Reviewed by Chris*
TITLE: Secrets and High Spirits
SERIES: Secrets #4
AUTHOR: Lou Harper
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 137 pages
BLURB:
Their love is an explosive cocktail—stirred, shaken, and served with a twist.
Secrets, Book 4
Teag and Bruce dream of opening their own bars, but that’s where the similarities end.
Teag, a popular bartender at West Hollywood’s hottest club, is willful, opinionated, and likes to take charge. He envisions his future bar as a boozy oasis for craft cocktails. Unfortunately, while he’s big on ideas, he’s short on funds.
Bruce, on the other hand, is a tower of pirate-tattooed muscle with a laid-back attitude. While he’s good with people, he’s a walking paradox—a wannabe boss with a weakness for bossy men.
Their partnership is a natural fit, but every time they meet, sparks fly as they rub each other the wrong way. Or is it the right way? In the heat of the moment, it’s hard to tell.
Between renovation pitfalls, meddling friends, and miles of police tape, Teag and Bruce struggle to keep their venture—and their budding relationship—from going up in flames. And not the good kind. More like the one on the top of a B52 shot.
Warning: Contains a whipcord-lean and whip-smart bartender who knows what he wants—and how hard he wants it—and a go-with-the-flow bar manager who secretly likes to be told how hard to give it.
REVIEW:
To say that Teag and Bruce got off to a rough start would be fairly accurate. Teag drops the bomb that the bar where Bruce is currently working is getting sold off, and Bruce is less than tactful in response. But that really should have been the end of that relationship…till Teag and Bruce bump into each other while touring the same building for sale. Neither of them can actually afford to buy and fix the place up, but if they put their wallets together, maybe. Too bad Teag thinks Bruce is nothing more than muscles and tattoos, and Bruce thinks that…well, that Teag would look quite lovely standing over him and ordering him to such his cock.
I’ve never been very silent on my enjoyment of Lou Harper books in general. They are always fun to read and I don’t think this one is any different. Though I must say that the few scenes (and really, I do wish there had been many many more) where Teag and Bruce finally get around to, well, common purposes, are by far my favorite parts of this book. Teag is just so deliciously bossy, and Bruce (and I) seem to have enjoyed that very much.
The mystery aspect of this book did seem a bit, um, just thrown in there. I didn’t really expect it, and the way it was mixed into the rest of the story seemed to not really fit. It was interesting, but unlike some of the other books in this series, I do believe that this book would have been better without the dead-body aspect. The heat between the two MCs was the real motivating force in this book, and the mystery–which was hardly a mystery at all–was just superfluous.
I enjoyed seeing some of the other MCs from previous books, and I certainly would be interested in seeing more of everyone at a later date as well. Great story, but it would have got a higher rating from me if we got more scenes after Bruce and Teag get their sticks out of…um…well, lets just say that while I love a good slow burn, this could have done with some more time on boil.
RATING:
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*I previously published my reviews under the name Carissa. As I work to update my profile on Love Bytes, please be aware that posts may be found under either my old name or my new name–depending on when they were originally posted. Hopefully the change-over will not take long and everything will be easier to find at the end of this all.