationship. We got to
see them spend Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day together, as well as
take some very big steps in their relationship, which I loved. The book also
focused on Nico and Daniel, leading to a big change in the lives of all four
characters (which I won’t spoil here). I liked this because I felt like we got
to really know the characters, especially since there wasn’t so much going on
like in the first book. Unfortunately, this caused the story to drag a bit at
times, but for the most part, it worked.
We
also got to see a lot more of Gareth in this book, which I loved. We learned a
bit more about his past, saw him interacting more with Nico and Daniel (which
was just freaking adorable), and got to see how much he loves to cook. I
constantly wanted to eat while reading this book, the food descriptions were so
vivid and sounded absolutely delicious.
This
book also provided closure on the prostitution case from book 1; emotional
closure in the form of Nico and Daniel facing their fears and plot closure with
Goran going on trial and Jack tracking down the johns.
While
I like the character development in the story, I also had a lot of issues with it.
First, the book didn’t touch on any of the events hinted at in the epilogue of
the first book. I expected at least some mention of those events here or something
to happen, but there was nothing. Second, I had an issue with the whole
plotline behind Daniel’s parents being revealed. I expected this to be a big part
of the story, and it didn’t deliver. The confrontation with his parents was
anti-climactic, not to mention how something felt missing or unresolved. Maybe
this is going to be further explored in book 3 in some way, but even that isn’t
clearly addressed. There was a vague potential mystery introduced that made it
seem like this would be further addressed, but I’m not sure, especially since
the case was wrapped up. Third, most of the secondary characters from the first
book were barely mentioned or weren’t even in the book. After getting to meet
so many people who had big roles in book 1, it was a bit jarring to barely see
them in the story.
All
in all, while I had my issues with the book, it was still enjoyable to read.
Some loose ends were tied up, some mystery was introduced, and we learned some
more information about four of our main characters. If you read book 1, I would
recommend reading this book, just know that it is differently paced than book
1. This was definitely a character-based story, with action and mystery taking a
backseat here. Personally, I am going to read book 3, because I want to see how
the rest of the loose ends from book 1 and book 2 will be addressed and how
Jack and Gareth’s relationship further develops.
*I
received this book in exchange for an honest review.*
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