Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Off the Clock
SERIES: Mount Hope
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 266 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2024
BLURB:
Starting over after retiring as an Army Ranger shouldn’t be this hard…
For twenty years, I traveled the world as a special operations warrior. Newly retired at forty-two, I’m back in my hometown of Mount Hope, pursuing a second career as a small-town firefighter. My meddling sisters and best friends all have opinions about my life, but the only person who seems to truly understand me is Caleb, the younger firefighter tasked with my training.
After a lifetime of denying my attraction to other men, Caleb reminds me of everything I’ve missed out on. I’ve never even kissed a guy.
Until now.
Until Caleb.
Until I push our growing friendship to the next level. While sneaking around like a pair of teens, trying not to get caught by our coworkers, friends, and family, our sexy connection leads us to some...interesting places.
And it turns out that I like taking risks. I’ve never wanted a relationship, and neither of us should be fooling around with a coworker, but we keep courting danger.
The more time I spend with Caleb off and on the clock, the more I like him and the less certain I am about everything else in my life. The one thing I know for sure is that I can’t afford to lose this intense bond we share. Can we find our way from super secret to super real before the clock runs down on this fling?
OFF THE CLOCK features two coworkers with an age gap finding out that opposites really do attract and that first impressions aren’t always accurate. All the big emotions, small-town feels, and hot romance readers expect from this acclaimed author. While certain subplot threads continue throughout the series, each guaranteed happily ever after stands alone!
REVIEW:
Tony is returning to Mount Hope after putting 20 years into the US Army. He’s not a retired ranger and he’s going to finish his training and become a firefighter with the local department. One of his old friends is the acting captain and he’s staying with one of his other old friends who is a widower EMT.
Caleb (who we met in the first book) is one of the younger firefighters with the department. Sean, the captain, asks him to train Tony. Tony is reluctant at first because he’s attracted to Caleb, but he figures he can get through this. Except that Caleb is clearly attracted to him as well 🙂
They both have baggage and responsibilities and Tony sees a lot of himself in Caleb. Tony was responsible for his younger sisters when he was growing up and Caleb has taken on his younger brother who has gotten himself into trouble in Portland and his mom has asked for an assist. Eric, Tony’s widower friend has kids and his son is in high school as well and a teammate of Scotty’s on the hopeful football team.
Tony and Caleb end up hooking up. But there are rules about fraternization. Tony has never given in to his attraction to me before nd Caleb wants a relationship. Tony’s not ready for anything like that – he’s never done relationships. He’s also got some untreated PTSD.
As they get closer, they have risky hookups. Seems like Tony might have a little bit of a kink at the prospect of nearly public sex and the potential of being caught too 😉 He and Caleb just can’t seem to keep their hands off each other and while both guys are trying to keep things casual, you know that’s gonna be a problem 🙂
I enjoyed this story – although there was a bit of teenage angst that I could have used less of 😉 I appreciated that while Tony was a mature guy and had life experience, his experience did not include a lot in the way of personal relationships. He had some anxiety and PTSD that he’d not dealt with. In some ways Caleb was more mature. Both of these guys had sort of been forced to grow up and take responsibilities on before they were adults and it definitely affected them. Tony tries to help Caleb with his relationship with Scotty and also tries to help him not be so hard on himself. Caleb really wants Tony to take more care with himself. Luckily both have friends and family around to help them see the light. An enjoyable story with small town found family vibes. Nothing earth shattering here, but I’m enjoying the Mount Hope series. Recommended.
RATING: 
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