Reviewed by Elizabetta

 

 

TITLE: Chasing the Dragon

AUTHOR: Kate Sherwood

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 230 pages

BLURB:

When mercenary Jack Hunter stumbles upon Christian Manning servicing a client in a back alley, it stirs feelings he’s kept deeply buried. Hunter becomes Christian’s knight in shining armor when he rescues him from an attack and takes him to his secluded cabin to heal.

Being stuck in the cabin over the winter gives both men a chance to get their lives in order. Christian is struggling to break his heroin addiction, and Hunter needs to get away from the organization he helped start years before—a group of people who don’t appreciate being told no. It’s a toss-up which goal is more difficult. Their new starts spark a relationship between them, but nothing good comes cheap. Despite the complications, Hunter wants more, but Christian is resistant to making that commitment. When Hunter’s private security company threatens them, only nurturing the fragile trust they formed at the beginning of their love affair will save them. But for two men with very dark pasts, relying on each other might be easier said than done.

 

REVIEW:

 

This story is told in three parts and I feel two ways about it. HA!

 

No, seriously, there were things I really liked, and others that left me confused…

 

I really like Christian.

 

I know, I know… he does something in the first part of the story that many readers will take great exception to… But his struggle throughout the story– chasing his own personal demons, chasing that dragon– is moving, and it really connected with me. He is a junkie-hooker with no one and nowhere to go. He sells himself on the street to feed his heroin habit. At nineteen years old, he can’t get much lower than that. But he always knows just who he is. At one point in the story Christian explains heroin’s allure for him…

 

“That’s what they call smoking smack… Chasing the dragon. Because of the smoke… but also because the first time you smoke it… It’s the best feeling you’ve ever had. Better than anything.”

 

When Hunter sweeps in to the rescue, pulling Christian from the street, giving him somewhere to stay, a job, finding him a doctor and seeing him through the grueling rehab… I thought, ‘Who. Is. This. Guy? And why is he so compelled to help Christian, a virtual stranger? I’m not so sure that Hunter, this older, much more experienced, trained mercenary, has as much self awareness as Christian.

 

Yes, some of Christian’s actions are inexcusable especially because of all that Hunter does for him. But they are in keeping with his character and where he is in his life. He’s completely clear about his very recent past as a junkie hooker. He knows his own limitations and what it will take to break the heroin habit– this is a huge part of this story, it’s a constant throughout it. Christian knows more than Hunter, that his past, his cravings, will always be there between them. That lucidity really hit me. Especially in someone so young.

 

So, I didn’t get Hunter. Again, this blind need in him towards Christian just seemed too quick and too pat. Maybe it was just lust morphed into caring, but it didn’t make sense to me. The rest of their story, where we find out about Hunter’s secret career and how it impacts Christian’s life is interesting, but mostly for Christian’s actions there, too. There are some good action sequences, some good secondary characters. But as to the romance itself… it kinda pales next to Christian’s personal journey. I really want to love the whole story, the complicated relationship, but…

 

When I look back on this read it will be for Christian’s character and his evolution in it. My rating reflects that. As to the rest of it, I’m calling this a ‘it must be me’ thing because I can totally see how others might love Hunter and Christian’s story. I am a long-time fan of this author but it can’t always be smooth-sailing. Maybe next time.

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon