Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Lawless
SERIES: Dauntless Island
AUTHORS: Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 252 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 20, 2025
BLURB:
Welcome to Dauntless Island. Unless you’re Senior Constable Dominic Miller.
When Dominic Miller gets the opportunity to run Dauntless Island’s first police station, he jumps at the chance. What could be better than community-based policing on a breathtakingly beautiful island? It turns out, everything. Because they don’t like outsiders on Dauntless Island, and they especially don’t like coppers.
Natty Harper needs a job, and offering to clear the new copper’s garden seems like a good way to earn some cash. Just as long as nobody finds out. And the new copper might be cute, but it’s not like Natty’s going to do anything stupid like fall for him, right?
Especially when Natty might have an illegal side gig going on.
It’s lucky Natty is descended from mutineers, because he and Dominic are about to break all the rules on Dauntless Island.
Lawless contains a bemused copper who wants to make friends, a Dauntless Islander who wants to get laid, an angry brother, a useless cousin, an actual emergency, and a sea cave. And also a cat called Frank.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the second book in this series and contains major spoilers for the first book 🙂
After the events of Dauntless, the first book in this series, Dauntless Island is not getting a resident police officer – or “copper” in the local parlance. Dominic Miller volunteers for the position. He’s been successful building community policing and so he thinks this will be a good fit. Then he arrives on Dauntless. And nobody will talk to him, acknowledge him, sell supplies to him, etc. Well one guy agrees to get him some milk and eggs, and a neighbor will help him with the garden/lawn of the new police station (which happens to be the old mayor’s house – and that’s a WHOLE other story). Mavis, the shop owner is completely unfriendly as are most of the rest of the town. Saying that this town doesn’t like outsiders is a huge understatement.
Luckily Eddie Hawthorne and Red Joe Nesmith, boyfriends and museum runner and current mayor respectively, are welcoming. Eddie’s still an outsider to everyone else, but Joe is the mayor so he has a little bit of an edge. He’s not exactly popular though either 😉 He and Eddie bond over this “outsider” status.
Turns out that Natty, the neighbor who ask for the job straightening up Dominic’s yard, has his own little scheme going. And it’s not entirely eager. But Natty’s brother will won’t let him work on the boats or get another job. He’s overbearing and makes Natty feel like he’s incompetent most of the time. Natty spends a lot of time with his cousin Button John (who is another islander who is very much at loose ends which doesn’t bode well). Natty and Button John have grown up together and have gone to school on the mainland and then returned to Dauntless, but now there is not a lot for them to do. So Natty decides to make his own way. He’s also dealing with his mother who has her own issues so he can’t really be too far away – so the fact that Dominic’s house is right behind his is also quite helpful.
As Natty and Dominic spend time together, they find out they have more in common 😉 But Natty’s secrets and other spooky happenings get a bit in their way. There are plenty of hurdles and obstacles for these two good guy to overcome 😀
OMG! This is a very funny and quirky story. My mother came from a very small town where everybody knows everyone’s business. People living in garages to give their houses to their kids. Lots of people struggling to get by. I enjoyed this small town flavor of this story and how interconnected these folks are. The names alone are worth many chuckles. It’s quite the eccentric little hamlet. Natty and Dominic were very sweet and their romance was a fun ride. These authors are so good at writing compelling and interesting stories and this is definitely another one of their engaging worlds. I would love to have stories for some of the other lonely guys here – Button John and Will for sure! Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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