Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: The Only Easy Day
SERIES: Sanctuary #2
AUTHOR: R.J. Scott
PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books
LENGTH: 233 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 20, 2012
BLURB:
One dead girl, one scared witness, and two men trained as Navy SEALs. Whether searching for justice or revenge, the final showdown between them is the same…. explosive!
Dale MacIntyre, former Navy SEAL, works for Sanctuary. He’s the acting handler for a member of the Bullen familys inner circle. He is close to obtaining the evidence he needs to prove Elisabeth Costains death was ordered by them… until someone gets in his way.
Joseph Kinnon, active Navy SEAL, is back on US soil for the first time in months, and he is told the tragic news that his stepsister is dead, gunned down in an alley by an unknown assailant. He is determined to find out who murdered her… until someone gets in his way.
They both want the same thing but have different methods of accomplishing their goals. They both want the Bullen family brought to account, but one wants justice and the other wants revenge.
What happens between them, however, has nothing to do with either.
REVIEW:
Continuing shortly after the first book ended, the investigation is ongoing into the reasons behind Elisabeth Costains murder. Morgan can’t let things go without gaining some answers first and, as a result, his boyfriend Nik and their friend Dale are both putting time in off the books to try and put the pieces together while gaining evidence against the Bullen family. Matters become more complicated and dangerous, however, when Elisabeth’s brother, Joseph, enters the picture fresh off of a mission in Afghanistan. Angry and grieving, Joseph is determined to find out what happened for himself and finding the man that shot his sister already behind bars without a trial isn’t enough. When Dale and Joseph meet, the two men can’t help but butt heads; Joseph wants answers and doesn’t particularly care what he has to do to get them and Dale has had prior experience with a Navy SEAL going off the deep end making him distrustful and vehemently against the other man being involved at all. Add in a healthy dose of lust between them and the situation is quickly becoming a powder keg with a ridiculously short fuse.
This was a really good story and it was nice to see both a change in how the story was approached and to also see progress in getting answers to the questions left over previously. I enjoyed seeing Nik and Morgan again since I liked them so much together in the first novel but I loved that I got to know Dale here since he had only a short appearance previously. It was interesting getting to see how Joseph operated, both with the help of his team and with Dale, and regardless of his attitude towards doing anything necessary to gain the information he needed, it was obvious that he would also do whatever he could to protect those that needed it. I could easily see the attraction and the fact that both men were fighting it just as much as they were fighting with each other and they worked well together, both in trying to get the job done and intimately. The one thing I had a problem with, however, were the declarations of love at the end of the book since I didn’t feel Dale and Joseph had spent enough time together, in any capacity, for that to be believable. Love can certainly happen quickly but these two had been fighting too much for me to find this entirely plausible. Still, I could easily see them deciding to explore where their mutual attraction would take them.
This was a good follow up to the first book in the series and I liked it more than I anticipated from the blurb given; it was a nice deviation from the ‘bodyguard’ theme and continued the current story arc nicely. If you like reading about hot alpha males and relationships with more push/pull in them, this book could be for you. It is best read as part of the series, however, so I’d recommend checking out Guarding Morgan first.
RATING: 
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