One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 288 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


On a hot, Austin night, the crack of a single shot echoes through the city streets and a young man collapses to the gritty concrete, bleeding, writhing in pain...dying. His death is agonizingly slow. He was gay. And he is not the first.

Over twenty years ago a killer hunted his prey along these same city streets. All were young gay men, all were gunned down with a single rifle shot. The killer was never found. And now he's hunting again.

Matt Bell had been in college when he'd taken a bullet all those years ago. He'd survived only because his friends were close and got help to him quickly enough. Since that night, he's lived a life of emotional isolation. Never letting anyone close, never letting anyone in. And he's getting a little tired of himself over it. Especially when he catches a glimpse of an attractive but obviously haunted man in a bar one night. Matt feels inexplicably drawn to the solitary character and for the first time in as long as he can remember, sets out to actively pursue him.

The death of his lover years ago has rendered Thatcher Keeney a veritable recluse, even as the crushing weight of loneliness threatens to suffocate him. When he runs into an attractive man at the grocery store, he feels both awkward and unsure, but he can't deny the zing of...something...that he feels, the first since losing Adam so long ago. Matt is charming, and adorable with his earnestness, and Thatcher can't help but respond.

As the two men start a very jerky, halting dance of attraction, need, and want, they are unaware that the threads that connect them to each other go back far, far longer than either could guess. And then each man gets a phone call that will shake their world and threaten to crash it down around them both.

A cold case, labeled Blue by Austin Police Department's Cold Case Unit, has had some fresh and horrifying activity and the police detective, now Lieutenant, who had originally investigated the crime over two decades ago was informing the survivors that there have been new victims. For Matt, it's a shock. For Thatcher...it's something else entirely. And the potential of their feelings for each other may not survive the fallout of the news. Then again, neither of them may survive the killer, either.


I wish I could say that Blue was a case of love-at-first-page, but I have to admit, I had to work to get into it. I almost gave up more than once as I pushed through the first few chapters. The many shifts in character point of view in the narrative, the sheer number of characters introduced with no framework to fit them into place, the lack of explanation or much in the way of plotline setup, and the nebulous and shifting timeline all conspired to make the first few chapters of the book both a confusion and a headache. I felt lost for far longer than was comfortable before the story started to fall into place.

The good news is that once it did, I found much to like about Gregory's debut.

Being a visual thinker, I can't help but think of books like this, suspense books, mysteries and the like as big multi-piece puzzles. The more pieces of the puzzle, the more complex the tale. The more complete and "visually appealing" the final picture, the more I like the book. Once all the pieces were assembled in Blue, I have to admit, there were some parts of the picture that were a little muddy, some a bit two dimensional, and in some places the pieces didn't fit together quite as seamlessly as I would have liked. In several of the individual puzzle pieces themselves, however, I found the gold of this story.

Yes, there's an unknown serial killer once again stalking and killing gay men in Austin. The investigative plot threads were fine, if a bit sparse and too light on secondary character definition for my tastes. I enjoyed how Gregory fit together the pieces that were there and thought it made for an entertaining read. I would have liked a bit more of the dots connected than were, though. I had several unanswered questions about the killer, things mentioned in the narrative that went unexplained - like the significance of the lunar calendar, or why the killer shot so many without a change MO given his actual goal - to feel completely satisfied with the suspense.

Matt, though, with his melancholy and his yearning for connection, and Thatcher, still mired in guilt and grief after all those years, were absolutely and completely captivating.

While there are definitely several different character's points of view featured in the book, Matt is the main character, and I totally got him, if you know what I mean. A little clueless, a little haunted, toting around a lot of baggage from being gay and growing up in a conservative family. His past left marks on his soul even as it molded him into the man he became, and I felt for the echoes of loneliness that still plagued him. It was a very genuine portrayal of a character that was sympathetic, believable, three dimensional, and real. And once he started fancying Thatcher, he was even geekily endearing.

Thatcher was more viscerally tormented by his past. With good reason. Losing Adam as he did was...wow. Just gut wrenching. Still, as much as I liked him - and I did a lot - and was just in tears in places as his story was revealed, the disjointed and confusing timeline of events in the book hampered me the most in relation to his past and his character. I just couldn't figure out when things were happening and how long it had been since he'd lost Adam.

