I think I'm noticing a pattern with Amy Lane, at least with these first two books.

1. Starts off *beautifully* - interesting characters, mesmerising voices, the drama is initially...believable. You don't yet find out that the characters are Too Stupid To Live.

2. At the midway point, a ton of repetition. Some victim gets rescued, a nice sort of life is found, but you begin to get bored of the central point ('we have a dream') being repeated 100 times.

3. The characters become well and truly Too Stupid To Live, the drama becomes overblown, everything becomes overshot and unrealistic, and you start to think these characters maybe deserve all the misery that's being heaped upon them because not a single one can make a single smart decision.

4. Then it ends abruptly and unrealistically.

Curious to see if this continues. God those beginnings are so gorgeous though. Never met an m/m author who wrote openings that strong. Now if we could just...deal with the rest of it. x.x ( )

I'm not a big fan of the billionaire romances, but I've read a few. They're fun in their way.

This novel is like an antidote to those. No polish, all grit. It comes before Fish Out of Water, and Red Fish, Dead Fish, but I read those first. Now the references make more sense, but I don't feel I missed anything. It's told from Ace's point of view, and none of it is easy. These diamonds are rough. Very rough. And yet, through grime and blood, they manage enough shine to keep track of each other.

Now I feel ready to read the four stories at the end of Red Fish, Dead Fish, two of which are about this pair. I am happy there's a bit more, until the third book comes out. Some characters are fun and then done. Ace and Sonny, and Elliot and Jackson, are permanent. ( )

Wonderful!
Great read!
The last half was non-stop reading for me until finished (2am) ( )

This is the kind of Amy Lane story that I love. No "angst for angst's sake", but slightly dark and gritty. It's no walk in the park...not by a long shot. It is the kind of story you sink into and one where the characters carve themselves a place into your soul.

Ace and Sonny are both men with baggage. Sonny is a lot more broken than Ace and it shows in a lot of his actions. During their time together in the army, Sergeant Awas ce takes Private Sonny under his wing and becomes his protector when it was really needed. Together they start dreaming of what they want to do once they get out. Ace sets out to make Sonny's dream come true.

Their relationship is not an easy one. There were misunderstandings that stood from the first time they met and it takes some working out. Even then secrets are still between them.

I love the fact that there were no simple, or easy fixes. Not that I would ever expect one in an Amy Lane book. The road to happiness is hard, tough and honestly quite brutal. But what a journey it makes. ( )

I love Amy Lane, but for me, this one wasn't as good as her others. Sonny and Ace were far too needy and co-dependent, and I couldn't stand all of the constant insecurity and jealousy. ( )