Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Life Lessons
SERIES: Life Lessons #1
AUTHOR: Kaje Harper
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 276 Pages
BLURB:
Tony Hart’s life has been quiet lately. He has good friends and a rewarding teaching job. Then the murdered body of another teacher falls into the elevator at his feet, and Tony’s life gets a little too exciting.
Jared MacLean is a homicide detective, a widowed father, and deeply in the closet. But from the moment he meets Tony’s blue eyes in that high school hallway, Mac can’t help wanting this man in his life. However Mac isn’t the only one with his eyes on Tony. As the murderer tries to cover his tracks, Mac has to work fast or lose Tony, permanently.
REVIEW:
They say it’s a sign that an actor has made it to the Hollywood “A List” when they only need to be referred to by their first name to be recognized. Well I figure it works the same way for books and their cover models. The face of “Tony” is probably one of the most repeatedly used on the covers of m/m books. Actually, I’m sure he’s probably used much further afield too. But each time his face appears on yet another book cover I see readers commenting – oh look, it’s Tony. No matter what his other character names are, or which author has written him a completely different life, the moment you see that face you think – cute English teacher, Tony Hart. So you get my point when I say, the Life Lessons series by Kaje Harper is definitely m/m romance A List. And this first book is the story of how Tony and Mac became Tony and Mac.
Our two MCs first meet over the body of a murdered high school teacher. Tony was the one to find the body, or rather, the body found him as the dying man fell into an elevator at Tony’s feet. Mac is one of the detective’s working the case but from the moment he meets Tony he can’t get thoughts of the younger man out of his head, despite the fact that Tony starts out as a suspect. But it soon becomes clear that far from being the killer, Tony may be the murderer’s next target. Mac will do anything to protect him, but spending time together makes it impossible for the closeted detective to continue to deny his attraction.
Even though I know this whole series well, I gave the book a quick re-read before writing this review. I love to do that when I’m mad about a series because things that didn’t seem as important the first time around tend to stand out more once you know how the series is going to progress. Every time I read the part where Mac says that coming out as a gay cop could be dangerous, I cringe because I know what’s coming in future books. And when Tony and Ben meet Mac and Anna for the first time I always get a warm fuzzy feeling inside (cue the awww prompter) because I know how important these four people are going to be to each other.
As a first book, as well as a series, the story of Mac and Tony’s relationship unfolds fairly slowly. Which, to be honest, is pretty much always going to be a plus for me. Both had some serious reservations and I appreciate when mature adults don’t simply overlook those without any consideration in order to get some sex. Tony doesn’t know if he could deal with dating someone who is never planning to be seen as anything other than straight. And as for Mac, well not only is he scared that it will spell the end of his career he’s also terrified that it will mean the end of his daughter having a home with her aunt. There’s no rush to get these guys together and even by the end of the book I felt their relationship was definitely not a given. It’s a HFN but there’s no sense of security that they have something solid to build on. But that really doesn’t matter, does it? Because as the whole series has now been written you can just keep reading until they do hit that HEA!
As far as the suspense side goes, I actually enjoyed it. I hesitated for a while over reading this book because I’m not a fan of suspense, except apparently, sometimes I am. Although poor Tony is continually threatened and attacked and injured it really wasn’t his fault. He’s not some helpless Daphne cliché who runs off into the woods at night to investigate a noise while drunk and half naked. I appreciated that the author managed to continuously put him into the path of danger without having to turn him into a TSTL stereotype.
This was the first book I read by Kaje Harper and as soon as I was done I went back and bought all of her other books and downloaded every freebie. I have yet to read a book by this author that I would rate lower than four stars and anytime anyone brings up the “who’re your favourite authors” question, Kaje Harper is always one of the first names I say. If you have yet to read this story, you’re missing out on a great series. This is one book that I don’t hesitate to recommend.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I had this “oh look – it’s Tony“-moment myself quite often with book covers, so yeah, this series definitely is A-list. I just love Tony & Mac and I re-read the books on a regular basis.
Great review 🙂
Definitely A list! Tony and Mac are in my top favourites list
Thanks for the review. I love Kaje’s writing. This series was the first MM series I read. Tony and Mac are a great couple.
Glad you liked it, Ladies 🙂