It seemed like a really, really long time for the grief to still be so debilitating and devastating. That being said, even though I wasn't able to totally commit to the emotions as they were portrayed, I still felt them and understood (in theory) how utterly the events Thatcher suffered could wreck a person. I felt for Thatcher, mourned Adam with him, and held hope for Matt because Matt and Thatcher need each other very much. That need and that bond between them was fairly awesome to see as it strengthened into a potential relationship.

Not every facet of Blue worked perfectly for me. Not every element was as rich and well developed as I hoped. Not every aspect of the suspense was completely successful. Still, there was a wealth of gut wrenching, powerful emotions captured here, and a lot of solid storytelling that just flat-out touched me, or made me sad, or horrified me, or thrilled me. Maybe it wasn't a perfect puzzle for me once it was assembled, but it was entertaining, and some of those individual pieces were pretty damn awesome, all by themselves.

Quotables:

"So, what do we have?" Griggs asked.
Reed answered. "Total confusion, disconnected nothing, absolute bewilderment. It's an enigma wrapped in a mystery, stuffed in a burrito, and smothered in taco sauce." He smiled. "Sorry, Lieutenant, I'm a little hungry."

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: Cut & Run, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 314 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 310 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC was provided to me by Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





Fantastic

The FBI isn't known for being an agency of free thinkers and sympathetic humanitarians. They are the top dogs in the overcrowded junkyard that is this nation's quagmire of crime and punishment. They serve with prejudice and without compassion against those who break the law. The belief is simple: either you are law-abiding, and therefore have no cause to worry about their existence, or you are not...and worry is the least of your problems.

For years, Agent Miller Sutton had been firmly entrenched in that black-and-white world as the prototypical Feeb. It was only recently that the whispers of doubt in his mind had grown to murmurs, that conscience twinged when once it had been quietly quiescent. Now, though he fought against seeing it and questioned its validity, there was a blur at the edges of his black and white world, and in that blur, a clawing, crawling, ever-widening strip of gray.

In that strip is Danny Butler.

There is just something about the insouciant man that affects Miller in ways that are as uncomfortable and unwanted as they are inescapable. He had been watching him for six months, knew his habits inside and out, and was all set to flip him against his drug cartel boss, Hinestroza. But Miller still had questions about Danny, questions that were impossible to ask without opening himself up to a far too dangerous internal debate over why he needed those questions answered.

His job, which he clung to fiercely, was to flip Danny and use him. Promise him safety, promise him protection, promise him a life, but force him to risk everything and go against one of the most coldly vicious crime bosses in the world. This time, though, some spark in Danny that makes him who he is turns the lies and promises to hot ash on Miller's tongue. And that's why this time, when the inevitable happens and Hinestroza catches wind of Danny's betrayal, Miller steps up and whisks him away, setting him up in a safe house and guarding the man himself until Hinestroza can be caught.

Danny is a thug...a mid-level drug runner...a criminal...gay...and he's the most compelling man Miller has ever met. Danny's life choices may be suspect, but the inherent honesty in which he lives in his skin - embracing all those shades of gray which scare Miller so very badly - is a seductive draw that the shaky Miller can't seem to escape. Even if he wanted to.

Miller's job is to keep Danny alive. He had no idea that it was Danny who would offer Miller the first opportunity he'd ever had to truly live. One thing is certain, protective custody has never been so dangerous...for either of them.

Every once in a while - far less frequently than I would like - a book sets itself apart and speaks to me a little more intently than others, affects me a bit more deeply, stays with me a little longer, echoes life's truisms a little more keenly. In those instances, the combination of quality storytelling, story, character, and meaning all come together to elevate a book to the highest level of my esteem. Shades of Gray is one of those books.

McKinley's powerfully written prose struck a brilliant balance of stark lyricism and gritty realism and the many-tentacled monster that was the plotline served up enough action and suspense to double as a summer blockbuster. At the core, though, were two men at a painful and dangerous crossroads, each needing something from the other, each loathe to depend on the other for those needs. Their search and eventual success in finding mutual ground was littered with the sort of gripping, character-driven drama and emotional detritus that leaves a long and lasting impression.

