crime-fiction, combat-veteran, committed-to-a-cause, complex, contemporary, m-m-romantic-suspense, law-enforcement, danger, intense, family-by-choice, organized-crime, mysteries, violence, violent-crimes, protected-witness, cooperation, teamwork, testosterone-fest, erotica, Caucasian Ovcharka-guardian-dog, working-partners, workaholic*****

What we call a mountain in Wisconsin hardly counts unless you are a Flatlander from Illinois. This is a real testosterone fest characteristic of law enforcement types (NOT a negative criticism) and demonstrates that an assortment of agencies CAN work together (at least in print). Running throughout is Miro's lack of self-awareness while being fixated on his work partner while everyone around them is perfectly clear on what should be going on. Full of shootouts and chases, things become astonishing and a real social lesson for the unevolved.
Except for the rare few pronunciations that are so not Chicago, the narration by Tristan James is amazingly perfect.
Loved it and plan to binge-read the rest in series! ( )

3.5 stars

synopsis:
miro and ian have been partners for 3 years, and miro has been in love with ian for most of that time. however, ian is straight, so miro pines uselessly and tries to move sideways with lots of hookups. miro seems to have a habit of getting hurt, mostly because ian runs into danger and miro follows him. ian is still a reservist, so he gets called out for missions. when he comes back from one such mission, miro realizes that ian is his, and takes the appropriate steps.

what i liked: i liked the premise. i liked that we get a little glimpse of sam and jory, as well as mention of duncan.

what i didn't like: i'll be honest and admit that if i hadn't read 4 other mary calmes' books in the past couple of months, i would have liked this one better. however, reading about the most fantastic person ever in the history of the world that everyone loves, even if they've never met him before gets REALLY tiring when read within a short space of time. it also felt as though there wasn't really much of a story there, that it was mostly just filler. ( )

I knew before I finished reading the free kindle sample that I'd buy this book. I ended up reading it nearly straight through. The word "compelling" certainly applies.

It's a single point of view story, and that makes it all the more poignant. I knew where he was messing up, but... It's like the curl of a shell; you know there's more in there, but you have to break it to get to it. And when you do that, everything changes.

Go read this. I'll be reading them all. ( )

I read this series 2 years ago and have since reread it but somehow failed to review it. Don't know how that happened. I absolutely loved this series. It was the first of anything by Mary Calmes that I had read and since then I believe I have managed to read everything I could find by her. The characters of Miro and Ian are as close as you can get to Ty and Zane from the Cut and Run series by Abigail Roux...another fantastic series by an author that just can 't write a bad book. This entire series has been very well-written. The books are funny and have plots that cover more than just the hot romance between the two guys. I never wanted it to end. The way Mary Calmes writes and the way she gets inside the characters' heads, just keeps me coming back for more, ( )

Two federal marshals who are partners eventually realize they are in love. Entertaining, and with some interesting cases the characters work on, but ultimately the character development didn't quite work for me. ( )