REVIEW, Laurel Heights by Lisa Worral

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Laurel Heights

Series: --

Pub:  2012 by Silver Publishing

Author: Lisa Worral

Genre: contemporary romance

Format: ebook; 369p w/ 14 chapters

Whose: Scott & Will

Age Range: adult

            Synopsis

Detectives Scott Turner and Will Harrison are sent undercover after an apparent murder/suicide in Laurel Heights, an exclusive gay housing community.

Will the two closeted officers be able to hide their attraction while each believing the other is straight?

And is there a killer amongst them waiting to claim his next victim?

CONTENT ADVISORY: this title includes scenes of dubious consent.

            Thoughts

Wow. This was a cop loves cop romance with the twist being that they are both gay but thinks the other is straight.

They are...well, actually the blub actually says it all. at least the whys and the what’s that are going down throw this book.

Worral is amazing as she mixes both the thrill of the crime, and the anticipation along with clues and hidden secrets well with the romance that happens between the two men. The build up the explodes. But unlike most ‘straight to gay’ books, neither of them is actually straight and once that’s settled the relations heats up along with the plot of the murder turning itself into the main sweep and that’s where we find out who’s really behind that voice.

There’s small details of sexual abuse, the back story mostly but some showing of it. And what really happens when a sadist loves someone (though let’s not ruin things)

What I really liked about this book was the romance, which was good behind that that’s kinda what she was going for here. But the slow burn where both find themselves falling for the straight guy when they knew they shouldn’t.

I liked the fact that they both had a little meltdown about this fact, though one more vocally then the other.

And I laughed for a while at how they got caught.

Once threw the book when the facts of why they were really there started to settle in and I started to actually work things out for myself it became a guessing game at who he was, though I did figure it out before he came into the room, I couldn’t have been 100% sure and really, it clicked a page or two before he walked into the door, which was nice (though why I was figuring it out and reading is because I’m wired that way, and can’t only do one thing)

I’d actually like the say that this book was very much written in a way a crime show is on the telly, and because of that I really enjoyed it.

I liked the short clues that made you want to figure it all out while you were enjoying the character build up. And I really liked that, the slow realisation of something that had been there from the very beginning.

And it was like that, the story started with the characters having known and worked closely with each other for a long while and it showed. And unfortunately it ended with a show that it’s not over, though I don’t see there ever being a book about that. More that it showed the realism of the world.

Though it did drag a little, I found that it was mostly in the back story of what really happened.  But then I don’t it was inevitable that it would, what kind of book wouldn’t give us full answers at the end of the crime. Really we need to understand.

Anyway I really liked it, once I started reading it I didn’t want to stop—hell it made time fly. And if crime romance in m/m is your thing than I highly recommend this book.

☼☼☼