Title: Swings & Roundabouts
Series: The Power of Zero: Book Four
Author: Jackie Keswick
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 338 Pages
Category: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: I follow a few series and The Power of Zero is one that tops my list. I highly recommended it. Jackie Keswick can do no wrong.
Reviewed By: Maryann
Blurb: Jack Horwood. Vigilante, hacker, security specialist. Partner to Gareth Flynn. Adoptive father to their two teenage boys. Happily juggling long days and short nights.
Gareth Flynn. Ex-army officer. Ace negotiator. Righter of wrongs. Family man. Away from home more often than he likes.
Desperate for a relationship reset, Jack treats Gareth to a romantic getaway and Sweden’s frigid peace gives them the break they both need. But Jack’s a trouble magnet and the next dead body just a wild skidoo ride away.
Can love, teamwork, and trust survive the troubles that follow them around? Can Jack save what’s become so important to him?
Review: Jack Horwood has found his happy place with sons Nico and Daniel. He’s loving parenthood and dealing with all the ups and downs of life with two teenage boys. Life couldn’t get any better than that. But then, there’s Gareth.
Gareth Flynn has been run ragged by his boss, Aidan Conrad, and the Nancarrow Mining operation. Besides that, he’s also on edge, feeling that he’s left Jack with all the responsibilities of home life. The more pressures that plague Gareth, the more it causes him to explode. Until finally, Jack walks out, which leads him back to his own dangerous way of blowing off steam. It’s in the heat of an argument that Jack and Gareth forget Nico and Daniel can hear them, and it raises questions for the boys.
With all the goings-on between Jack and Gareth, Nico and Daniel have their own issues. The boys are getting ready to choose careers, and with their fragile past and close relationship, they have to face they can’t be together all the time. Being alone with strangers is not an option for Daniel, and Nico begins to question Jack and Gareth’s relationship.
Between work, the boys, and Gareth, Jack also spends a lot of time and energy trying to find a way to bring his relationship with Gareth back around to as normal as possible, but all does not go well in trying to put their romance back together. Not when Jack discovers a body in ice.
Jackie Keswick can do no wrong. Swings & Roundabouts is a superbly written novel about parenthood and the changes that affect the lives of two loving men. It also brings out the worries and fears in two wonderful boys, Daniel and Nico, and how their past still makes life difficult at times. Jack and Gareth give it their all to have a special rapport with Daniel and Nico, and it pulls at the heartstrings. The romance between Jack and Gareth is not overly explicit; the flirting, warmth, and chemistry they share is just pure and honest love. Even with the boys and a solid support unit in Roz and Aidan, Jack and Gareth still find ways to have some alone time and keep the romance alive.
The novel is set up in three parts and is not without suspense and danger for Jack and Gareth. There are several cases they team up to solve: a man accused of stealing six million dollars, the security issues at Nancarrow, and a murder.
I follow a few series and The Power of Zero is one that tops my list. I highly recommended it. For me it really starts with the prequel The Power of Zero, the story of a much younger Jack Horwood. The next three series installments are a must read. I can’t say much more about Jackie Keswick other than her narrative and characters are amazing, and I’m so looking forward to the next book in this series.
You can buy Swings & Roundabouts here:
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I bought it! I can’t wait to read it. I have to have a marathon and read them all.