In a word, it was...perfect.

Miller's struggles with his identity and his sexuality were painful and poignant, and Danny's torment over his past and the grim acceptance of his present were heartrending and bitterly honest. Together these two characters were a powerhouse of personality and conflicted, conflicting desires. Their character evolution through the events of the story and the development of their relationship as those events start to spiral into deeper and more dangerous waters is some of the most darkly entertaining fiction I've read recently.

I credit McKinley for the adept manner in which she kept the lives of Miller and Danny real while carefully navigating the pitfalls of hopelessness, despair, loss, anger, and a myriad of other ghosts that haunted both their souls. There was by no means a calm and easy trip to a pat HEA for these characters. It was painful, it demanded its sacrifices, and it was certainly not without a high cost for both of them.

I'll remember it as my favorite novel in the genre that I've read to date.

In Shades of Gray I found a rare treasure in gay romance, exceptional quality fiction that tells a phenomenal story. One that doesn't simply seek to titillate with the sex, but that truly captivates with the emotional journey. Gritty, poignant, starkly real, and at times brutal, it was a harrowing but ultimately triumphant odyssey that was a joy to read. I loved it.

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 360 Pages, 5104 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Between grad school semesters, Rory Delaplaines left his home of St. Antoine's Parish, Louisiana to drive across the country out of a fierce love and yearning for the woman behind the art and artistry of the elusive Anime artist Ran Yamane, feeling connected to her in a way he can't explain. His intentions, while naive, were romantic. When he finally got to her table at the Long Beach Anime Expo, carrying a bouquet of flowers, his heart on his sleeve and her art in his bag, he was crushed to realize that Ran Yamane could never be the woman he thought she'd be. He wasn't a woman at all.

Exotic and beautiful beyond the telling of it, Yamane was used to the sort of thoughtless adoration his looks and his body drew from both genders and across all sexuality lines, so the slow speaking, respectful southern boy that shows up in front of him shouldn't have been any different than the other throngs. But something about Rory sparked interest in Yamane. Useless interest, he's sure, as the gallant knight errant was decidedly straight, but interest just the same.

An act of generosity on Yamane's part and an act of nobility on Rory's draws these two men together in ways that neither one had expected or even dreamed. When a psychopathic stalker hits them with the force of a hurricane and with far more evil intent, they will band together to escape with their lives, and their cross-country exodus to safety will alter the perceptions...and passions...of them both.

I thoroughly enjoyed Drawn Together and have such an appreciation for the characters that Maxfield has created here. Rory is a charming gentleman, at turns young and naive and intent and honorable. He's a bit of a contradiction with his slow, southern drawl and his quick wit, an easy manner belying a core of steel. Being a former SciFi convention fangirl myself, I was delighted in his beginnings in this book, as his motivations - while extreme and fanciful - struck such a chord of truism in me. I loved everything about him as a character, and admired the deft but subtle growing awareness of himself as his saga with Yamane evolves.

I wasn't quite as enamored of Yamane, who occasionally struck me as a bit selfish, a bit prissy, and sometimes mean, but his was definitely a case of a person being improved by his companion. Rory brings out the best in him, and through Rory we see those kernels of loneliness and disquiet in Yamane that ease only with his prince in his arms. Surrounded by wealth, endowed with talent, graced with beauty, Yamane is a man who's often at the mercy of his looks, with little substance in his life beyond his art until one true southern gentleman shows him that he is extraordinary for more than what lies on the surface. It improves Yamane greatly.

I loved their relationship and the storybook path of their trials and tribulations. It was like an exquisite fairy tale...with all the yummy parts included. Something about their journey together, their bond and their romance, felt uplifting for both its complications and its purity. It was a uniquely satisfying reading experience.

That's not to say that everything was perfect. Maxfield has a clean, genuine writing style that strongly supports her fluid narrative, but the dialogue between the characters seemed overly florid at times, and out of character for the participants. It wasn't a consistent problem, but I did feel there were several places that seemed to be more formal than natural conversational flow would account for - and as I've spent most of my life in the south, hearing various cadences of the different southern dialects and colloquialisms, it was most notable in Rory's dialogue.

