I enjoyed this book and would recommend giving it a try. There is a prequel, which introduces a few of the characters in this book, but this can be read as a standalone since the author does give you the backstory. You may like reading the prequel as you may be more emotionally engaged with the supporting characters, but is not necessary. In fact, they are different in tone and I preferred this book because it is a little more gritty and honest. You care about Ronan and Tennyson because they care about people and the case they are working on--that is what the author does well. You want Ronan and Tennyson to solve the case and you root for them. There are a few things that I feel would kick it up a notch from being a good book to being great. For one thing, there is no mystery here since we know who the bad guy is from the beginning so the opportunity is lost for a who done it, however points to the author for not just throwing in some random bad guy at the end that we never met, which I would hate. This is not instalove; they do get to know each other and grow closer (probably faster than normal due to the emotional circumstances), but they seem to be in a relationship very fast after one kiss without even discussing it. Ronan is also still emotionally recovering from a divorce with someone he was supposedly in love with and blindsided by and a newly recovering alcoholic, who really should not be getting into a relationship while so new to recovery as per standard addiction recovery rules. Relying on famous people's names to fix the characters in our minds is a little bit of a cheat and I feel the author could work on describing her characters as well as work on creating real heat in the love scenes and real tension in the scenes of peril. I'm not trying to be nitpicky because I actually liked this book, its characters, and the storyline. I am just a little disappointed because I feel it could have been really great with a little more time, care, and depth. I would say this is a HFN because I have a feeling Ronan and Tennyson are going to need some therapy. I am emotionally invested enough that I will want to see what happens in the next book.
