Author: Sam B. Morgan
Publisher: Loose Id
Length: 196 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: If you love to see relationships unfold, the steamy as well as the emotional, then this is a must read.
Reviewed By: Taz
Blurb: Fifteen years with the Los Angeles Police Department, Mike Graham is a seasoned cop and a damn good training officer. On the brutal streets of LA, he’s witnessed every type of crime and taught countless rookies how to survive while they protect and serve. Nothing surprises him anymore. That is, until he meets Nathan York.
Nathan York shouldn’t be a cop. With his Beverly Hills background and pretty boy good looks, he’s fit for the land of movie stars and nose jobs. Too bad being LAPD is all he’s ever wanted. No longer a rookie, he thinks he’s ready for anything, even if the next challenge is working with his hard-assed yet magnetic ex-training officer.
Partners on the job, Mike and Nate both struggle with an attraction that has no place in their world. Their explosive chemistry reaches a point it cannot be ignored, but the same chemistry that consumes them could destroy the very thing that binds them together.
Publisher’s Note: This book was originally published by Loose Id and is being re-issued.
Review: A Rookie Move was a fun and fast-paced read with LOTS of hot, descriptive, steamy sex. Set in LA and written in alternating points of view, police officers Mike and Nate are paired up. Mike is the senior officer, older than Nate by more than a decade, and somewhat jaded by years on the job. Nate is his rookie trainee, born with a silver spoon in his mouth yet knowing he wanted to be a cop, no matter what. Mike is deeply closeted to the outside world, believing that one night stands with no strings attached is the safest way to keep his heart intact and to protect his career. Nate is more easy-going, although he leaps before he looks, only considering the consequences after the fact. This dynamic made for perfect tension throughout. Each character needed to work to meet somewhere in the middle. Each had issues to face, some of them the same, and some different based on their ages and upbringings. But none of that mattered as the heat between them crossed from partners on the beat to partners between the sheets.
By far, the best part of this book was the magnetic attraction between these two men. Personally, I am a sucker for angst and self-questioning, and there was plenty of that going on too. For me, seeing the characters struggle with inner demons makes the ending that much sweeter. Mike has to come to terms with the fact that he’s not over-the-hill and that someone like Nate, young and inexperienced, would actually want to build a life with him. Nate had to basically come to terms with learning he’s gay.
The author did a wonderful job of showing Nate’s conflict between longing and discovery. Rather than recoil from his feelings, he approaches each new experience with nervousness, not knowing what to do and figuring it out as he went along. Mike, more mature in years, couldn’t stop questioning why a young, hot guy like Nate would settle for an approaching-middle-age guy like him. What results is a yo-yo effect, Mike opening then closing down, then opening up and closing down again. Each time he opens up, he falls a bit deeper into things with Nate.
While there was no major underlying storyline, like a particular crime family, or one or the other of the partners almost dying in the line of duty—typical scaffolds for cop romances—this story focused on the two men and the struggle to find a way to each other’s hearts.
Definitely my cup of tea. If you love to see relationships unfold, the steamy as well as the emotional, then this is a must read.
You can buy A Rookie Move here:
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