Reviewed by Mal
TITLE: The Meaning of You
SERIES: Fisher & Church #1
AUTHOR: Jay Hogan
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 347 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2025
We’d shared a forever love. The kind they write stories about. A once in a lifetime chance at something special. For fourteen years Davis was my world. We were growing old together, fifties and counting. Then it was all ripped away in the blink of an eye.
We’d told each other everything, or so I thought. But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface and it turned out Davis kept a few of his own. Hidden laptops, clandestine meetings, cryptic emails. The husband I’d believed in was a lie.
Or was he?
I have to find out. And Madigan Church is right there to help me. A complicated man. A man I wasn’t expecting. An attraction I can’t deny. Confusing. Challenging. Madigan makes me feel things I’m not ready for. Want things I don’t deserve. Not now. Maybe not ever again.
But with every step into the twisted mystery, the danger escalates. Neither of us is safe. Not from the truth, and not from what’s growing between us.
Because we aren’t the only ones on the hunt. Somewhere amongst my late husband’s secrets is something worth stealing, maybe even worth killing for.
And time is running out.
Author’s note: This story features the death of a spouse who is not a main character.
‘The Meaning of You’ is the first book in a romantic suspense series following the same couple. There are no cliffhangers.
REVIEW:
Woah that Prologue- totally unexpected and kicks off the action and emotion that is a distinct theme across this gripping book! What a series starter!
This book has bone deep grief and mourning initially, written beautifully, almost uncomfortable in it’s vulnerability, asking you to sit with Nick and his loss. But even then the connection between him and Madigan holds you, as it slowly unfurls building an intimate friendship at first almost comforting in its telling.
The author articulates their story perfectly, it’s a soft gentle build up, at first tentative in even their inner acceptance of what they are feeling is far more than friendship. Mads is reluctant to step out if the tight narrow comfortable cocoon he’s built for himself and Nick is still very much mourning Davis and is unsure of what he can offer. But their connection is strong and Mads is the one Nick runs to when everything is careening out of control around him. Suspense is masterfully built alongside this intimacy and clues of the circumstances of Davis’s death sum up into far more than either if them bargained for. It’s a roller coaster of emotions even there as they discard one theory after another until the last catches up to them and they are in severe danger.
Expect the book to end leaving you wanting more where Mads and Nick’s relationship is concerned and more questions than answers where the mystery plot is concerned.
I did love the found family so inherent in this story from Jerry to Samuel to Gaza and Aunt Shirley. All characters are layered and loveable. Nick and Mads are pretty opposite one ornery and prickly the other a calm steady presence. I also loved reading mature characters with so much depth, still learning and growing together, valuing the sir chance at love.
Highly recommend reading this beautiful slow burn story and I’m dying for the next instalment to see what Nick and Mads get upto.
RATING: 
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