Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Feat of Clay

SERIES: Men of London #4

AUTHOR: Susan Mac Nicol

PUBLISHER: Boroughs Publishing

LENGTH: 153 Pages

BLURB:

Imprisoned and tortured, undercover cop Tate Williams will find redemption in the arms of his boyhood friend, now lover, former SAS soldier Clay Mortimer.

TWO MEN.

TORN. TORTURED. LOVED.

Though they went their separate ways, Tate Williams and Clay Mortimer have been crazy about each other since their school days. Clay went into the SAS. Tate became a cop. Neither mentioned their attraction to the other. Both sought out danger. Both found it.

Imprisoned and shot in an undercover assignment gone wrong, Tate somehow survived…and found his way back into Clay’s arms. His old friend is now the owner of an elite investigation agency and everything any man could want: patient, handsome, commanding. And Clay knows what it takes to survive. But Tate can’t bring himself to share all his secrets, nightmares that force him to rebel against everything. He finds solace from his past as a graffiti artist, a childhood passion, but his demons drive away all who might care for him. Only when he faces that past—and learns that everyone has tasted despair—can the two men truly be brothers-in-arms…and more.

REVIEW:

I’m not a huge fan of romances featuring already established couples, and to be honest, that wasn’t what I was expecting when I started this book. My take on the blurb was that this was a story about Clay and Tate finding their way into a relationship, but when the story begins, the two men have already been together…for about a year? So it’s fair to say that this book had a mark against it right from the beginning, even though I reread the blurb and conceded that my assumption was probably my own fault. The reason I shared this is because it shows just how awesome this book was that, even going into it kinda disgruntled, I enjoyed the ever lovin’ heck out of it.

Tate Williams was an undercover cop whose true identity was revealed to the dangerous criminal he had befriended. As a result he spent four days being tortured by the man before he became bored and shot Tate three times. Believing Tate dead, his body was dumped in the street but luckily for Tate he was taken to hospital and saved. Over a year later and in a serious relationship with his long time friend, Clay, Tate’s body has recovered but his mind refuses to completely heal.

And that is what this story is all about, Tate healing. Throughout the story Clay and Tate remain steadfastly in love with each other, which I definitely appreciated. One reason I don’t like books with established couples is because I hate seeing relationships that have already made it to a certain point being messed with. The strengthening of their connection is evident, as Tate heals, he stops using sex with Clay as a way to forget the bad stuff and the depth of his feelings begins to show through, rather than him just saying the words. Yes, Tate does run off on Clay a couple of times when he needed to stay and talk shit out, but their relationship is never in jeopardy. This may actually be the first story that hasn’t annoyed the hell out of me when a character gets angry or upset and takes off. It made complete sense in this context.

Perhaps Clay, as a main character, is left a little unexplored but the focus here really was on Tate and I’m completely okay with that. Tate was a complex and broken character and needed all the page time he could get to recover. Together the two men are sizzling, the sex scenes hot and plentiful, but I also enjoyed reading about Tate while he was away from Clay. The halfway house for kids, Castaways, was one of my favourite parts of this story and I hope it pops up again in future books. And, just sayin’, while we’re there Jax could seriously do with his own romance. I challenge anyone who reads this story to not fall in love with the beautiful, wounded teen.

This is book number four in the Men of London series but it can be read as a standalone. While the characters from the first three books make appearances they don’t play any important roles in this story. I’ve read the first two books already, but somehow missed the third (which I will surely remedy posthaste), and I think it’s safe to say that this is my favourite story in the collection so far.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

ARe

Boroughs Publishing