The crazy stalker plot arc was nicely done, and I enjoyed the tension that added to the situation. I was especially pleased with the realism in the characters actions and reactions once that storyline came into play. I found the believability of their reactions went a long way in increasing the pathos in the book. Also well done was the depth and dimension quickly developed in the secondary and ancillary characters. There were several in the book and whether just briefly featured or allowed more page time, each one felt genuine and natural in their settings. It was a pleasant surprise and a mark of a higher level of sophistication of storytelling.

I have to admit, though, I wasn't totally sold on the story all the way through and thought the book went a little awry after the resolution of the stalker arc. The plot wasn't the problem - I understood and believed the actions of both characters and it felt organic to their definition, but the narrative became a little choppy as the timeline started jumping. Up until that point, the story had been told in a more real-time format as the men fled from danger, then towards resolution, but once the stalker issue was dealt with, the leaps in time started. Perhaps necessary for the continuing development of the relationship between Rory and Yamane, it still felt a bit awkward and disjointed after the preceding flow. And there were moments as the conclusion was being reached that I felt the characters lost their cohesion a bit, and acted a slight bit off from how they'd previously been defined. That didn't last long, though, and they were firmly in focus for their heart-melting conclusion and touching epilogue.

At it's core, Drawn Together is a sweet romance, but there are many more layers to this wonderful story that make it a true pleasure to read and experience again and again. The characters will stick with me in the sort of way that will always leave me hungry for a sequel. Kudos to Z.A. Maxfield for penning another deeply drawn, richly developed, and tenderly felt exploration into the lives of her characters.

Ps. Rene and Ethan...that's all I'm saying.

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Formats: Kindle


I have to admit, I'm a fan of Josh Lanyon's stories. Everything I've read of his is well plotted and paced, interesting and engaging with a delightfully clean style. Don't Look Back is no different. I enjoyed the story immensely, and I thought Peter and Mike were well drawn, for the length of the story.

And about the story... Peter Killian is a museum curator who gets bashed on the head and wakes up in the hospital, confused and hurting, only to realize he remembers almost nothing about himself. Mike Griffin is the detective that's on the case of thefts from Peter's museum, and his hard, cynical eyes are the first thing that Peter sees upon awakening. Confused and beleaguered by amnesia and accusations of being a thief, Peter doesn't even have time to regain his wits before old friends and new dangers threaten his life. And the draw of one sexy detective goes beyond physical straight into the foggy void of Peter's past.

While Don't Look Back is definitely an engaging read, my only complaint is that it isn't longer. I liked what I read very much, but obviously, lacking the length of a full novel, it also lacked the depth of one. I truly would've enjoyed reading more about both Peter and Mike, and would've really loved seeing their relationship develop over a wider stretch of time. That's not a criticism of the story as is, but it is what kept my review from reaching five stars. I guess I'm greedy, but when Lanyon writes such interesting stories and characters, I can't help myself; I always want more.

I did have one tiny criticism. The whodunit resolution seemed just a bit pat and the reveal of the perpetrator a bit anticlimactic and unsurprising. But again, working with a novella length book, you don't have the opportunity to toss in a lot of potential suspects. Darn it, I wish this had been a full length book!

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: A Matter of Time, Books I-IV
Rating: 3 Stars
Kindle Only: A Matter Of Time: Book I, A Matter of Time: Book II, A Matter of Time: Book III,  A Matter of Time: Book IV


Woo boy. I'm not really sure where to start. Oh, wait - first and foremost, I want to warn readers who are interested in purchasing A Matter Of Time: Book I that it is not a stand-alone book. It ends with nothing really resolved - not what I'd call a cliffhanger, exactly, but something similar...and it just sort of cuts off mid-sentence. By the time you get to the end of Book II...and Book III...you'll see that each of them do, too. And despite it's many, many flaws (and I'll get into them in a minute), the overall story is endearing enough for it to become addicting to forgiving readers (or at least tolerant ones), so you're going to be spending a lot more money than you'd thought to experience the whole story. The fact that this four book "series" is in actuality one long story with several different plot points spread out over the span of all four parts makes it necessary to warn readers who are expecting a contained and complete book and the first book in a series of similarly complete books.

That being said, lets talk about A Matter of Time. Book I starts the story of Jory Keyes, the gay twenty-something playboy who is the personal assistant of Dane Harcourt, architect extraordinaire. Jory is called late one night and asked to do a favor for a friend. That favor ends up changing - and threatening - his life. Literally tripping onto the scene of a murder in progress leaves Jory marked for death and under the protection of vice detective Sam Kade, and only Sam's fierce determination to keep Jory safe - and more than a bit of sexual need - stands between Jory and a murderous racketeer. But when Jory starts falling for the manly detective, the threat to Jory is taken to a whole other level because it's his heart, not just his life, on the line. But Sam Kade is straight...or is he? As it turns out, not even Sam himself is too sure of that.

In Book II, Dane takes more of a stand in Jory's life, and while Jory is suffering a broken heart after Sam decides he can't give up his dreams of a traditional marriage and family to be with Jory, Dane is there to make Jory a part of his family and get him started on the road to independence. But don't write Sam off yet, because the detective can't forget our favorite boy and when the repercussions of Jory's testimony start to get insidiously dangerous, Sam can only drop back into his life to recapture his heart and save his life and soul. But will it last this time?

Book III takes a sudden and huge leap in time forward - three years forward, in fact - and Dane is off on his honeymoon while Jory has recovered...more or less...from the devastation of Sam's departure in Book II. But Sam and Jory run into each other and the sparks start to fly...again. This time, however, Jory can't risk his heart on someone he's certain is just going to walk away again. It's up to Sam to convince him that everything is different now, but when bodies start piling up and the past comes back to haunt them, will the strain put the final nail in their relationship coffin...or just Jory's?

Book IV picks up right where Book III left off and after a tragedy that shakes Jory to his foundations and threatens the life of his beloved detective, Sam Kade, Jory takes off to track down the threat, determined that no one is going to hurt his man. With a crafty set of maneuvers that send Dane and his wife's heart racing Jory is relentless in his pursuit of information about his own latest abduction while keeping tabs on his man as he lies in a hospital bed. When all this is over, will love conquer the day, or will ashes be all that's left when Jory openly defies his love of Sam and his brother Dane to follow the trail of clues to the core of evil that's haunting them all?

I have to admit, I had many issues with A Matter of Time (and I'm referring to all four "books" together), but the story itself...the plot, the characters, what happens and who it happens to...wasn't any of them. I have nothing but respect for every author who puts in the work to write a book or a series of books, and in that regard, I respect Calmes and credit her achievements. Jory's story really grew on me, and I read all four of them over the last four days. Unfortunately, it wasn't the story, but the mechanics of the writing that I have so many problems with.

Bluntly put, and given A Matter of Time as the yardstick, Calmes' writing ability is not up to professional contemporary standards. Literally riddled with stilted conversations, a bare-bones narrative that came across as almost clinically detached and rapid-fire to the extreme (though that was either less noticeable in Book IV or I got too used to it to notice it as sharply by then), anemic character development ripe with cliche - most notably for secondary and ancillary characters - continuity flaws, inconsistent characterizations, spelling errors, butchered grammar and sentence structure, repetition of plot, theme, and conversations, bizarre pacing, undefined and abrupt jumps in time, characters doing things that make no logical sense, narrative that makes no sense, ridiculously absurd happenstance with no sufficient explanation to allow for a consistent willing suspension of disbelief...and the list goes on...the story as a whole reads less like a published novel and more like a poorly written fan fiction. I know that sounds really harsh, and I support small, independent publishers that may not be able to afford high power editors, but at some point you have to hold an author accountable for the mechanics of writing a story they sell. This should've been self-edited - or get a group of friends together to help. Just correcting the grammar and sentence structure would've been a huge assist.

And yet, despite all that negativity (and I really do regret having to say it), I give the series a 3 stars. If you're particularly unforgiving about writing mechanics, I can not in good conscience recommend this title, but if you're more tolerant of that sort of thing and like a m/m romantic thriller, give it a try. I did enjoy the story and I liked Jory. I had a love/hate thing going on with Sam (ending on a high point), and I wish there'd been a bit more focus on Dane, as I found him compelling. I will warn you, though, this is not a m/m erotica novel. Yes, there's sex, but it's hardly more daring than the m/m equivalent of traditional mass market paperback het sex. Nothing too graphic or extreme, and though dominance and submission is a theme, it's more the nature of the characters (big alpha male dominant, smaller gay young man submissive) than in any way BDSM.

If you are more critical of writing mechanics and don't think this book is for you, I highly recommend the following titles:
Zero at the Bone
Cut & Run
Sticks & Stones
Warrior's Cross
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: Zane & Ty
Rating: 5 Stars
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


If you're a fan of m/m romantic thrillers/suspense, then you can't beat the writing pair of Urban and Roux for incredible fiction, and in Sticks & Stones, the sequel to one of my favorite reads of 2009, Cut & Run, the irresistible and at times irascible FBI Special Agents Zane Garrett and Ty Grady are back with a vengeance. They're still toting around all sorts of personal and professional baggage and struggling with the aftereffects of a case that nearly killed them both, not to mention struggling with their relationship with each other, and yet - thanks to incredible writing and exquisitely detailed characterization - this second book drives home just how amazing a read can be when you transcend the idea of character and plot and start to experience in a profound way these two men's lives.

Just weeks after being partnered officially and drawn back to DC, Zane and Ty are riding desks at Quantico until they're cleared for fieldwork - and neither are too happy about it. The hyper Ty is bouncing off the walls and Zane, who's too emotionally buttoned down to do much bouncing at all, is in a bad place head-wise and still struggling with nightmares and exhaustion. When the unofficial psych evals come down from their boss, SAC Dick Burns, they're forced into a vacation that neither wants but both desperately need.

Ty ends up taking Zane home with him to West By-God-Virginia, and together with members of Ty's family, Zane is drawn into a world he's never known and forced to face - with Ty - emotions and situations he'd never dreamed of. This rich and thoroughly well developed story spans a few weeks of time and deals the men a bad hand of freezing weather on a mountain, murderous treasure hunters, and wildlife that'd sooner eat you than look at you. And how they survive - if they survive - is going to be more a measure of who they are and how they feel about each other than any skill they have as federal agents.

It's an incredible read - just absolutely incredible - not because the plot is so spectacular or the book is so well written (though the plot is solid and the book is very well written). No, what sets Sticks & Stones (and its predecessor, Cut & Run) apart is the total immersion into these two damaged and flawed characters' lives. They're so well drawn, so utterly realistic and believable - in part because they're so human (with all the good and bad traits of two stubborn and masculine men) and in part because they're so often at the mercy of situations they can't control...yet somehow manage to do so anyway. These are guys you may not like (hell, at times I don't like them - but I do love them), and several times I found myself frustrated with one or the other (or both) because they're such men sometimes, but you certainly won't be unmoved by them or their plights. Even when they're so damn stoic it makes you grind your teeth with the knowledge that it would be so much more cathartic for them to just talk about their feelings! I know...sounds just like a man, doesn't it?

And that's the best thing about this series (and yes, it is a series, and the third book, Fish & Chips, is in production at the time of this review); these two men are real. Real frustrating, real charming (when they want to be), real devoted to each other (even when they don't want to be), real, real, real, REAL. They're tragically flawed and hopelessly lost at times. They take damage that breaks their bodies and minds and the consequences of that damage are realistic and humanizing. They want things they don't always get. They love, though it makes them horribly uncomfortable at times. They are sons and brothers and buddies to people who see them as 'son', 'brother', and 'buddy' - and these authors write so well you can actually see that delineation between how they view themselves and how they act in those 'rolls'.

It's just so well written, I lack the necessary superlatives to express it accurately. It has to be experienced. So go. Experience it. Now would be good. But start with Cut & Run - you can thank me later.

Check out my review of another book I highly recommend by these authors:
Warrior's Cross