Reviewed by Donna and Vicki

TITLE: Tigers on the Run 

SERIES: Tigers and Devils #3

AUTHOR: Sean Kennedy

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 260 pages

BLURB:

Young Australian Micah Johnson is the first AFL player to be out at the beginning of his career. Retired professional football player Declan Tyler mentors Micah, but he finds it difficult, as Micah is prone to making poor life choices that land him in trouble. Nothing Dec can’t handle. He’s been there, done that, more times than he’d like to admit. Being Simon Murray’s partner all these years has Dec quite experienced in long-suffering and mishaps.

As usual, Simon thinks everything is going along just fine until his assistant, Coby, tells him a secret involving an old nemesis. Simon and Dec’s problems mash together, and to solve them, they must undertake a thousand-kilometer round trip in which issues will have to be sorted out, apologies are finally given, and a runaway kid is retrieved and returned to his worried parents.

VICKI’S REVIEW:

Tigers on the run is a continuation of the story started in Tigers and Devils (click to see my review), and continued in Tigerland. The main characters are Declan (Dec) Tyler, who is a professional football player at the beginning of the series (Australian Football), and retired by the time this third book starts. His partner is Simon Murray, who works in film, and is the king of snark. Their relationship developed amongst much drama and angst, Dec was deeply in the closet while playing AFL, Simon had never seen the inside of a closet. They were outed and Dec became the poster child for gay sports players, and Simon… well, Simon just got more shit to deal with! Time passed, it all worked out, and here we are starting a new story with Dec and Simon. Yeah! Dec is now mentoring gay teen athletes, plus providing commentary for a sports channel. Simon is on to a new job with a different film company, making documentaries.

In addition to Simon and Dec, we have Roger and Fran, who started as Simon’s friends but now love Dec just as much if not more. Coby, who joined us in the second book, is still Simon’s assistant, and his closest friend other than Roger and Fran. Abe, Declan’s former team mate and now best friend, plus his wife Lisa, are still around. And…. Simon’s arch nemesis Jasper Brunswick is back. Ugh. Plus we have a new character, Micah Johnson, up and coming AFL player/obnoxious teenage asshole.

Coby has a big NASTY surprise in store for Simon, that causes HUGE amounts of drama. And I do mean huge. Simon is notoriously a drama queen anyway, Coby totally stumps him with this one, and off we go. Snark, snark, snark, whine, whine, whine, poor Simon, it’s all about him and nobody understands! While this is all playing out, Micah, the pain in the ass teenage prodigy Dec has been dealing with, gets totally out of control and drags every single person in to his shit. He and Simon hate each other, Dec is stuck in the middle. Micah threatens Coby, Jasper writes a nasty bit of gossip about Micah, Fran and Roger try to calm everybody down. Again, Simon manages to make it all about him, and causes even more drama than there needs to be!

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is just a big mess of drama, centering around Simon. I love all of the characters that are so deeply entwined, it’s really not just Simon and Dec’s book. I love the differences between Simon and Dec, Simon is so wound up all of the time about everything, Dec is so calm and cool. But Dec can freak out and run, as he has done before, and as he does in this book. Pushing Simon to be the grown up. What did get old for me was that all of the drama was caused by external sources. Coby and his big thing (see how I’m NOT giving it away??), and the crap with Micah cause all of these people to be all freaked out. There is lots of running around, lots of arguing, lots of drinking, and a big road trip at the end that just got old. I found myself skipping over the arguing conversations and the snarky comments, to get on to the next part. There wasn’t much that really concerned me between Dec and Simon. It was fun and fluffy, but a bit contrived.

The other issue with this whole series is there is NO SEX! I repeat: there is no on page sex at any point. I have been able to work past that, I like the characters enough to deal with it, but I SOOOOO wish there was. It doesn’t even have to be overly erotic, I do think that in a romance novel the sex helps to create a physical connection between the characters for me, and we do not get that with this series.

If you are a fan of this series you’ll like this book as well. It was very similar to the second one, but just didn’t have the emotional impact that the first book did for me. I LOVED the first one, I liked the second one, and I liked this one just fine. It’s fun and busy, lots of action and quick dialogue, snappy comebacks, and had some very sweet moments between Dec and Simon. I LOVED the ending and we are set up nicely for another book. I was a great way to spend a holiday weekend!

RATING: 

DONNA’S REVIEW:

This series makes me happy. Yes, a very simplistic statement but there you have it. When I started reading Tigers on the Run it immediately felt comfortable, like I hadn’t ever been apart from these characters but at the same time I was aware that I’d missed them like crazy.

Can anybody name me one other series that could even attempt to include a sarcastic arty wanker and his equally sarcastic sidekick, a retired AFL football player, a new mother of twins who needs to reconnect with her wild side and The Antichrist who is suffering from inflammatory bowel syndrome all barreling down the highway in the minibus of Gay True Love while singing Love Shack, debating the Spice Girls, discussing vaginas and making poop jokes? Go on try, I dare you.

Simon and Declan are back and are still going strong after years of happily living together in Melbourne. Fundamentally they’re still the same people – Simon is still snarky as fuck and quick to offend anybody and everybody, and Dec is using his celebrity status to help GLBT teens find wider acceptance in sports. Declan is also hinting that he’s ready to start a family and so far Simon is resistant to the idea. But while our two MCs remain largely the same, we can also see how they have grown. Especially Simon. Yes, he’s still an overly dramatic, whiney prick sometimes but he recognizes why he reacts the way he does, and he owns his faults. I love that he knows he’s resisting the idea of children because he greedily wants to keep Dec for himself, but at the same time he knows that he’ll agree in the end because he loves Declan too much to deny him anything. I just love the way that these two men love each other, and while I’m aware that some readers lament the lack of on page sex with this series, I’ve never felt that I needed it to feel the connection between Declan and Simon.

It’s gotten to the point, although I would refuse to say it to him in fear of the shit he would give me, that I can’t believe I actually lived my life without him at some stage.

All of our other favourites have also returned – Fran, Roger, Abe, Lisa, Coby and even bloody Jasper Brunswick takes a bigger role in this book, much to Simon’s eternal disgust. And as much as I continue to hate Jasper, as much as I wish Simon would push him off another bridge and actually drown him this time, I’m forced to admit that the constant biting and bitching that ensues whenever he’s on page brought me endless moments of enjoyment. Sean Kennedy really is one of the kings of bitchy banter and snarky set downs and while I realize that that isn’t every reader’s preference, it suits me perfectly.

“He’s expecting us to be that way and not come to the party.”

“They’re having a party? Do we have to go?”

At Dec’s withering look, I said, “Oh. The metaphorical party. Well, I don’t really want to go to that one either.”

The only complaint (and it isn’t that much of a complaint) that I have is the promised road trip. I bloody well LOVE a road trip story and a road trip with Simon and Dec is a surety of epicness. I was looking forward to that trip from the moment I read the blurb and saw the cover. The road trip doesn’t actually happen until 75%. But, having complained that I had to wait, I laughed out loud while reading much of it. It definitely delivered on its promise of epic greatness and I don’t know if I could have handled a longer serving of such concentrated humor.

The ending was all any Tigers and Devils fan could ask for and, well, I don’t know about anyone else but I read that as the promise of another book. I may have indulged in a small happy dance to celebrate and then stupidly spent my Sunday afternoon watching football. I tried to like it for Declan – but it’s never going to happen.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

ARe