Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  The Secret of Hunter’s Bog

AUTHOR:  Ally Blue

PUBLISHER:  Riptide Publishing

LENGTH:  207 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 7, 2016

BLURB:  

For Koichi McNab, the shop he and his twin sister Kimmy are opening in Hunter’s Bog Mall is a fresh start after their old one burned down. A way to move on. Especially when he meets the hunky owner of the luxury camping goods store next door. Koichi’s never been an outdoorsy guy, but Will Hood just might change his mind.

Will came to Southern Alabama to establish his own life away from his big, intrusive family—and in hopes of finding Anthony, the lover who vanished two years ago. But meeting Koichi throws everything off-kilter. Anthony was a long time ago. Koichi’s right here, smart and funny and cute, and Will wants him.

As Koichi and Will become friends, then lovers, Will’s past and Koichi’s present tangle into a dangerous knot that brings them face-to-face with secrets, theft, treachery . . . maybe even murder. With their lives on the line, their only way to safety is together.

REVIEW:  

A little mystery, a little romance, and probably a fuck-ton of mosquitoes.

Life in a small town in Southern Alabama is pretty normal. For the given values of normal, anyways. There are good people and bad people, gossip and secrets, new comers and families long entrenched in the Alabama dirt. Koichi McNab has lived there his entire life and not felt too bad about that at all. He loves his home, his family. He loves his store, which was passed down from his grandmother to him and his twin sister.

Which is probably why it is all the more galling that someone broke it, looted the place, and then burned it down. Not that that would ever be considered a fun day by anyone in any circumstances (well, I guess unless you were the arsonist. Who knows, that douche might have been having the time of his life). But Koichi has tried to move on. He has opened a new store in the new strip-mall just on the edge of town. It has good traffic, and who knows, maybe this is the start of a good thing.

And that is at least halfway correct, I guess. Since the store’s neighboring business is run by the gorgeous, funny, and slightly off-limits Will Hood. Will has just moved into the area and doesn’t know many people. But he instantly feels a connection with Koichi. Which…is a bit of a problem since he is in town to track down his ex. A man he loves and who disappeared out of his life a couple years ago with no explanation and no forwarding address. So while Will is attracted to Koichi and Koichi is attracted to Will, nothing can happen. Nothing can…ok, well, let’s just say that things in the bog tend to not stay in the bog. They follow you home like a cloud of blood-thirsty insects intent on sucking your yummy yummy body dry of blood.

Unfortunately insects are not the only thing stalking the bog, either.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It was a hell of a lot lighter in style than the last book I read by this author (Down is a good book if you ever feel like you need a good reason to never go into the ocean again) and I found myself instantly drawn to Koichi, Will, and even Koichi’s sister. The hints of something-not-right in the bog, the mystery of who (or what) was stalking Koichi and Will, did a great job of building the tension in this story. It kept me turning pages, that’s for sure.

And the slightly complicated relationship of Will and Koichi turned out really well. I liked how Will was having to choose between who he had now and who he thought he had then. I liked that it wasn’t an easy choice, that–for all that Koichi wanted a clear deceleration of intent–Will couldn’t just let go of the past while the past was still such a huge fucking question mark. For all that it would have been easier for all round if Will could have just moved on, that inability to move on was a huge part of the mystery aspect of the book and it made the relationship with Koichi all the more interesting for it.

This was a fun book. It just was. I enjoyed reading it. There was not a lot of muss or fuss. It just told a good story with a couple of interesting characters and a bit of mystery to keep it all uncertain. I like that in a book.

Which leads me to my but….

But…I do have to admit that the last fifth or so of this book was a bit…anticlimactic. Maybe. I guess.

Look, this book had a lot going for it and a big part of that was the whole mystery of what the fuck was going on with Will’s ex. And while I like that the author chose to go a certain way in handling the ending of this book it was just written in such a way that it severely undercut the climax. It fell a bit flat. I’m not going to reveal what it was because that would be a massive spoiler, but let’s just say that the idea was good, but the execution was a bit off. Will just…he let go way too easily. It felt like running into a old high school friend at Walmart, not discovering…well what it is he discovered. After nearly 200 pages of playing Where Is Anthony, I kinda needed more than what I got.

So.

I liked it. I even enjoyed it. But probably not nearly as much as I could have, and that is a bit sad.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Riptide

Amazon