This is the first book in the Auckland Med series by Jay Hogan. It was published 2019 by Blackout Books and is a LGBT romance with a hint of police drama in the background. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Gary Furlong. Now, this is in many way a plain romance with smutty scenes so if that is you thing then the book might interest you, but I have never been able to get feel invested in plain romances so take my review with that in mind. This isn’t my cup of tea.
The story follows Michael, a playboy doctor who doesn’t do relationships, and the officer Josh, the rough man who is also the father of a daughter. They meet one night to have a one-night stand only to find a person died and Michael being the target of a local gang. Josh needs to protect him while desperately trying to keep his distance for he want a relationship while Michael does not. But despite both of their reluctance, they slowly grow closer to become something more than just a quick roll in the bed.
The cast of characters are rather narrow, with Michael and Josh being in the center with friends and Josh’s daughter Sasha, in the background. The background characters are mostly there for support or create conflict such as Josh’s parents who hate that he is gay. Michael and Josh aren’t really developed beyond the bare minimum either. Michael being the one who runs away from relationships while Josh wants a stable home for his daughter. They are decent but I find that the book is more focused on the idea of romance, and the smutty scenes, that are plenty in the book, than any deep character arcs. There is of course nothing wrong with that but none of this can hold my interest and not even the crime part of the story that comes in during the last part of the book rouse my interest.
The plot starts of strong, giving us a body and a threat to be interested in but it then throws it aside for the romance and plenty of smutty scenes which include domination and the like. Not unusual in a book with gay main characters, but I won’t discuss it to much since I pretty much zoned out during the sex scenes. Sorry, I never care much for extended text about hot and heavy things.
The author seems to throw plenty at the romance, many of them smaller plots, such as the parents not accepting Josh sexuality and Michael’s incident on his last job. The conflicts introduced are just the misunderstandings, such as one of them sees the other with another man and they though that person had moved on and so on, that we have seen in plenty other romance books.
If you like all those other standard romances then this one might be for you, but if you are looking for something new then this one doesn’t even seem to try to be unique. Now because it keeps it pretty standard, it also isn’t too horrible. There is nothing that bothered me extensively, its just that it cannot keep my interest since it feels very shallow. Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 10, maybe a five if I would be giving a more neutral review over my personal experience with the book. It was not for me even though the author was decent if not a bit out of ideas. If you want to give it a try, many others seem to enjoy the enemies-to- lovers plotline but I would have preferred a bit more suspense and crime in this story than just plenty of sex scenes.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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