Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Thin Ice

SERIES:  Pine Cove

AUTHOR:  H.J. Welch

NARRATOR:  Nick J. Russo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  8 hours and 47 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  July 28, 2021

BLURB:

Kamran’s ex broke his heart, tricked him into aiding a bank robbery, and now he wants him to do one last job. There’s only one way to say no: Seek the protective custody of the biggest, grumpiest FBI agent ever. And pretend to be his boyfriend for a weeklong family reunion in their giant mansion. Wait, what?

Agent Lee Marshall is notoriously all work and no play. Letting a flirty, hot-as-sin playboy like Kamran get under his skin is not an option. He has to protect him, not hook up with him. But pretending they’re an item for a week? That couldn’t hurt….

Kamran swore he’d never love again, but Lee will do anything to keep him out of harm’s way. Maybe there’s a teddy bear heart under the hunky FBI agent’s gruff exterior, and Kamran is the only one who can tease it out. What started out fake becomes all too real, but when Kamran’s past catches up to him, Lee must risk everything to save him.

Book six of Pine Cove. Thin Ice is a steamy stand-alone MM romance novel with a guaranteed HEA and absolutely no cliff-hanger.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the sixth book in this series and does contain spoilers for books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 but it can be read as a stand alone.

We met Kamran in the previous book in this series as a colleague of Angel’s working on stunt driving for the latest movie being shot in Pine Cove.  At the beginning of this story, Kamran is still living in Pine Cove.  He’s scraping by in his cheap apartment on the bad side of town.  He’s hoping to get more movie work and he’s got his friends.  He left his life in Seattle behind after getting tangled up in something he had no idea about with a bad ex that took advantage of him.  He’s never going to let anyone get close to him – they only use him and leave.  He’s not worth staying for as he discovered early on in life.  Hookups are fine for him – that’s all he’s really worth anyway is his MO.

But then his past shows up at Aquarium, the gay bar in town.  And the rotten ex, Chaz,  wants him to do a “favor” for him.  Unfortunately at the same time, FBI agent Lee Marshal ALSO shows up and wants to talk to Kamran about his history with Chaz.  Kamran doesn’t want to get involved and tells the agent nothing, but that isn’t good enough for Chaz who wants to make sure he keeps quiet.  And he won’t stop until he gets Kamran.  That leaves Kamran little choice except to reach out to the FBI agent and hope that he can keep Kamran safe.  But he’s in town for a family reunion.  Lee has missed too many family gatherings because of his job and he has promised he won’t miss this one.  So Kamran and Lee cook up a story that Kamran is Lee’s boyfriend and so he’s joining him to meet the family.

Lee’s family is thrilled that he’s actually made it to the reunion – because he generally has begged off of such things due to his job.  He’s chasing a promotion at the Bureau and this boss is always getting him to work more hanging cases and carrots in front of him.  He can’t come up with another way to keep Kamran safe though, so he kills two birds with one stone 😉  Kamran poses as his boyfriend and he can keep an eye on him and keep him out of Chaz’s clutches.  Some of the family isn’t quite so happy to see Lee happy though.  His brother Mikey (what a D*bag that guy is) and his father in particular can’t understand why Lee insists on pursuing his FBI career.  Because Lee’s family is LOADED.  He honestly wouldn’t even have to work, but if he insists, why can’t he work for the family business?  Lee has never had any interest in doing that and his father and brother’s treatment of him certainly don’t make it any more palatable.

Despite some of the family’s reluctance to embrace Lee’s new relationship and boyfriend, his Grandma and his niece are thrilled.  Grandma in particular is a hoot.  She and her little dog Sugar are totally on Lee and Kamran’s side.  Mia, Lee’s niece is also a big fan of Kamran.  And just beneath the surface, the simmering attraction between Kamran and Lee cannot be denied.  And so their “relationship” sort of spills over into something a lot more real as the week goes by.  Kamran is shocked by what a nice guy Lee is – especially given all this money!  Lee is shocked that Kamran sees so little in himself.  When he learns about how Kamran’s family treated him and how he came to even be involved with Chaz in the first place, his possessiveness takes over.  He does his best to convince Kamran that he IS worth it and that Lee really does care about him.

Of course things can’t go easy and it seems that Chaz is not about to give up.  So while Lee lets his boss manipulate him into coming back to Seattle for the day, Chaz makes the most of the opportunity to coerce Kamran into leaving Lee’s family home.  Thankfully Lee has had enough and he figures out something isn’t right.  Knowing that Kamran may be in danger,  Lee reaches out to the group of people who might be able to help him 🙂

I really enjoyed this story!  This series has been a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed Kamran and Lee’s love story.  Yeah, it’s a little bit insta-lovey, but I adored both characters. Lee was dealing with a lot of external pressures from his family and job and he definitely wasn’t  happy.  Kamran gave the appearance of a happy go lucky playboy, but he’s really also deeply unhappy.  He’s trying to fill a hole with his hookups.  He doesn’t believe that he has value beyond a fun time – because he’s been told too many times that this is the case.  It takes quite a bit to convince Kamran that he IS worth and deserving of love.  It also takes quite a lot to convince Lee that he CAN have balance in his life – both a job that gives his satisfaction and a relationship that will give him balance and happiness.  Thankfully things work out for them.  I love how Lee’s family finally comes around.  They start out pretty snooty, but they redeemed themselves in the end.   They get by with little help from their friends 😉

Highly recommended for fans of this series also of fake boyfriends becoming real 😀

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

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