Reviewed by Cinnamon
TITLE: Ride Along
SERIES: States of Love (Maryland)
AUTHOR: Meghan Maslow
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 122 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2017
BLURB:
Drew Nolan is a loud-and-proud mystery writer with a brutal case of writer’s block. He needs practical experience with the Baltimore police beat to get his latest manuscript to his publisher on time. When he wins a ride-along at a writer’s conference, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot… until he meets his partner.
Closeted cop Josh de Oliveira lost his family, his partner, and the respect of his unit—all for doing the right thing. Recently busted back down to patrol, he’s relieved to get a cushy assignment at the Author’s Police Institute where he’ll take one lucky writer on a ride-along. Unfortunately, his author looks like he belongs in the backseat of Josh’s squad car—long, ginger dreadlocks, piercings, and an “I would bottom you so hard” T-shirt. But there’s something about Drew Josh is having a hard time resisting.
It’s going to be a long night and one hell of a ride as opposites attract and realize they share a lot in common beneath the surface. As animosity becomes desire, they realize they can help each other out—in more ways than one.
REVIEW:
Ride along is a fun, entertaining short story about a mystery writer and a hot cop. It has all the elements of a great comfort read and the writer doesn’t disappoint.
I love reading stories about cops, because hothothot and also writers as I have lots of author friends and I find it fascinating to get to know more about their lives even in fiction. That being said I was in seventh heaven in this story.
Drew and Josh meet at a writers’ seminar where Drew wins a ride-along experience with the tall dark rude-but-handsome officer. From there we follow how these two work on their mutual attraction and past mistakes.
The writing is solid, the pace and structure well-built and the characters and their background stories are fascinating and kept me reading until the end. A bit more depth to their personalities would have been nice but this being a short story I think what we get is enough to make us like and understand them.
Drew’s overprotective family was a bit annoying but it got solved wonderfully. I love family, so it was entertaining to read a real, loving bickering family portrayal with all the sibling banter and parental overbearing.
Drew and Josh share some hot chemistry and their sizzling scenes have some serious heat. They are really good for each other in every way and their support for the other and the changes they experience were really heartwarming.
The story has a good balance, some light conflict and it was everything my heart needed from a minimal angst, cute love story. Have fun.
RATING: 
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