Reviewed by Louisa
TITLE: First Impressions
AUTHOR: Jay Hogan
PUBLISHER: Blackout Books
LENGTH: 320 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 25th 2018
BLURB:
Michael:
Two years ago I made a mistake, a big one and then I threw in a couple more just for good measure. I screwed up my life big time but I made it through. I was lucky.
Then I was given the opportunity for a fresh start. Two years in Auckland, NZ, ‘The City of Sails’. Away from the LA gossip, a chance to breathe, to get my life back together.
I grabbed it and packed my new set of golden rules with me.
I don’t do relationships.
I don’t do commitment.
I don’t do white picket fences.
And I especially don’t do arrogant, holier-than-thou, smoking hot K9 officers who walk into my ER and rock my world.
Josh:
The only thing I know for certain about Dr. Michael Oliver is the guy is an arrogant, untrustworthy player, and I’d barely survived the last one of those in my life. Once was more than enough.
The man might be gorgeous but my eleven-year-old daughter takes number one priority and I won’t risk her being hurt, again. I’m a solo dad, a K9 cop and a son to pain in the ass, bigoted parents.
I don’t have time for games.
I don’t have time for taking chances.
I don’t have time for more complications in my life.
And I sure as hell don’t have time for the infuriating Dr. Michael Oliver, however damn sexy he is.
REVIEW:
I don’t actually know how to write this review, my mind has changed about 20 times while reading First Impressions. Funnily, if my first impression of this book was the one I trusted then I would have stopped reading after 20 pages. The start suffers from many of the issues of debut novels. It is wordy and tedious and I really struggled.
But then something started to change. I think the author became more comfortable with their story and the characters started to develop. Michael and Josh started to become real and interesting. Their past was well written and the secondary characters very interesting. I really enjoyed Sasha, Josh’s daughter. She wasn’t perfect, but a perfectly normal kid. The staff at the hospital were also good characters who created a well rounded story.
Josh and Michael together are hot. And they really have a lot of sex. But sometimes their inability to talk became irritating. The presumption that they each new what the other was thinking was good and then it became to much for me.
My other big issue was that Michael is an American living in New Zealand but there were none of the issues you would expect to find. Only once in the whole book did Michael not understand a Kiwi saying and he really didn’t stand out as being different at all. As someone who has lived in an overseas English speaking country, there is plenty of differences that are obvious every day.
Then the end of the book was wonderful. When I finished the book I was actually a little disappointed. Everything came together well and it was just a great way to end. While for me, First Impressions didn’t leave me 100% happy, I really look forward to Jay Hogan’s next book and watching the progression of Jay’s writing.
RATING: 
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