Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Casual Felonies
SERIES: Wildlings
AUTHOR: Kelly Fox
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 294 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2025
BLURB:
At what point does casually stalking your hot barber become a felony?
Look, I swear I’m harmless. Just a mildly obsessed, extremely hot influencer trying to figure out why my barber-slash-hookup-slash-possible-soulmate kicked me out after the best [redacted] of my life.
As he was shoving me out the door, he muttered something about my dads and a meat hook, and I have no clue what the heck he’s talking about. Sure, they’re overbearing and disgustingly in love, but it’s not like they’d actually kill a man for defiling their son.
Probably.
Anyway, I’m off to slap a super illegal tracker on the hot barber’s car and see what that gets me.
CASUAL FELONIES is book one in The Wildlings, a next-gen gay romance series set in the Kelly-verse, following the grown-up children of the vigilante dads from the Guardians series. cousin shenanigans, surprise cameos, a surprising flair for morally flexible solutions, and the entirely unsanctioned defiling of a barber chair.
REVIEW:
Note: This book is the kickoff to a new series. That being said, there is a lot of crossover and cameo appearances by characters from previous series by this author. I have not read the entire backlist of these series, but I have read enough of Wrecked, Wild Heart Ranch, Guardians, Mobsters & Billionaires, Lost Boys, etc. series to know the major players and recognize events that are referenced (and there are crossovers in those series as well). While there are a lot of characters here, I think the author gives at least enough backstory/information to give the reader a sense of what has occurred in the previous generations (and will likely entice readers who haven’t delved into those series to jump on the bandwagon).
Rami Bash is one of the twin offspring of Anders and Omar Bash. Rani’s twin Maya is a medical resident and Rami, after finishing his masters at Harvard has come back to central Texas and is moving into the world of philanthropy. He uses his influencer status to help the causes he is supporting. His first big bash goes astray though when his co-chair, the son of a powerful politician, is clearly high out of his mind and not only is obvious about it but ends up getting arrested on the dais. Ooops. Not the way Rami had hoped to “splash” his way into the big leagues.
Then he goes to get his hair cut by his barber, Truett Valentine. True is the object of Rami’s lust as well as his barber. Despite True’s deep-seated fear of Rami’s dads (he knows the by reputation from his side hustle of looking out for the disadvantaged and abused), Rami and True have an “encounter”. But then True freaks out and tells Rami to get out and find a new barber. Rami, however, is not going to let this go.
Rami starts “stalking” True. But he is sooooooo bad at it! Rami’s dads are of course on to this. They have been “protecting” Rami and Maya from their true work and now they think maybe it’s time to see if Rami has what it takes to know more. Rami is still clueless and his dad’s “encourage” True to let Rami stalk him to test him. When Rami finds this out, he’s none too pleased about it. The dads are a bit chastised and True thinks he might end up in an unmarked grave 😉 But it seems that maybe he has a set of skills that can be useful as well. And of course he does want Rami. Badly.
How will this all work though? Does Rami really want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Does he want in on this? Will True work with the newesst generation of vigilante justice warriors? You’ll have to read to find out.
As usual, this is a truly Kelly Fox story. There is some violence (mostly off page), some craziness and a lot of dark humor. Personally I love this combo. There are a lot of new characters here – next gen that I am anxious to learn more about. I can’t wait to find out Silas’s story. I was thrilled with the cameo’s from the previous series – particularly Hopper 🙂 I know it’s a bit OTT, but it’s all in good fun. And frankly I like seeing wrongs be set right in this world since it seems we are unlikely to see it in the “real world” any time soon. It’s a great time – full of suspense. I would like more time with Rami and True and the romance felt a tine bit forced, but they are hot together and it seems better suited to each other than it appears from a distance. I’m looking forward to more stories in the new world of the Wildlings.
RATING: 
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