Where There's Love, Trouble Follows In T.A. Webb's "Brothers In Arms"

“Every gay man out there has at least one man-crush in his past that totally shriveled his nads into raisins and sent him screaming off into the night.” ― T.A. Webb

Author: T.A. Webb

Publisher: A Bear On Books

Pages/Word Count: 171 Pages

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb: Betrayed on every front, Dan O’Leary cashed in all his chips and moved from the big city life of Atlanta to small town Blue Ridge, Georgia. While licking his wounds, he never meant to start a new relationship, especially with closeted Chief of Police Nick Oliver.

But now all Dan’s hot buttons are being pushed. One of his employees is being terrorized by seemingly upstanding townspeople. Then worst of all, he’d promised himself he’d never be anyone’s dirty little secret, and when Nick’s fear of being outed causes him to hurt Dan, Dan knows there’re problems in paradise.

With trouble on all sides—a homophobic football coach, an ex lover, and his former best friend—it takes a shot in the dark before he realizes the real danger. It’s time for Dan to figure out who he can trust and close ranks with his brothers in arms.

Review: I love Tom Webb’s work. I have completely enjoyed everything I have read by him. He usually leaves me pissed off at him at the end of a book because I want more immediately! Brothers In Arms didn’t leave me pissed off, though! It didn’t end with a cliffhanger. Thank you for that, Tom. There is definitely opportunity for one, maybe even two more books in the Broken Road Cafe series, but I’m not sure what he has planned. I was hanging on by a thread, waiting to be left dangling when the story ended. I almost shouted with joy when there was a more traditional ending!

We met Dan O’Leary in the first book in this series. That poor man. Trouble seems to follow him like a shadow. He moved from Atlanta to Blue Ridge, Georgia when his life fell apart in The Broken Road Cafe. The trouble that plagued him and enabled him to meet the super hot macho Chief of Police is still around. And so is his kind and nurturing spirit.

Said Chief of Police, Nick Oliver (my mom always told me not to trust a person with two first names…), thinks he’s way in the closet. He and Dan are neighbors and “Back Door Men” as The Shadows of Knight sang about in the 60s. Don’t let your pervy mind go there. It means they are secret lovers and, they sneak in and out of each other’s houses after dark through the back door so no one sees them. Nick’s family pretty much knows he’s gay, he just hasn’t said it officially yet. His biggest worry about coming out is how his men will treat him at work if he does.

While cleaning up the remains of the mess made in the first book, running his cafe and worrying about the gay teenaged bus boy who is being bullied by the football team, you wouldn’t think Dan would have time for love. Somewhere in all the drama and action and surprises, he and Nick do manage to fall in love. And it was sweet watching them fall.

Dan is kind of open with his feelings and his need to protect the underdog. Nick doesn’t express himself as well and is willing, almost to a fault, to give people the benefit of the doubt. This makes for most of the conflict between the main characters. They aren’t fighting their feelings for each other so much, as is usually the case in M/M romance. Instead, they are actually fighting. They disagree fundamentally on how to handle a bullying situation and the people who may be responsible for it.

The wonder that is Tom Webb’s brain weaves a story around that conflict and the detritus left at the end of book one (including the new fallout from revelations made in this book related to the aforementioned detritus). Got all that? He brings all the threads together to make a great love story and mystery and coming of age sub-plot. The characters were all compelling; even the ones I hated were well written. I rooted like crazy for Dan and Nick to make it to the end intact. Brothers In Arms is another great book from the amazing Tom Webb. A must read!

You can buy Brothers In Arms (The Broken Road Cafe: Book Two) here: